Page 60 of Spark of the Everflame

We grabbed our sparring swords and headed back to the house, his arm draped around me and tugging me into his side. “I’m very proud of the woman you’ve become, Diem. And your mother, wherever she may be, is proud of you, too.”

Though I couldn’t speak through the thick burning in my throat, I offered up a silent prayer that he wouldn’t live to regret those words.

* * *

“It’s been awhilesince you and Father sparred.”

Teller and I were sprawled out in our beds in our tiny room, his face buried in his schoolwork while I laid on my back and stared blankly upward. We were both far too old to still be sharing a room, but Lumnos tradition dictated a child only move out when they married, and there was little chance of that for either of us any time soon.

“Not since before Mother’s been gone,” I agreed.

I felt his stare shift to me.

“Did you tell him about the flameroot? Or the Descended?”

“No.”

“Are you going to?”

I didn’t answer.

I gazed in admiration at the whorls of light skipping over the ceiling from the candles burning on our bedside table. A memory clawed at the edges of my mind, pleading to be unleashed from the coffin I’d sealed it in. A memory from so many years ago, when I’d laid in this very room, watching the same dance of light and shadow, imagining that I could...

No.

My eyes slammed closed. I shoved the thoughts back into a dark, cobwebbed corner buried deep in my head.

They were hallucinations. Visions.Nothing more.

I swallowed away a lump in my throat. “Teller?”

“Yes?”

“You’re being careful with Lily, right?”

“There’s nothing to be careful about,” he rushed out.

I turned my head to look at him. “I wouldn’t blame you if there was. She is very pretty.”

His face turned a flaming crimson that said far too much. He shoved his head even deeper into his book. “It’s not like that. We’re just friends.”

“Alright. If you say so.”

“Every boy in school would give up an arm to be with her. She can pick anyone she wants.”

“I can imagine.”

“And she’s a princess. Theonlyprincess. They’ll probably marry her off to some inbred cousin the moment she finishes school.”

I bit down on my lip to suppress my smile. “Probably so.”

He slammed his pencil down, his voice rising. “And she’s Descended and I’m mortal. You know the rules. No marriage, no children.”

He looked at me, and my wicked grin gave my thoughts away. He balled up a scrap of paper and bounced it off my forehead.

“Fine, fine,” I relented, struggling to wipe the amusement from my face as I turned my attention back to the ceiling.

Perhaps what I said next made me a terrible sister, or a bad influence, or recklessly naive, but to see the light in his eyes when he spoke of her...

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