Page 70 of Spark of the Everflame

“It’s Diem,” I grunted. “Open up.”

The door cracked open, and for a moment Henri’s face lit with heated smirk and the spark of speculation about why I might be showing up at his house so late in the evening.

But as he studied me further, soaked clothing plastered to my skin, the splatters of mud and blood coating my arms wiped any salacious thoughts from his expression.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I’m ready. I’ll help you.”

“Help me?” Henri blinked. He stepped aside, opening the door wider. “Come inside and dry off.”

I held my ground. “I want to help you. I need to do something, Henri. Anything.”

“Help me with what?”

“I’m ready to fight the Descended. Whatever it takes.” I took a long, trembling breath. “I want to join the Guardians.”

ChapterSeventeen

It was one thing to hear the stories about Lumnos City. I’d certainly heard plenty of gossip about the wild extravagance of Descended cities, and I’d even caught the barest glimpse of it the day I’d gone to the palace with Maura.

But standing here at Henri’s side in the center of Descended territory, I felt more like we’d been transported to a different plane of existence than a short walk down the road.

“You’ve really never been here before?” he asked.

I shook my head, trying to scrape my jaw from the pristine cobblestone street. “I passed by once, but I didn’t see...this.”

Everything about Lumnos’s capital thrived on excess. Though their physical features were as varied as the mortals, each of them had an otherworldly sense of perfection, a gentle blur to smooth away any flaws. Their faces were all impossibly symmetrical, their skin unblemished, hair shiny and bouncing.

I could barely tear my eyes from all the chiseled jawlines and curling, mile-long lashes, but there was something about it that made me almost sad.

I glanced at Henri from the corner of my eye. His nose was slightly bent, thanks to a drunken bar fight, and myriad scars coated his hands and forearms. When he caught my stare and flashed his usual grin, one tooth was crooked, another chipped from a childhood fall.

Still, my stomach fluttered. Henri was as handsome to me as any man in this city, not in spite of those traits but because of them. Those small idiosyncrasies littering his body were signs of his life and character, a map of his soul that only those who truly knew him could read.

When I lay awake in bed, conjuring up memories of my mother’s face, it wasn’t her beauty that came to mind. It was the freckle on her chin and the creases at her eyes. The nick on her ear from a horse with an angry bite. The way her smile hitched just slightly to the left when she laughed.

Thosewere the things I clung to so desperately in the dark, haunted by the fear that one cruel, unavoidable day, time would pluck them from my mind, never to be remembered again.

Though the Descended were so lovely it was almost painful to look at them, there was a certain emptiness to the way their beauty had become a standard-issue uniform. Each one of the handful I’d now met were stunning enough to take my breath away—beyond that, I couldn’t recall a single detail more.

All except for Luther and his curious scar—another face that haunted my thoughts.

I had joked with Maura that the scar must be proof his soul was deeply corrupt, even for a Descended, and she had wasted no time reprimanding me for my ignorant cruelty. She’d pointed out the original wound must have come when he was very young, before his healing abilities had manifested. It was hard to stomach the thought of any child being so gruesomely hurt, let alone surviving it, and now I couldn’t help but imagine a young Luther every time I thought of the little boy in the alley whose death had led me to this very spot.

I took Henri’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze, shaking those memories away. “Thank you for coming with me today.”

“Of course. I couldn’t miss my girl’s big audition.”

I frowned. “Is this really necessary? They won’t let me join unless I bring them some kind of gift?”

Henri glanced around and tugged my hand until we were out of earshot of any passers-by. “It’s not a gift, it’s a test. The Descended rounded up every rebel and executed them after the war. Now the Guardians have to be more careful who we reveal ourselves to. You have to prove to the others that you’re not going to betray them.”

“Fine,” I muttered. “But does my test have to mean spying on some very powerful and probably verymurderousweapons dealer while I tend to his sick daughter?”

Henri’s hands grazed along my upper arms. “We’ve been targeting this man for months. He’s the head of one of the most important Houses in Lumnos. Anything you can get from him...” He tapped a knuckle on my cheek. “It could save a lot of lives.”

“Oh good, that will be such a comfort when he catches me and kills me on the spot,” I said flatly.

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