Page 123 of Glow of the Everflame

He nodded. “But you must know, the consequences are significant. They won’t just have access to the mortals’ heads. They’ll be able to read every mind they come across in that ballroom. They’ll know everyone’s secrets.” His expression turned grave. “Including yours.”

My insides twisted. “What will they do with that information?”

“Umbros Descended are fiercely loyal to their Queen. What they learn, they’ll tell her. It will give her immense power over the realm—and over you.” He paused, his chin lowering. “Especially if you have plans you don’t want the other Crowns to know.”

The meaningful look in his eyes, the weight to his voice, reverberated eerily through my head. He looked as if he knewexactlywhat those plans might be.

I forced down the growing lump in my throat. “Take Alixe and Taran and go. Get far enough away that your minds are out of reach. I’ll find the Umbros Descended myself.”

He shook his head. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Luther, you have to.” I started to push him away. “If they find out you’ve been smuggling half-mortal children into Umbros—”

He grabbed my hands. “They already know. My contacts there warned me the Umbros Queen read their minds and discovered it all. She’s had years to stop it. For whatever reason, she’s chosen to look the other way.”

“Still... you have other secrets you don’t want her to know. Secrets you don’t even wantmeto know.”

Luther glanced away, looking torn, then his features hardened. “It doesn’t matter. My place is with you. Wherever that leads.” His fingers curled around mine. “Whatever it costs.”

Why?The word rose to my lips, as it had so many times before.Why will you give your secrets awayforme, but nottome?

I stared at him, trying to piece together this puzzle of a man. This had to be about something more than earning my trust, especially when his own family was in danger.

“We should hurry,” he said. “We need to act before the Guardians do.”

“What do I need to do?”

“The Forging magic that enforces the realm borders—each Crown can waive it within their own realm. You’ll need to lift its hold on the Umbros Descended and restore the powers they lost when they crossed into Lumnos.”

I slumped, my hope deflating. “I can’t even use my own magic yet.”

“The Forging magic works in a different way. King Ulther described it to me like his bond with Sorae—a connection between the Crown and the soil. It listens for you. It must obey your call.”

I shook my head in stubborn denial even as I gave in and closed my eyes, reaching my spirit out into the darkness. The Descended magic had neverlistenedto me. It taunted me, made demands of me, took control of me, but never obeyed me. And I’d never felt any kind of attachment with the earth. Surely I would never be able to—

I gasped aloud.

There.

There it was.

It was so tightly woven in the fabric of my soul that I hadn’t even recognized it as something new, something that once hadn’t belonged.

It wasn’t a thinking, breathing creature like Sorae—it was an energy, buzzing and crackling with life. It lived in the ground, but its current ran through every living thing in Lumnos, from the smallest blade of grass to the mightiest beast. I could flow with it to the shores of the Sacred Sea and glide along its edges to the southern flatlands of Fortos and the snowy, lavender mountains of Montios.

In the midst of it, I felt sixteen beings that did not belong, two from each realm. The Forging magic coated them and solidified around them like a hard shell. I somehow understood that one mental tap from me would break them free and release their magic onto Lumnos’s soil.

Mysoil.

Because Lumnos, Realm of Light and Shadows, was no longer merely my home. It was my flesh and bone. It was a part of me—itwasme.

A sense of overwhelming duty slammed into me like a fist to my gut. This was my realm to serve, and these were my people to protect.

All of them, mortal and Descended alike.

And what I was about to do—exposing our realm’s most vulnerable secrets to the least trustworthy Crown of all—could put every last one of them in danger.

I looked up at Luther. “You’re sure this is a good idea?”

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