Page 127 of Glow of the Everflame

Aemonn wedged his shoulder between the two of us. “You will keep an appropriate distance from Her Majesty,” he warned.

The man’s head cocked at an angle, and his smile turned lethal. “Will I?”

“It’s fine, Aemonn,” I rushed out. I put a hand on his shoulder and nudged him back. If he realized I’d restored the Umbros Descended’s magic, even his self-motivated desire to help me might come to an end.

The man gave a low chuckle. “What an enlightening evening this ball has turned out to be. I’ve already learnedso much.” He drew out the final two words like a breathy moan, the sound unabashedly sexual.

His chest lay bare beneath a dark crimson tailcoat. His fingers, nails filed to points and painted with an obsidian glaze, traced a long, sensual route down his torso to the lines of his hips where they dipped below his low-slung trousers. I fought to keep my eyes on his face, but his mental claws dug deeper, and I was helpless to stop my vision from following the trail of his touch.

“I didn’t catch your name,” I gritted out between clenched teeth.

“Symond,” he answered.

My hand rose to my own chest against my will and mimicked his movements in featherlight strokes along the curve of my breasts.

My temper began to rise. It pushed against the bounds of its harness, growling to be let loose.

Fight.

I blinked at thevoice’s sudden reemergence. It had been oddly silent since that night in the dungeon, but I felt it stir once more, raising its mighty head in recognition of the new threat.

“We are so grateful for the friendship of your realm,” I hissed. “I only hope I have the opportunity to repay the favor someday.” My eyes narrowed. “Someday soon.”

Symond gave another rumble of sensual laughter. “I can think of a few ways we can celebrate ourfriendshipright now.”

He sent another image into my mind—a scandalous vision of us on the ballroom stage, naked and centered in the spotlight’s glow. Me, bent over the throne of Lumnos. Him, pounding into me from behind with one hand wrapped around my throat as I breathily moaned his name. The crowd, pleasuring themselves as they watched us from afar.

Fight.

Unlike before, when I had fought thevoice’scall tooth and nail, I now happily surrendered what little control I had left.

Help me, I asked it.Free me.

I flinched as icy fire burst through my defenses and cascaded into every bend and turn of my skin. My body flared in a sudden eruption of light, drawing a collective gasp from the crowd.

When thevoicesubsided and the silvery glow dimmed, Symond’s presence in my mind was gone. He watched me with a wild stare, looking unsettled in a way I suspected he didn’t often experience.

As his dark eyes jumped warily around my face, I felt the claws of his power scrape feebly at my skull. He was trying to get back in, but it was as if there was a new wall he could no longer penetrate.

“I think it’s time for you to go,” I breathed, panting a little as I scraped the memory of his vision from my thoughts.

His shoulders drew tight, and his languid sexual energy cooled away. “It appears so.”

“You forgot your Queen’s gift,” Aemonn called out as the man turned to leave.

Symond threw me a glance over his shoulder, his energy now decidedly more poisonous. “My Queen’s gift has already been delivered. And she says you’re welcome for the advice.”

“The advice?” I asked.

“Don’t you remember?”

Veins quivered at his temples as his talons again screeched against my skull. Whatever shield thevoicehad constructed held firm. He lowered his chin with a glare.

“When forgotten blood on heartstone falls, then shall the chains be broke,” he said in a bitter drawl. “Life for life, old debt requires, or eternal be his yoke.”

I was instantly transported—not by his thought magic, but by my own memory—to an afternoon many months ago, when a scarlet sun hung overhead and a mysterious woman with eyes of darkest black cornered me in an alley and held my mind in her control.

Listen close, Daughter of the Forgotten, she had warned me.Stop running from who you are.Stop hiding. And stop taking that cursed flameroot powder.

---