Page 197 of Glow of the Everflame

“Shielding.” Luther took the clasps from my struggling hands, unsnapping them with ease. I shivered at the graze of his rough hands over my bare shoulders as he slid the cape off me and set it aside. “If you can’t shield, you’ll be dead in minutes. If you can, you can wear them down and buy yourself time to plan.”

“Survive first,” Teller called out. “Father would approve.”

I nodded. “I think I might have accidentally shielded once before. A Descended man attacked me in Mortal City, and he—”

“What?” Luther’s face darkened. His magic pulsed across the dungeon like a shockwave, sending our friends staggering back a few steps and coaxing my own godhood to lift its head. “When did this happen?”

“It’s nothing.” I shrugged it off, though the memory of the gruesome murder provoked a wave of fresh regret. If only I had known then what I was, what I was capable of, I could have saved the mortal woman and her half-mortal son from their brutal deaths. “It happened before the Crown, when I was a mortal.”

“You were never a mortal,” Taran shouted.

“I’m as much mortal as I am Descended,” I shot back. “And unlike the rest of Lumnos City, I have no intention of ignoring the mortal blood that runs in my veins.”

Taran grinned. “There’s the spitfire I’ve been missing.”

“Who was he?” Luther snapped, still looking furious. “Why did he attack you?”

“I don’t know his name. He discovered a child he had fathered with a mortal woman there. He came to...” I trailed off, and Luther’s face fell as he pieced together the rest. “I was too late.”

I knew Luther would blame himself for it as surely as I did. He had made himself the champion of the half-mortal children, and every death he could not prevent sat heavy on his shoulders.

Perhaps Lily was right—perhaps Luther and I did have more in common than I realized.

“And you were able to shield yourself from his magic?” Alixe asked.

“I think so. He was only a few feet away when he attacked, but somehow I wasn’t hurt. I must have shielded myself without realizing.”

Taran barked a loud laugh. “Andthatdidn’t tip you off that you were Descended? How deeply in denial were you?”

“You have no idea,” Luther muttered.

Alixe strode forward, focusing her attention on me. “Normally, when we use our magic to attack, we shape it into weapons, like taking a lump of ore and crafting it into a blade. When we use it to shield, we simply rely on the raw magic itself. We pull it around us in its purest form.”

I thought back to when my magic first manifested years ago, when I believed it to be a wild hallucination. Whenever I was scared or sad, I would curl up into a blanket of shadow. My family would spend hours searching for me, calling my name from inches away where I appeared to be nothing more than a dark, empty corner.

How strange that it was in the darkness I had felt the safest. Perhaps the dark had not loomed quite so ominously when I believed the light was mine to wield, never more than a thought away.

“Try it,” Alixe urged. “Imagine drawing your magic out without trying to shape it. Allow it to simplyexistoutside of your body.”

I closed my eyes and took a few centering breaths. I willed my mind to turn inward in search of my elusive godhood.Come out to play, I begged it.Show me what you can do.

Something within me stirred, a tingling sensation deep in my chest, but each time I reached for it, I swiped through empty air. It seemed to be stalling, lying in wait for me to say or do something more.

I huffed out a frustrated breath. “It’s still not answering me. I can feel it in there, but it won’tdoanything.”

“Keep trying,” Alixe pushed.

I looked over at Luther, rattled by the disquiet on his face as he watched. If I failed now, my life would be at risk—but his would be ruined.

A life bound to a woman who wanted to use him for his titles and his power, a woman who believed his scars made him weak.

Anger boiled in my veins. If I failed, I would condemn him to a lifetime with a Queen Consort who, even after years at his side, did not reallyseehim.

And you will lose him forever, my mind whispered.

“Help me,” I said to him. “At the King’s funeral, you drew the magic out.Youmade it react.”

He shook his head. “I did nothing. You did it then, and you can do it again now.”

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