Page 207 of Glow of the Everflame

He let out an unhappy growl. “Apparently, your little brother kissed my little sister.”

A loud gasp shot from my lips. I whipped around to find them, and Luther grabbed me around my waist and forced me back into place.

“Liar,” he hissed, though amusement hid in his tone.

I clutched his arm. “When did this happen? Where? How do you know?”

“Last night. Lily told him she declined the proposal from House Byrnum, and then—”

“She did?” I squealed. Again I tried to spin back to the gallery, and again Luther’s arms clamped around me to hold me still.

“You swore,” he protested, now fully laughing as he pressed me close. “If you make a scene, she’ll never tell me anything again.”

“She told you?” I breathed, relaxing against him. Though his grip on me eased, his arms stayed wrapped at my waist. “She must really trust you.”

“I have your advice to thank for that. I was right to stay out of it.” His smile faded a little. “I’d rather know, so I can help them if they face any... obstacles.”

“And you’re truly alright with this? Even with the difference in their lifespans?”

He let out a resigned sigh. “It’s not what I would choose for her. Even in the best of outcomes, Lily’s heart will be broken. But perhaps...” He paused, his gaze heavy on mine. “Perhaps, for the right person, we endure the pain, because the torture of never having them at all is the more unbearable fate.”

My breathing went shallow.

“Luther,” I whispered.

Lily’s laughter cut through the din of the crowd, and my gaze drifted in search of her.

“Eyes up here, Bellator,” he teased, squeezing my hip.

“I’m a Corbois now, remember?”

“About that...” He reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a small black box, and handed it to me.

My brow wrinkled as I cracked it open. On a bed of grey satin lay a golden medallion engraved with the Corbois crest—a near-identical twin to the one Aemonn had gifted me at the ball before I’d melted it away in my explosion of power after my father’s death.

“Consider it an early coronation gift.” There was an eager, boyish excitement to his tone. “I took the liberty of making a few adjustments.”

I squinted closer at the necklace. Whereas the phoenix on Aemonn’s pendant had been inlaid with sapphires to represent the blue eyes of the Lumnos Descended, this version had two dark grey diamonds in their place.

A smile danced at the corners of his mouth. “Like yours,” he murmured proudly.

I ran my thumb over the gilded disc and straightened in surprise when the tiny ruby set into the phoenix’s heart glowed bright scarlet at my touch. “How?”

“I infused it with a spark of my light magic.”

“You can do that?”

“Any Descended can. But what we put in, we can never get back. It reduces our power forever.” He peered up from beneath his dark brows. “So do me a favor and try not to destroy this one.”

I laughed, the sound coming out choked as emotion squeezed at my throat. “You’re really taking this vow of yours to never leave my side seriously.”

He didn’t smile, didn’t laugh—he only held my stare in his quiet, earnest way, his answer carved across his face as fiercely as the scar that marked his skin.

I lifted the necklace to put it on. As the disc spun on the delicate chain, something else grabbed my eye. I caught the medallion between my fingers. On the other side, instead of a smooth circle, this version contained a beautifully scripted B pierced by a pair of crossed twin daggers.

“Because you may claim House Corbois,” Luther said gruffly, “but you’ll always be Diem Bellator to me.”

My hand closed into a fist around the pendant, tears pricking at my eyes. I tried in vain to scrape some words together to explain what this gesture meant to me—what it meant that he had always honored my mortal family. That he had never expected me to abandon who Ihad beenfor who Ihad to become.

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