Page 219 of Glow of the Everflame

“You won’t have to do anything. I’ll handle it myself. I can make the magic look like it came from you.”

Then I understood. Luther never wanted to fight me.

He wanted toloseto me.

He sank to his knees. His head drooped, his hands wrapping around the backs of my thighs.

“Let me do this for you,” he begged. “I could hope for no greater death than this.”

Splinter by splinter, my broken heart began to rebuild.

I knelt in front of him and cupped his jaw in my hands. Tenderly, I ran my fingers across the lines of his face, tracing his furrowed brow and the rippled skin of his beautiful scar.

His hands slid to my ribs and pulled me against him. “Your face...” His haunted gaze traveled across my features, lost in the memory. “You looked at me like you were saying goodbye.”

Ihadbeen giving up. It was only his Challenge that had refueled my anger and rekindled my fighting spirit. I almost laughed at the irony. He had indeed saved me—just not in the way he planned.

“I should have known,” I said, wincing. So many times I had doubted him, and each time, he had proven me wrong in spectacular fashion.

Never again.

Perhaps it was a vow I wouldn’t live long enough to keep, but if I did, I would never again doubt his loyalty. Though I would never feel worthy of it, ofhim, I could at least honor him by accepting it, once and for all.

“Luther,” I said slowly, placing my hand over his heart. “If I don’t survive—”

“No,” he growled.

“You will make a fine King. These people trust you. If you urge them toward peace, perhaps they will listen.”

“Youare meant to lead us. I’ve seen it, the Blessed Mother showed me—”

“I don’t put my faith in gods and goddesses.” I smiled sadly. “But I do put it in you. You were born to be King.”

“Not without you. You are my Queen. The realm needs you. The mortals need you. Teller, Lily, Eleanor—they all need you.” His arms locked around me like he was bracing to stop fate from snatching me out of his grasp. “Ineed you, Diem.”

Deep within my heart, a long-overdue decision was finally put to rest. One door opened—the other locked forever.

“You have me, Luther,” I vowed. “All of me.”

I leaned back to let him see the full depth of that truth in my eyes. No more masks, no more armor—just brutal, bleeding honesty. My heart had been battered by grief and self-doubt, more mistakes than I could count, and regrets that might haunt me forever. It was an imperfect, wounded thing, covered in flaws, but it was strong. And it beat for him—the man who had walked beside me in the hopeless dark and burned for me in the fiery light.

I took his hand and set it over the scar on my collarbone, then laid my palm on the jagged line that slashed his cheek. I leaned in until my lips brushed his.

“I am yours, Luther Corbois. Scars and all.”

This time, there was no mistaking thatIkissedhim. It wasn’t the bloody lust of our first kiss, nor the sweet tenderness of our second. This was the crash of the surf upon the rocks, the crack of a lightning bolt down the trunk of a redwood, ripping me open to ignite me from within.

We were two ravenous souls, yearning to be lonely no more, and after months of denying ourselves this precious thing that we craved most, this was the breaking of our fast—and hedevouredme. His mouth crushed against mine, his tongue seeking me out like a taste he could never get enough of.

The thin material of my suit made me feel all but naked in his arms as our hands roamed each other’s bodies. While Luther caressed each curve with a slow, deliberate focus, as if we had all the time in the world, my touch was urgent, desperate, needing to consume every bit of him while I still had the chance.

Remis’s amplified voice carried through the tent to announce that the fight was about to begin, shattering our hard-won happiness.

“It’s rude to kiss a man like that and then die, Your Majesty,” Luther panted, his breath hot against my swollen lips.

I hummed. “I guess that means I’ll have to live.”

He flashed me that brilliant, unguarded smile that was only for me. My heart squeezed at the idea that I might never see it again.

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