Page 229 of Glow of the Everflame

A shadow passed over my face as Sorae circled high above.

“It’s a shame I can’t ride her to the coronation. I was hoping to see the other Crowns’ gryverns.” I frowned at Luther. “Sorae really can’t set foot on Coeurîle at all?”

“She would die the second she touched the soil,” he said gravely. “That’s how the Fortos gryvern was killed during the Blood War. The rebels shot a bolt into its wing while it flew above the island. Other than a beheading, or godstone to the heart, it’s the only way to kill a gryvern.”

I shuddered at the prospect of any of the ancient creatures losing their lives, but especially the majestic one flying overhead, who had become like an extension of my own soul.

Go home, I commanded her.I’ll return soon.

Her shrill howl of protest echoed the discontent that pulsed across the bond, but she was bound to obey. She reluctantly changed course for Lumnos, the silhouette of her massive winged body fading into the horizon.

“I enjoyed your speech to House Corbois this morning,” Luther said as he moved to my side at the bow of the boat. “I’m not sure my father can say the same.”

“At least I offered him a second chance.”

He waved a hand and conjured a faux circlet of light and shadow above his head. “It’s a new world, Remis,” he mimicked in a haughty voice, “Get on board, or get out of my realm.”

I turned to tease him for his terrible impression of me, but the sight of Luther in a crown to match mine left me unexpectedly flushed and more than a little breathless.

I looked back out over the water to hide my burning cheeks. “We’ll know soon who our allies are. I gave Remis, Garath, and Aemonn until the end of the day to decide if they can support our vision.”

“Our vision,” he repeated softly. “My entire life, I’ve worked against the Crown in secret to protect the mortals and half-mortals. I always knew one day I would serve a Queen who shared that goal, but...” His gaze slid to me, bright and gleaming with feeling. “The reality is better than I ever could have imagined.”

My blood went hot. I wondered if I would ever, in the centuries that I prayed lay ahead of us, get used to the way it felt to be looked at by him.

I hoped not.

My fingers twitched out in reflex to brush his hand, our bodies always seeming to seek each other out. “How did you know you would serve a Queen with the same goals?”

He took a deep breath. “I think it’s time I told you my final secret.”

A thrill of anticipation rippled through me, though it cooled at the apprehension lining his features. “I know we agreed on brutal honesty, but if you’re not ready...”

“I am ready. I’ve been ready. I’ve wanted to tell you this since the day I met you.”

I frowned. “Then why haven’t you?”

“Because, while I was ready... you were not.”

I started to argue, but the pain—and relief—on his face kept me quiet. I could sense that guarding this truth, whatever it was, had worn rough on his soul, and he was ready to let it go. I had sworn to trust him, and now it was time to keep my word.

I nodded and wove my fingers through his with a light squeeze to show my support. For a moment, he stared at our joined hands in silence.

“My father’s wife, Avana,” he began, “is not my mother. Not by blood nor any other measure. After their marriage, Blessed Mother Lumnos sent my father a vision that his firstborn son would be the most powerful of the Lumnos Descended and the unquestioned heir to the Crown. However, he was having an affair with a woman named Florille, and she, not Avana, became pregnant first. But Florille...” His gaze lifted to mine. “Florille was a mortal.”

My eyes went wide with sudden understanding. Luther—the beloved, feared, universally respected Prince Luther, the late King’s favored and the hero of the realm—was a forbidden half-mortal, just like me.

No wonder he had been so guarded. And no wonder he had been willing to take such risks to help my mother. This could destroy not only him, but his entire family. If this was the secret my mother was holding over his head, Luther would have been willing to do anything to keep it quiet—even betray his King.

“My father took both women to spend a year at a house in the countryside so that when Florille gave birth, he could pass me off as Avana’s full-blooded Descended child in order to avoid my execution under the progeny laws.” He paused, his features hardening. “It’s not uncommon in the large Houses for parents to be cold to their children, but Avana openly despised me. She wanted nothing to do with me, and for years, I did not know why.”

His eyes turned stormy. “After my birth, my father sent Florille to an institution for the mentally unstable in Sophos to discredit her in case she told anyone about the pregnancy. But she never stopped thinking of me. She never stopped trying to escape and get to me...”

Roughness colored his voice and gripped my heart as it ached for him and the boy he had been. I lifted one of his hands to my lips and pressed a kiss to his knuckles as his fingers tightened around mine.

“Years later, Florille somehow made it back to Lumnos. She waited outside the Descended school with a bouquet of flowers. Even though she hadn’t seen me since I was an infant, she looked at me and somehow knew instantly I was her son, and I knew she was my mother. Meeting her was like coming home for the very first time.” He grimaced, the agonizing effort of reliving these moments evident on his face. “She told me the truth about everything. So much about my life finally made sense—why Avana hated me, why my father had been so insistent that I prepare to be King, even though my magic hadn’t yet come in. Florille wanted to take me out of Lumnos and away from him, but she had no money, and she was too weak and wounded from her escape. For months, I kept her hidden in unused rooms in the palace so she could heal while I saved up gold for a new life.”

His expression darkened. “But I was young and inexperienced with keeping secrets. I had not yet learned to hide my emotions. My father noticed that I suddenly loathed him and Avana. He suspected I’d learned the truth, so one day, he followed me, and he found Florille.

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