Page 43 of Glow of the Everflame

“And?”

I swallowed. “And that’s all.”

“That’swhat you know?” His brows drew low. “You don’t know the secret? Or how she found it? Do you even know who she was working with?”

My cheeks turned hot. How could he know so much more about my mother than I did?

He scrubbed at his jaw, his calm beginning to fracture. “I thought she would at least... when you said you were taking over for her, I thought...” He raked a hand through his hair, several black strands falling loose from where he’d tied it back.

“Luther,” I snapped, once again on my feet. “Tell me where she is.”

He began to pace, hands clasped tight at his back. Every time I tried to block his path, he simply changed course. He wouldn’t even look me in the eye.

“I thought there was at leastsomethingI could tell you without breaking my promise,” he mumbled. “Fuck, you’re going to hate me for this, but I can’t.”

The numbness gave way to panic as I felt the answers I so deeply longed for slipping out of my grasp. “But—but you said—youswore!”

“I said I would tell you what I was at liberty to share. I didn’t realize...” He looked genuinely pained. “There’s too much you don’t know. Anything I say would betray her.”

Last night’s despair roared back to life, opening a pit at my feet and dragging me toward its edge. I shot forward and threw myself at Luther. I clutched at his chest, his muscles hard as granite beneath my frantic grip. He was my only tether to my mother, and I clung to him like a lifeline in stormy seas.

“Please, Luther. She’s my mother. Ineedher.”

Something in both of us broke.

I felt it viscerally. On Luther’s face, I saw a darkness so profound, my heart squeezed at the sight. Something in my words had awoken a buried trauma that haunted him as profoundly as my mother’s loss haunted me.

His heart hammered beneath my trembling palm. He spoke haltingly, like each word was a battle he had to fight and win, one at a time.

“There was no bargain. Auralie wanted your brother in a Descended school, and I agreed, because—” His shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. There was never a payment. The agreement was a pretense so no one would ask questions. The King didn’t even know about it. Only me. Then...”

He hesitated, and I held my breath. I didn’t dare move for fear that he would change his mind.

“I caught your mother spying. She was collecting information from the palace. I discovered it and confronted her.”

“The argument,” I gasped. “When I saw you—”

“No. This was earlier, months before. I was furious with her. I wanted to ban her from the palace, but she and I had—” He looked down, his throat working. “—a mutual goal I couldn’t ignore. So I let her stay, and I helped her.”

My mother was spying on the King.

And Luther had helped her. He could have had her killed for treason—but he’dhelpedher.

His hands curled gently behind my arms, our bodies woven together in a strange, intimate embrace. He held me in place as firmly as I clung to him, each of us silently begging the other not to run away.

“The day you saw us arguing, she asked for my help. She wanted to visit a place where mortals are forbidden, and she knew I could get her there.”

“Where?”

The light guttered in his eyes. “I cannot tell you. I’m sorry. That’s a line I will not cross.”

“No!” My fingers bunched in the folds of his shirt. After all this time, I was so close to finding her. I would beg, if I had to. I would cry or humiliate myself, I would throw myself at his feet. For this, I was above nothing. “I’m your Queen. Shouldn’t your loyalty be to me?”

“Itisto you. More than you know.” His piercing stare burned with a fierce insistence. “I will accept whatever punishment you give. Lash me. Throw me in the dungeon. Banish me from the family. Exile me, if you must. But I made a promise.” His face lowered almost imperceptibly to mine. “And I keep my promises, my Queen. Whatever the cost.”

The Diem of yesterday would have annihilated him. With words or blades or magic, or maybe all three. I would have screamed and sworn to make him pay.

But the Diem of yesterday had asked Luther to make a promise, too—a promise that guarded everything I held dear. Luther’s word was the only guarantee I had that, even if this damn Crown got me killed, the people I loved would be safe.

---