Page 52 of Glow of the Everflame

And, if I was being honest, saying them now filled me with something closer to shame than affection.

But I was desperate. So terribly, urgently desperate.

My mother was gone, maybe forever. I’d already caused my career as a healer and my relationship with my father to implode. Life as I knew it in Mortal City was over. If I lost Henri, too—what would even be left of me?

Though Henri said nothing, his eyes betrayed the melee between his heart and mind. It was a seed of hope I frantically began to cultivate.

“You asked me to marry you,” I said. He winced. It would have hurt less if he’d punched me in the chest, but I pushed forward. “If you’ll still have me, we could do this together. I could use this Crown to help you—and help the mortals, too.”

The battlefield of his expression shifted—slowly, cautiously, toward a possible future.

“There’s a ball in a few days’ time. I’ll be presented as the new Queen to the most powerful Descended in Lumnos. All the Twenty Houses will be there.” My voice was rushed and breathy. “You could come as my escort—maybe you’ll overhear something useful, or—”

“Or we could attack.”

The words were a challenge. Another unspoken question:How far are you willing to go?

“Gathered all in one place, they’ll be easy targets,” he said. “We could decimate their numbers in one strike.”

My mind jumped to the attack on the armory. The guards I’d tended, their faces burned beyond recognition. The man I’d found inside, his throat slit open so savagely that even his healing abilities couldn’t save him. Perthe, who would have burned alive if I hadn’t pulled him out.

My stomach felt oily and thick. “It’s too soon. I won’t have authority as Queen until I’m coronated. We should wait until then.”

I wasn’t sure if he bought my excuse.

I wasn’t sure ifIbought my excuse.

Slowly, Henri nodded. “You’re right. We can’t play this hand too quickly. A Guardian Queen is too good an opportunity to waste.”

I whooshed out a relieved breath—a bit too loudly. “So you’ll come with me to the ball? As my betrothed?”

He hesitated again.

All at once I was overwhelmed with the possibility of losing him and the need to lock him at my side, in body and in spirit. I latched my arms around his neck and pressed my body close, straining my face upward until our foreheads met.

“I need you. I can’t do this without you.”

His eyes jumped around my face, ablaze with an explosive mix of new uncertainty and old desire. His fingers curled around my waist, then paused.

“Please, Henri,” I begged. “Stay with me. Rule with me.Be my King.”

The words ignited us both.

All at once we were kissing, touching, gasping, pleading.

My lips crushed against his, then roamed across his skin as I pledged him my immortal loyalty with my mouth and tongue. His fingers twisted in my hair, and I could tell he was feeling for the Crown, marveling as I had at how it could be so vivid and yet as untouchable as air.

His hands slid to the filmy fabric straps along my shoulders and pushed them down, his palms rolling over my peaked breasts. I let out a soft moan, my pleasure stemming as much from his touch as the relief that he could still desire me, even in my tainted, repulsive Descended body.

“Say it again,” he said gruffly.

“Be my King,” I rushed out, cupping his face in my hands. “The first mortal King of Lumnos.”

He shuddered with a groan, then hauled me up and wrapped my legs around his waist so he could carry me to the bed. I was feverish, barely breathing, too scared that if I paused for even a moment to listen to the doubts needling at my thoughts, Henri might change his mind and give up on me forever.

“We can finally make them pay,” he murmured between kisses. “They’ll never take anything from us ever again.”

Clothes began to slide away. First his tunic, cast absently to the side as I greedily clutched at his solid shoulders. Then his waistband was low on his hips, his hunger for me rumbling in my ears. Then my skirts were rising as his coarse palm grazed my calves, my knees, my thighs, up and up until my breath caught and—

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