Page 82 of Glow of the Everflame

“How interesting that you have positioned yourself just as closely to our young new Queen,” he added. “I wonder if your ambition will cause her to meet a similar fate.”

Luther looked almost bored, seemingly unruffled by Garath’s words, but I saw through his ruse—or rather,feltthrough it. His powerful aura throbbed against my skin, the blistering fury radiating from him nearly hot enough to burn.

I opened my mouth to interrupt. Luther dropped the poem and clamped his hand high on my leg, shocking me to silence.

“You are certainly the expert on striking blows against your own family, Uncle,” he said flatly. “Though you prefer it when they’re smaller and weaker.”

“Luther,” Taran rumbled in warning. His usual grin had vanished, and for the first time, I saw a glimpse of the terrifying warrior that lay beneath his easy disposition.

Luther shot him a quick look, and Taran’s azure eyes conveyed something that looked a lot like betrayal.

Somehow I had stumbled into a dark, perilous cave of family secrets. I would have killed to see Eleanor’s reaction, but I didn’t dare move. I caught sight of Aemonn from the corner of my eye. His focus was fixed on my upper thigh, where Luther’s fingers still dug into my flesh.

Garath laughed harshly. “Why should you raise a fist, dear nephew, when you seem content to let the Challenging do the work for you? Bringing her here in a black dress, letting her laugh and smile while the realm mourns—your counsel will have her facing a line of Challengers stretching all the way to Fortos. I underestimated your ambition.”

Luther’s fingers tightened around my thigh. I had a feeling I was about to watch a very different type of challenging go down right here in the royal box.

I clawed myself together and stood, pulling out of Luther’s grasp. “The only person who dressed me andletme laugh and smile is me,” I said coolly. “Though I will be certain to keep your fascinating observations in mind when I select my new Wardens.”

“If that day in fact arrives,” he muttered.

“Oh, it will.” I smiled brightly and took a few steps closer, lowering my voice so only he could hear. “And when it does, you can beg for whatever scraps I give you, just like you did with Ulther.”

Garath’s answering rage could have razed a mountain. “You loud-mouthed, uppity little—”

“Careful, Uncle,” Luther rumbled. “She is Queen, and I am still Keeper of the Laws. Executions are my specialty.”

Garath’s fingers twitched at his sides. He kept scowling, and I kept smiling, both expressions dripping with equal hatred. His eyes narrowed, then he abruptly spun on his heel and stalked back to his chair.

I slammed back into my seat and bit down hard to hold back the deluge of words that threatened to come flooding out. No one in the gallery spoke, everyone too spellbound by the spectacle that had just occurred.

“Sit back,” Luther said, quietly but firmly.

Against my stubborn nature, I obeyed.

“Stop glaring. Don’t let them know he got to you.”

“He didn’t,” I snapped—but again, I obeyed.

He stretched out his legs, looking utterly at ease, and propped his arm on the seat back behind me. As he did, he brushed the hair away from my shoulder and stroked a thumb along my neck, the gesture so brief it might have been accidental.

Though his stony stare remained locked dead ahead, his head inclined slightly to me. “Garath is dangerous,” he whispered. “It’s one thing for me to provoke him. He won’t strike at me without my father’s blessing. But for you...”

“I’m not afraid of Garath,” I gritted out. “He might be dangerous, but I’m gods-damnedfatal.”

For all my boasting, I wasn’t sure even I believed those words. I balled my hands in my lap and tried to ignore the sinking feeling that I’d just made a very grave mistake.

ChapterEighteen

“What wasthatabout?” Eleanor hissed in my ear the second Luther stepped away for yet another part of the ceremony, which I was confident was now entering its second century.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” I said as I whipped around to face her.

She shook her head, looking amused. “I thought we were about to get two funerals in one.”

“What Luther said about Garath—what did he mean?”

Eleanor shot a nervous glance at Taran, her voice hushing. “When his sons were young, they would often show up at school with lashes or burns.Veryoften. Rumor is the King spoke with Garath and made it stop, although...” She chewed on her lip. “That was when their healing abilities began, so no one knew for sure.”

---