Page 108 of Glow of the Everflame

My mind felt hazy, my thoughts spinning out of control, and having him this close wasn’t helping. I leaned back against the wardrobe, grounding myself on the cool press of the wood. “Fine. Training tomorrow. Are we done?”

His brows drew in tight. “You’re angry with me.”

“Your skills of deduction are legendary,” I drawled.

He stepped closer, chest rumbling. “If this is about Iléana—”

“It’s not,” I lied, hating the sound of her name in his mouth. “You abandoned me at dinner. You invited me, and then you threw me to the wolves.”

“You seemed cozy enough next to the biggest wolf of them all.” His tone was cold, even for him.

I shrugged. “At least Aemonn stood by my side all night.”

Luther slammed his hands against the wardrobe on either side of my head. “Aemonn isusingyou,” he snarled.

I refused to flinch at his outburst, raising my jaw to him with an unrelenting glare. “You’reallusing me. This whole gods-damned House is using me. Just because I’m choosing to play nice for now doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten that I’m a mouse in a pit of hungry vipers.”

“A mouse?” He leaned in, strands of my hair swaying in the gust of his ragged breaths. “We may be vipers, but you’re no mouse. You’re a fuckingdragon.”

My chest pressed into his as it rose and fell in a harsh, unsteady rhythm. I made a half-hearted attempt to shove him away, but he only pressed closer. His eyes glittered with emotions that terrified me to name.

“What must I do to prove myself to you?” he breathed, sounding as desperate as he was furious. “Break from House Corbois, if you wish. It changes nothing—I will still serve you. Appoint every soul in the realm as your advisor but me. Marry your mortal. Worse, mate yourself off to that snake Aemonn.” His gaze turned dark as a moonless night. “Exile me from the realm. I will serve you from afar.”

“Why?” I demanded. “What could I possibly have done to earn such loyalty?”

Muscles twitched up and down his face, but he guarded his silence.

I laughed, harsh and humorless. “Do you know why I made Eleanor my advisor, Luther? Because she told me the truth. She didn’t hide who she is, or what she wants, or how it could benefit her. She didn’t keep secrets. There were no questions she refused to answer. She showed me all of herself, the good and the bad, and she let me make up my own mind.”

Luther looked away, his shoulders dragged down by some smothering weight. His mask cracked, exposing the struggle raging in his head against the words he held back, forever just beyond my reach.

I knew enough of him now to believe that whatever he was hiding, it wasn’t to hurt me. In fact, I was near certain he had convinced himself that his secrecy was somehow protecting me, in his own twisted way.

But I had spent my entire life being sheltered by people who thought their secrets would protect me. Because of it, I wore a Crown I was woefully unprepared for and faced a Challenging that would very likely kill me.

My patience for secret-keeping had come to an end.

“For all your hatred of Aemonn, at least he’s honest,” I hissed. “He makes it painfully clear what he wants from me and why. With him I know what to expect, instead of the endless gods-damned mystery that is Luther Corbois.”

Outrage washed across his face. “How can you say I haven’t been honest with you? There are things I’ve told you that I haven’t even confessed to Lily or Taran.”

“Why?” I shouted. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He looked miserable, tortured—but still, he did not respond.

My temper finally snapped.

“Well if that’s true, then how pathetic indeed that your closest friends and family know less about you than someone you arenothingto.”

His entire body flinched. He recoiled, pulling away and leaving me panting against the wardrobe door. A chill filled the vacuum that his presence had left, bringing regret along with it.

He turned his back to me and moved for the door.

“Luther, wait. I didn’t mean—”

“I’m glad,” he said, stopping in place. “I’m glad you see that you can’t trust anyone here. It took me years to learn that lesson. And too many innocent people died in the process.”

“Luther,” I said again, softer. I came up behind him and placed a palm on his back. He tensed, then pulled away.

---