Page 114 of Glow of the Everflame

“Who did this to you?” I breathed, feeling as if flames might spew from my fangs like a gryvern.

“It doesn’t matter. They can’t hurt me anymore, and I won’t let them hurt anyone else.”

“Tell me,” I snarled. “Why are you protecting them?”

“It’s not them I’m protecting.”

I glared up at him, but his face was resolute, his jaw a block of steel. I’d come to know this look by now. “I told you, I’m done with people keeping secrets for my benefit.”

“And I told you, I’ll do what I must to protect you, even if you hate me for it.”

An angry sound built low in my throat. I moved to pull away, and his hand braced over mine, holding it firm against his chest.

“I will tell you someday,” he vowed. “When I can. When it’s safe.”

“When will that be?”

He thought for a moment, then his expression turned roguish. “Get through the Period of Challenging. Make it to the Rite of Coronation. Then I’ll tell you.”

“If you’re so certain I’ll survive the Challenging, why not tell me now?”

“As I said, I have many tools to ensure your coronation.” He smiled. “Motivating you to stay alive is one of them.”

His smugness was annoyingly charming. “I don’t need to be bribed to stay alive, Luther. My survival instincts are pretty strong.”

“You threatened to cut my hand off within minutes of meeting me. You attacked the Royal Guardsseveraltimes. You snuck around the palace alone. You ran into a burning, collapsing building. All while you apparently believed yourself to be a mortal. With respect, my Queen—” He returned my narrowed eyes and leaned his face to mine. “—your survival instincts areshit.”

I couldn’t suppress my laugh. He had a point—even now I felt no shame, only pride, at each of those decisions.

Reluctantly, I let him keep his secret, shifting my attention back to the scar that so viciously slashed his body in two. “How did you even survive this?”

“Blessed Mother Lumnos,” he said reverently. “I should have died that day, but she protected me.”

I thought of the shrine in his room, the candles and flowers so lovingly laid at the marble bust.

“Is this why you serve the Crown? Why you serveme?Because you think it’s repayment to her for saving your life?”

Our eyes met, a tempest brewing in the shimmering sea of his gaze.

“That is a complex question.”

“It’s a simple yes or no.”

His fingers wove within mine, clutching my hand where it lay on his chest. “Nothing about this is simple.”

My focus dropped to his chest, just above his heart. The night of the armory attack, I’d had a vision of the two of us, standing together on a killing field, bathed in silvery fire amid a ring of death and destruction. In it, I had raised my hand to the left side of my chest, and he had done the same. When the vision ended, Luther—therealLuther—had been standing in front of me making the same gesture.

Looking at him now, a bare patch of bronzed skin sat in the same place, curiously unmarred. It lay directly in the wound’s path, but the lines of the scar routed around it as if deflected by some other force.

“That night,” I began, “just before the roof collapsed... the vision—”

“Us, on a battlefield.” He nodded. “I remember.”

I frowned. “What does it mean?”

“A message from Blessed Mother Lumnos, I suspect. Though it’s not always clear what her visions are meant to convey. What seems obvious at first can be—” He eyed me slowly. “—deceiving.”

My head cocked. “Lumnos sent visions to you before this?”

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