Page 115 of Glow of the Everflame

His back went rigid, his expression looking as if he’d revealed more than he had intended.

“Wait a minute, are we doing training shirtless?” Taran’s voice echoed across the dungeon. He bounded down the dungeon steps and ripped his tunic over his head to reveal a tanned chest rippling with more muscles than I knew a person could have. “Bless the Kindred for that.”

Alixe paused on the stairwell as she took in me and Luther standing half-naked and chest-to-chest, my hand clasped in his. She quietly assessed us. “I can take the big dumb oaf and come back later.”

I recoiled from Luther, too quickly and too clumsily to be anything other than an admission of guilt. “Not at all,” I blurted. “We were just—I mean, we, uh—come on in.”

I moved to dress, but Taran threw an arm over my shoulders and trapped me at his side. “You heard the Queen, Alixe,” he joked. “Shirts off. Show us what you’ve got.”

I ducked out of his grasp and pulled my tunic back into place. “Gross, Taran. She’s your cousin.”

“Distantcousin. Four generations removed. And House Corbois has never let something as silly as being related get in the way of a good pairing.”

“Extremely gross. You know that can lead to facial deformities and low intellect.” I propped my hands on my hips and squinted at him thoughtfully. “Come to think of it, that explains a lot about you.”

He shot me a savage grin. “Big words for a girl who can’t shield.”

He threw out a fist and a ball of hissing shadow hurtled toward my face. I raised an arm in reflex, but the orb slowed as it approached me and grew in size until it encased my head. The darkness blocked out the world, turning my vision into an endless, gloomy void.

I staggered backward, and the orb stayed with me, keeping me blinded and lost. A pair of hands tickled my sides, and I yelped in surprise. I punched wildly, but my fists caught only fabric as Taran ducked out of range.

“I’m your Queen, you know,” I shouted. “I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to attack me.”

“Lesson number one,” Taran’s mocking voice rang out. “No rank during training. Anyone’s fair game—even you, Queenie.”

The dungeon came back into view as the shadowy sphere faded away. “Fine. But the second I’ve mastered my magic, I’ll remember this. And retribution’s going tohurt.”

“Good,” Luther answered. He was fully dressed, arms crossed over his chest, the imposing facade of the brutal Prince glazing his features. The sight of it in the presence of his friends took me by surprise. “Use that emotion. When you’ve used your power in the past, it was always when you were pushed to an emotional limit.”

“That’s normal for our kind,” Alixe added. “The godhood feeds off our emotions. It usually manifests for the first time when we’re extremely angry or threatened.”

I frowned as I thought of the curiousvoicethat seemed to thrive off my temper. “So this godhood—it’s a piece of the goddess Lumnos?”

“Not exactly,” she answered. “Although the Kindred are considered gods to us, they had their own deities back on their home world. They brought a piece of that divine power with them when they came to Emarion. The godhood lived inside Blessed Lumnos just as it lives in you.”

I squirmed at the thought of some faraway god living like an angry stowaway in my soul. I had never been particularly religious, but if I had any loyalty to a divine force, it was to the Everflame and the Old Gods of the mortals—not to the Kindred, and certainly not to whatever nameless force Lumnos herself had been bound by.

“Learning to summon it while calm will come with time,” Luther said. “For now, use your emotions to help you access it, just like you did that first night.”

He shot me a meaningful look, and a shiver rattled through me at the memory.

Beneath that harsh exterior he so carefully maintained, I could still see it—his beaming pride at what I’d done that night, his eager anticipation of what I could become.

How could I tell him that had been the worst night of my life? How could I explain that every time my magic stirred, it was a reminder of everything and everyone I would eventually lose?

He couldn’t understand. None of them could. This was all they’d ever known.

And even if they did, it didn’t change the reality of my situation: if I didn’t master my magic, I would be dead in weeks. Then I’d lose all those things anyway—and far sooner than I planned.

So I nodded and whipped up an obedient smile.

“Let’s get started.”

ChapterTwenty-Four

Training had not gone well.

For the hour that followed, Luther, Taran, and Alixe tried a number of tactics to force me into unleashing my emotions—teasing me, attacking me, encouraging me, angering me. None of it had worked. Not even a wisp of my power had made an appearance.

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