Page 198 of Glow of the Everflame

I held my hand out. “Help me, Luther.”

He stared at it for a long beat. His muscles bunched, but he held himself back.

I cleared my throat. “Do you want to marry Iléana or not?” I asked loudly.

“Wait—what?” Taran barked.

Eleanor blinked. “Did she say—”

“Oh, no,” Lily gasped.

Alixe looked amused.

Teller said nothing, though he studied me curiously.

Luther’s eyes narrowed at me, and I bit my lip to mask my smile. “I know how to find ways to motivate you, too, Prince.”

He leaned in close. “Truly devious, Your Majesty.”

I grinned, and he grinned back, and for a heartbeat, the sun seemed to swoop down from the sky and fill the dungeon with its fiery, jubilant glow.

“Help me,” I said again.

His back straightened, his smile falling away as his broad jaw slowly rose. A new expression settled over his face—dominant, steadfast, dark with threat in a way that sent heat rushing to my skin. It wasn’t the Prince—but it wasn’t quite the Luther I was used to, either. In fact, I’d only ever seen this look on him once before...

He took my extended arm by the wrist and prowled to my side, pressing his thumb against my pulse. “If I try to help you, are you going to fight me?” His grip tightened as he leaned down to my ear, his gravelly voice dropping low. “Or will you be a good girl for me again and obey?”

My breath hitched. Suddenly, I could feel every piece of clothing on my body, all at once too tight and too loose, its friction maddening against my tingling skin.

“Depends,” I said, a little huskily. “I seem to recall you enjoying yourself the last time I had a knife to your throat.” My eyes drifted to his. “So which do you really prefer?”

A rumbling tempest ofwantbrewed in his gaze, and just like that, Luther and I were back to our dangerous game. Only this time, I was no longer afraid to play.

“Close your eyes,” he growled—an order, not a request. I let my stare linger defiantly for a moment before giving in.

He continued to circle his thumb across the sensitive skin of my wrist as a warm sensation grew at my chest, and I realized his other hand was hovering just over my skin.

“May I touch you?” he murmured with a featherlight brush just above the low neckline of my dress. “Here?”

I squeezed my thighs together and nodded my consent. A moment later, his large, warm hand pressed firmly against my heart—the mirror to the smooth patch of skin on his own chest that had been spared from his scar’s path. “This is where you’re strongest. Imagine your magic gathering here first.”

It was a struggle to think beyond his touch—the skim of his fingertips over the scar on my collarbone, the curve of my breast swelling into his palm as I breathed, and that thumb, thatcursed thumb, still taunting me at my wrist—but, in a way, it seemed to help. All my burdens and fears dimmed and disappeared behind a heady, sinful haze that left my mind thinking only of his grip, his mouth, his body. His smile, his heart, his devotion. Everything he had come to mean to me.

And what I stood to lose if I let him walk away.

Please,I begged my godhood.Abandon me if you must, but not him. We have to save him.

A tingling sensation formed under Luther’s hand, and power buzzed beneath my skin as my magic moved to meet it. It crawled at first, then circled and swarmed, its pace growing increasingly intense.

“Do you feel it?” he asked, his breath tickling my neck, and I nodded again. “Good. Now imagine it expanding beyond your body. Let it surround you completely.”

The godhood pulsed eagerly at his words, a hunger to escape that reminded me of the first night I’d unleashed—how it had nearly consumed him. “What if I lose control and hurt someone?”

“You won’t.”

“You were worried I might at the ball.”

“The ball was different. There were strangers there, people there you had no fondness for. You care about everyone here, and your magic will not hurt those you love.” A long beat of silence passed. When he spoke again, his voice was rough. “It’s why I was able to come to your side after your father died. Even when you’d lost control, at your power’s most destructive, I dropped my shield, and it did me no harm.”

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