Page 238 of Glow of the Everflame

A series of popping sounds rattled around us as each of the obelisks and their fires died out, leaving the Temple cast in murky darkness. My hand jolted in surprise, squeezing instinctively into a fist. A thin trail of blood seeped through my fingers and onto the heartstone.

A bolt of lightning rocketed down from the heavens and into the jagged rock, sending up a cloud of sparks that had me staggering backward and tumbling onto the floor. The other Crowns shouted and clung to their archways while the ground quaked with a shockwave that rippled out from the Temple across the island.

When the chaos quieted, I scrambled back to my feet. The burning pressure of the heartstone’s defensive magic had vanished, leaving me lightheaded and shaky.

“You,” the Sophos Crown gasped. They stared at me in terror, eyes wide, their face deathly pale. Their horrified gaze dropped to the heartstone, and my blood froze solid.

The rock had been carved straight through. A gash ran down the center, leaving a web of tiny fractures splintering through the night-black stone.

“You did this,” they barked. “You broke the heartstone.”

“I—I didn’t—I couldn’t,” I stammered. “I only did what you told me!”

Their eyes shifted from surprise into a dangerous fury. They raised a single quivering finger, pointed in accusation. “You are not the Queen of Lumnos. You are animposter.”

I shook my head and backed away, looking frantically around to the other Crowns and hoping for one of them to come to my defense. They were all frozen in shock, equally unable to make sense of what they had just seen.

All except the Queen of Umbros.

Her face was smooth with perfect calm and that cold, all-knowing smile.

“Her,” I yelled, pointing in her direction. “Shedid this! She knows something, she came to Lumnos and she—”

A flash of coppery red caught my eyes.

And a voice.

A voice I knew and loved on a soul-deep level. A voice I had been praying to hear again for eight long months. A voice calling my name as if my very life depended on me hearing it.

Just outside the Kindred’s Temple in the wild overgrowth beyond, her brown eyes bulging and her face twisted in fear, my mother sprinted toward me with arms extended.

“Diem!” she screamed. “Diem, run!”

And with a deafening boom and a blast of fire and rubble, everything exploded.

And my world went black.

Epilogue

ELSEWHERE ON COEURÎLE...

When the first Crown climbed the Temple steps, Auralie Bellator’s heart nearly burst with joy.

For eight months, she had been hiding out on this awful island, living in solitude among the shadows of her past and counting every passing day. Finally, her patience was coming to fruition. In a matter of hours, gods willing, she would be wrapped in her husband’s arms and holding her two precious children close once more.

The time away from her family had been a torment. She had woken up every morning with their names on her lips, and fallen into dreams every night with their faces burned into her thoughts. Perhaps if she had known how long she would be gone, she might have reconsidered her mission, or at least taken the risk of telling them her plan.

She wondered where they were now. Did they still believe her to be alive—did they hold out hope for her return? The thought of the happiness on their faces when she walked back through the door of their humble cottage on the marsh brought a wide smile to her lips.

They would be angry, of course. She was prepared to face their resentment and their demands for answers. She could only hope they would eventually come to understand how important this mission had been, how necessary their sacrifice for the greater good.

Another Crown emerged at the top of the Temple steps, and Auralie’s heart skipped a beat.

So close. She wasso closeto going home.

She leaned as far out of the brush as she dared, straining to make out which Crowns were present. Her eyes watered and burned under the bright sunlight. Over the past months, she had become nocturnal, moving under the cover of night to avoid being spotted by the army ships just off the island’s shores. She silently cursed herself for not taking a few days to let her vision readjust to the strength of the midday sun.

She sank back into the cover of the tall grass and closed her eyes. She took a mental tour across the island, retracing her steps over the last few months to confirm no evidence of her identity could have been left behind. After today, the Crowns would be scouring the island for clues, and she could not risk leading them back to her—or her family.

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