Page 33 of Glow of the Everflame

I glared. “Oh, there are quite a few things I wish todiscusswith you.”

When I looked at him now, all I saw was blood. The blood of so many children, slaughtered before their lives had even begun.

Luther’s emotionless eyes slid to my brother. “Is she normally like this?”

Teller raised an eyebrow. “You mean irrationally angry at everything and everyone?”

Luther nodded.

“Yes.”

Fight.

I practically snarled.

Teller shot me an apologetic look. “But she wasn’t always. Only recently. Only since...” His voice trailed off, the answer coming through our shared stare.Since she stopped taking the flameroot.

My blood was boiling. No, it had long passed boiling—it had been left to stew over a roaring fire and was now curling into steam from within. How dare they discuss me as if I wasn’t right here in front of them?

Fight.

I wanted to pummel them. I wanted to tear them to the ground. I wanted to drag my nails across their skin. I wanted to—

“You need to use your magic,” Luther said.

I squinted, fighting to focus on anything but my hunger for violence. “What?”

“The godhood—that’s what we call the source of our magic—it hates being trapped in a physical body. Being leashed for too long without release makes it angry. The longer you hold it in, the angrier it gets.”

“You describe it like it’s a living thing.”

“In some ways, it is. Don’t you hear it talking to you?”

Fight. Fight.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Between the dull throb of pain in my forehead and the vengeful chorus in my thoughts, I could barely follow the conversation.

Five minutes. I just neededfive gods-damned minutesof peace and quiet.

Fight. Fight. Fight.

“Shut up,” I seethed under my breath.

Luther’s lips curved smugly at being proven right. “What’s happening to you is normal. Descended who are new to their magic are often overcome with anger because they don’t yet know how to soothe their godhood.”

“That explains why everyone at school is an ass,” Teller muttered. “Why isn’t Lily like that?”

“Luther trained me,” she answered with a proud smile at her brother. “He started before my magic manifested to make sure I was ready.”

Luther nodded. “For most Descended, even a few days without a release can be dangerous. If you’ve been suppressing your nature all these years...” He gave me a slow, appraising regard. “You’re a walking explosive.”

FIGHT.

I certainly felt like an explosive. Preferably one aimed in the general vicinity of his head.

I wondered if I’d said that aloud, because Luther uncrossed his arms and shifted into a battle stance. His gaze on me was purely tactical, a soldier assessing his foe.

“You need to burn some of it off. And you two,” he shot a hard look at Teller and Lily, “should be far away when she does.”

---