Page 36 of Glow of the Everflame

“Ican’t.”

“I’m not stopping until you do.”

Destroy. Destroy.Destroy.

“I can’t control it,” I blurted out, a hint of desperation cracking through, but there was no compassion in his eyes.

“Try harder, Diem. Focus.”

“Fuck off,” I rasped, my chest near bursting with the effort of holding back.

“Then tell me why you’re so angry.”

Red mist veiled my vision.

No—blood.

Innocent blood.

“Tell me,” he barked.

Fight.

Kill.

Destroy.

“You killed them,” I screamed. “You killed all those children!”

“What children?”

“The half-mortal children, you murderous bastard. Aemonn told me all about it. You’re the one who executed them. You’ve been slaughtering them for years.”

Luther’s face paled. His ethereal suit of armor flickered in place. “You have no idea what you speak of,” he said softly.

“Are you not Keeper of the Laws?”

“Yes, but—”

“It’s your job to carry out all executions.”

“Yes.”

“Do you deny it, then? Do you deny you killed them?”

“There is more to it than you—”

“Do you deny it?” I snarled.

His nostrils flared, but he said nothing.

“Do you deny it?”

“Yes,I deny it!” he thundered back.

He hurled a volley of light-made arrows at me, then another, then another. I ducked and spun to avoid them, flinching as one came a hair from slicing my cheek.

Luther was panting now, his chest shuddering with harsh, ragged breaths. “Is this really what you think of me—that I’m capable ofthat?” Though he seethed through clenched teeth, something in it sounded almost wounded. “Is that why you hate me so deeply?”

---