Page 41 of Glow of the Everflame

Luther huffed a laugh. “I’ll speak with him. I can be quitepersuasiveif I need to be.”

I sagged back in my chair with a sigh. “Thank you.”

The softness faded from his expression, returning to his trademark focus. “This mortal—does he know about the Crown?”

“Not yet.” I shrugged and looked down. “I don’t even know if he’ll still want to marry me.”

“Now that you’re Queen?”

“Now that I’m a Descended.”

“You’ve always been a Descended.”

“He didn’t know that.Ididn’t know that.”

Luther frowned. “You truly didn’t know?”

“Not until last night. I suppose I had suspicions, but I never really believed it.”

“Is that why you were upset?”

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t—not without tearing down the walls my psyche had so carefully built to keep myself together.

I cleared my throat. I needed a change of subject. “Tell me about my mother.”

His demeanor shifted. He sat up straighter, his hands gripped together, knuckles white where his fingers were interlaced. “Tell me what you know first.”

“That wasn’t our agreement.”

“I agreed to tell you what I can. I made promises to your mother to keep certain things from you. If I know what y—”

“My mother wantedyouto keep secrets fromme?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He gave me a curious look. “Isn’t it obvious? She must have known what you were.”

“She wouldn’t have kept that from me,” I protested, but even as the words fell from my lips, I no longer believed them.

“She was adamant that you be kept away from our world.”

“Because it’s dangerous.”

“Then why send your brother to a Descended school? Do you truly believe she cared less for his safety than yours?”

I couldn’t answer. I had asked my mother the same question a hundred times, and her response had always been the same:You’re just going to have to trust me, my little warrior.I know what I’m doing. At the time, I had blamed it on an unjust double standard in the parenting of boys and girls, but now...

“I’m only surprised she got away with it for so long.” Something intense and heady gleamed in his gaze. “I knew the truth the second I saw you. Though, I admit, when Maura swore you were born with brown eyes, I began to doubt. I should have known she would lie to protect you.”

“Maura didn’t lie. Iwasborn with brown eyes.”

His head tilted sharply. “That’s not possible.”

“I remember my own eyes, Luther. And my hair. They were the same color as Teller’s. Besides, the Descended have blue eyes, even the half-mortals.”

“Only the Lumnos Descended. Each of the nine lines has a distinct eye color. Arboros is green, Montios is violet, Fortos is red—”

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