Page 73 of Glow of the Everflame

Though I was slowly becoming more comfortable in the luxurious gowns common among women of the palace, the sensuality with which the Descended put their skin on display was still deeply intimidating. I wasn’t ashamed of my body, but nor was I proud. It was simply utilitarian, a tool to meet my needs, whether that be working, fighting, or sex. I had never imagined my flesh as something to beadmired.

Even with Henri, I’d always struggled to see myself as an object of desire. We spent our childhoods swimming naked and stripping to our undergarments to avoid the summer heat. Revealing my body to him had never felt like an intimate act, even after our activities had gone well beyond platonic.

I left my hair unbound, the snowy tresses curtaining the expanse of skin at my back. Unlike in the mortal world, my strange hair fit right in among the Descended, who delighted in dying their hair shocking hues. Eleanor had warned me that court regulars would soon be sporting newly whitened hair in a cheap attempt to flatter me.

“What do you think?” I called out to Sorae, spreading my skirt and spinning in a circle. “Do I look forgettable and inoffensive?”

She let out a soft huff, then rose to her feet, disappearing through the archway to her perch.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I muttered. I hiked up my skirts and strapped two blades to my thighs, then followed her to the stone balcony. The day was sunny and brisk, but not windy, the perfect day for a ride in the skies.

I ran my hand along her haunches and marveled at the powerful muscles that twitched beneath her sandy brown fur. I studied the spot along her feline body just behind her wings, then gave her a wary stare. “Am I supposed to put a saddle on you, or...”

She stretched her neck to the sky and erupted in a sudden roar. Her tail whipped angrily toward me, nearly smacking my shin.

“Alright, alright!” I yelped, throwing my hands up in surrender and dodging another flick of her tail. “No saddle. Understood.”

She dropped low to the ground and curved her wing around me in silent encouragement to climb on. Like a fool, I glanced over the balcony’s edge instead. My stomach clenched at the steep drop.

“You’re not allowed to let me fall, right? You’re oath bound to make sure I don’t die?”

I felt a tug and looked down to see the train of my dress bunched up in Sorae’s toothy jaws. She reared back, yanking me away from the edge. I let out a laugh as she dropped the fabric, gave my hip a swift bump with her snout, and huffed impatiently.

“I trust you,” I conceded with a grin. I gathered my skirts and threw my leg across her back. She patiently waited while I found a handhold along her shoulder blades, then gave a sweet, inquisitive trill.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

“Alright, girl. Show me what you’ve got.”

With a jubilant howl, Sorae launched from her powerful hind legs. A few downbeats of her mighty wings, and we were soaring into the sky.

Euphoric laughter bubbled up from my chest. A burst of Sorae’s pride shot across the bond at the sound of my delight. Though my stomach still felt wobbly and a bit weightless every time I peeked at the ground below, any unease was drowned out by my swelling joy.

There was something liberating about cutting through the clouds on Sorae’s back. I was no longer leashed by the stress of the Challenging, court politics, or the expectations of a divided realm on the brink of war. Up here, I was blissfully unburdened. My problems weren’t gone, but they were anchored to the ground, and I was in the skies.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this happy, this free. Maybe I never had.

“This is incredible!” I shouted, gently squeezing the tendons that connected Sorae’s wing to her back. “What do you say we fly away and never return?”

She let loose a long, booming yowl and tilted her wings at an angle, sending us shooting toward the earth before banking into a sharp turn that had my heart in my throat. A string of happy warbles rumbled out of her as she continued to climb and plummet, circle and roll.

Although the sheer terror of it was shaving years off my life, I now had a lot more of those to burn, and I couldn’t bear to make her stop. Her childlike giddiness was the sweetest music. She wasplaying, showing me her world for one precious moment where her gilded chains felt as temporarily invisible as my own.

The forests of Lumnos passed in a blur beneath us, and far too quickly, our exultant moment ended as a massive, oval-shaped structure came into view. On one end, the royal family’s seating area was outfitted with upholstered chairs and cushioned banquettes, in contrast to the rows of stone benches that ran along the perimeter.

Luther had come by this morning with another tray of breakfast and an overview of the agenda, a move I had to admit was endearing him to me—the daily food deliveries, not the advising. I knew from his guidance that Sorae would take me to the center, where I would lay a ceremonial final log on the King’s pyre to start the service. I was so busy reciting his instructions in my head that we had nearly landed before I noticed the audience was filled with a vibrant shade of cherry red.

Other than a small clump of black in a section near the top edge, every last attendee wore garments of vivid scarlet, many of them adorned with jewels or flashy sequins. Even House Corbois was outfitted in head-to-toe crimson with some flourish designed to sparkle in the light.

From a distance, the effect was breathtaking—the arena resembled a flawless ruby whose facets glittered under the midday sun.

As we got closer, it began to look a lot more like a glossy pool of freshly spilled blood.

Sorae’s claw-tipped feet landed on the sandy central floor to a skittering wave of gasps and a sea of horrified stares. Whatever fashion error I had committed, it was a bad one.

I turned my attention up to the royal box. Remis and Luther wore matching masks of calm indifference, though their eyes told two very different stories. Remis’s gaze was calculating, likely scheming how to both explain away my misstep and twist it for his benefit. Luther’s burned with a visceral rage that sent a shudder down my spine, even at this great distance.

Garath looked disgusted. Lily looked mortified on my behalf. Taran was grinning. Eleanor was near tears.

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