Page 102 of Heat of the Everflame

He smiled, a rare sight in the presence of strangers. “Bring as many as you’d like. The Queen will welcome you all.”

The girl squealed and threw her arms around Luther’s neck. As he returned her embrace, his eyes met mine with a knowing gleam, and my heart somersaulted in my chest.

The woman stiffened beside me. “He should not give them such hopes,” she said quietly. “They cannot ever go back to Lumnos.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“They would be executed if they returned.”

My breath caught as understanding crested over me. Luther’s secret contact, my mother’s involvement, all the blue-eyed Descended...

These were not just any children.

These were the half-mortals Luther and my mother had smuggled out of Lumnos. And with what he’d just done, he had given them a path to comehome—and the promise that their Queen would accept them with open arms.

Warmth surged through me, my chest squeezing tight. As I watched Luther talk with the two children and surreptitiously shove a few more coins into their pockets, the depths of my feelings for him overcame me.

Suddenly, the kind of commitment I’d always feared no longer felt so alarming. A life with this man—this kind, selfless, fiercely loving man, who had been fighting for the vulnerable with zero fanfare and at great personal risk long before I ever met him, who believed in me and my dream and was willing to sacrifice everything for it, who would walk to the ends of the continent and back just to put the briefest smile on my face—I didn’t just envision a future with him. Iwantedit.

“He’s right,” I said, a little hoarsely. “The new Queen will welcome them. She’d never allow them to be executed—nor any other half-mortal.”

“That’s a big gamble.” The woman faced me directly, her tone turning nosey. “How do you two know so much about what the Queen would do?”

“I don’t,” I rushed out. “But he does. The two of them are...” I forced down a lump in my throat. “...close. If he says she’ll do something, she’ll do it.”

The children finally ran past us into the hallway, giggling. Luther’s face had a contentment to it I hadn’t seen on him in days. I crossed the room, lured in like a fish on a line, unable tostop my fingers from stretching out to brush his as I returned to his side.

“Take some time to settle in,” the woman called out. “I’ll send up ale and hot food.”

“That’s generous, but we don’t intend to st—”

Before Luther could finish, the door shut, followed by a loudclickand fading footsteps.

His eyes narrowed.

But my gaze was fixed only on him, my heart still reeling. “These children—they’re the ones you’ve saved, aren’t they?”

He stared at the flower in his hand. “That little girl looked so familiar... it took me a moment to realize why.” A muscle feathered on his cheek. “I got her out, but her mortal mother decided to stay behind.”

I recoiled. “She gave her daughter up?”

“The girl was the product of an affair. The mother had three mortal children already, and she was afraid that if her husband found out, he would take the others and leave.” He gave me a hard look. “It wasn’t a choice she made lightly.”

I bit back my judgment. I knew well the ugly choices the mortal women of Lumnos were forced into making. “That little girl’s aura...”

“I know. If it’s that strong already, by the time she matures, she’ll be quite formidable. She could be a valuable ally to you when she’s older.”

I laid a hand on his arm. “But that’s not why you invited her to return to Lumnos, is it?”

He stared at it, something indecipherable passing across his eyes. “No, it isn’t.” He pulled down my hood and gently brushed back a wavy lock of hair hanging over my eyes, still damp from the rainstorm we’d escaped in Ignios. He tucked the flower the girl had created behind my ear. “They should all come home. I’ll make sure the Jaguar knows they can, if they wish.”

My heart felt near to bursting. I lifted to my toes and pressed a kiss to his stubble-lined cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into my touch, his hand slipping beneath my cloak and curving around my ribs.

We stayed there for a moment, temple to temple, the press of his fingertips ever so gently pulling me closer. An undeniable sense of longing burned off him—the waning patience of his desire, the desperate need to claim me as his and never let go. My own restraint was wearing thin. In the quiet solitude of the room, with no one to disturb us, I found my lips grazing his jaw, my fingers roaming over his waist.

Abruptly, he pulled away and gave me his back, walking to the table and offloading his satchel.

I flinched at the sudden emptiness against my skin. “Luther, is everything—”

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