Page 125 of Heat of the Everflame

Zalaric’s smile pulled tighter. “Indeed. The Lumnos royals keep an open tab in the markets at all times.”

A part of me deeply,deeplywanted to say yes. I’d never known the thrill of buying something impractical just because it was pretty. Perhaps it made me frivolous to want that, but why shouldn’t I? Didn’t everyone deserve to feel beautiful?

“No. I can’t.” I pulled the collar off before my resolve buckled. “I need to save my money for other things.”

Like a war.

Zalaric’s brows lifted. “Interesting. I’ve never heard a royal talk aboutsavingmoneybefore.”

I tensed, remembering the part I was supposed to be playing. A real Corbois would have bought it without a second thought, wouldn’t they?

“She’s very frugal,” Alixe jumped in. “Always has been, ever since she was a little girl.”

I nodded vigorously.

Zalaric pursed his lips. He took the collar and stared at it, running a thumb over the sapphires, then looked up at me. “I don’t think I noticed until now, but your eyes are not quite blue, are they?”

“They were,” I rushed out. “Born brown—I mean blue. Lost the color in a childhood illness.”

He angled his head. “Interesting.”

I cringed at my mistake. I’d repeated the same excuse so many times, the words had become a reflex.

Alixe glanced in the mirror and let out a surprised laugh at her reflection. She wore the disguise of a large, burly man, shirtless and coated head to toe in intricate tattoos.

“How are you able to make us appear normal to each other, but different to everyone else?” she asked. “I’ve never seen that done before.”

“I bend the light around a shield so the illusion is only visible from the outside.”

“But it’s so crowded—how do you keep other people from walking into the sides of the shield?”

He waved a hand and, for a split second, the shield shimmered into view. It wrapped like a second skin around each of our bodies and skimmed the floor, so that anyone passing between us would walk over it like a carpet, rather than bumping into it.

Alixe looked impressed. “That’s very clever. Where did you train?”

“I didn’t. I’m self-taught.”

Taran dropped what he was holding with a loudclang. “What?You have no training? At all?”

Zalaric bristled. “We half-mortals don’t get the luxury of attending your elite Descended academies. I was raised by a mortal, so I had to learn how to use my magic on my own.”

Raised by a mortal?My heart tripled in size as my fondness for him grew.

Taran blinked repeatedly. “But... your magic... yesterday, you... you were so...”

“So much better than you?I guess your academies aren’t that elite after all.” Taran growled, and Zalaric’s amused expression took on a mischievous twinkle. “Don’t worry, I saved my best disguise for you.”

“Oh, no,” Alixe mumbled.

Taran stomped over to the mirror and let out a strangled, horrified noise.

“You made mea little girl!?”

Standing across from Taran, his infuriated expression mirrored on her cherubic face, was an adorable child of about eight with golden ringlets and a petal pink dress, carrying a basket of daisies.

My hands clamped over my mouth, but not before a loud cackle burst out. I shot him an apologetic look, my shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

“Change it,” he hissed at Zalaric.

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