Page 221 of Heat of the Everflame

I threw my magic into him and let out a sob when his godhood did not stir in response. I couldn’t even feel it now, the blanket of poison too thick, too smothering. His heart was almost invisible beneath the blackened cage of the godstone’s grip. When I listened for its beat, the thumps were soft and defeated and so, so few.

Luther was dying.

Not eventually.

Not soon.

Now.

I bowed my head. “Go get the others, Perthe. Tell them to hurry.”

His face twisted with sympathy. “At once, Your Majesty.”

Lily sat at Luther’s back and laid her arms around him, weeping quietly against his skin. She knew what my order implied.

I stroked my fingers through his hair. “My Prince. My brave, kind, handsome Prince. Please don’t go.”

His breathing cleared, though it was shallow and labored. His features pinched as guttural groans of discomfort rolled from his throat. He was clearly in pain, and from what I knew of a godstone death, it would be excruciating.

I looked at the small jar on my nightstand—the one Maura had given me before she left.

I can’t do this without you, I’d told him back in Umbros.

You can, he’d answered.And you will.

There had been so many times he had tried to warn me. To prepare me.

I will always be with you.

You have a world to lead.

I believe in you, Diem. Don’t ever forget that.

Go, my Queen. Live.

My trembling hand closed around the blue-green vial. “Is this what you want—for us to let you go?”

Lily raised her head, her stricken expression shattering what little was left of my heart. “What is that?”

“It will take away his pain. It will give him...” I let out a shaky breath. “...peace.”

I held her eyes until I saw that she understood what I wasn’t saying. She sobbed and pulled him tighter to her, but after a long moment, she looked back up and nodded through her tears.

When his convulsions faded, I propped pillows behind him and carefully eased him onto his back. My palm curved around his cheek, and I placed my final kiss on his lips, lingering as my tears fell and streaked over his skin.

“You thought you failed me. You never did.Never.I’m so very sorry, my love. I was the one who failed you.” I pulled the cork from the vial and raised it to his mouth. “Please forgive me.”

The glass rim pressed into his lip, and the last rays of light in my soul went dark as I began to tilt it forward.

The sound of metal jingled behind me—from where I knew no one stood.

I stopped and glanced over my shoulder. As I thought, the room was empty at my back. Then a glint of metal caught my eye near Luther’s palm.

I sat up straighter and pulled the vial away. A glimmer ofsomethingsparked deep in my gut.

An instinct. A hunch.

I pried his fingers open. Tucked inside was a small golden disc—the Meros compass. Taran must have grabbed it when I’d dumped out Luther’s bag earlier.

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