Page 274 of Heat of the Everflame

Behave, I said in Luther’s head as I led my mother inside.No rampaging without me.

I caught a sliver of his wink before the door slammed shut and cast me into darkness. I crafted a globe of light and tugged my mother to the furthest corner of the cell.

“Do you have a plan to get out?” she asked quietly.

I nodded confidently—a lie. A big, ugly, glaring, outrageous lie.

“How are we getting out?” she pushed.

“Let me worry about that.”

“Diem—”

“Tell me what you know about the prison. The bloodlocks—who do they open for?”

Her reddish brows furrowed into a skeptical crease. I’d forgotten how well my mother knew me—how clearly she’d always seen through my false confidence. “Diem, I know Luther is very powerful, and...” She looked me over, plainly unconvinced. “I’m sure you are, too. But there are thousands of soldiers here. You need weapons, you need an army—”

I bristled. “You haveno ideawhat I am capable of.”

She stroked my hair, one hand cupping around my cheek. It was such a familiar gesture, rich with well-worn love and easy memories. Memories that now felt like they belonged to another person.

I flinched away. That life was gone. The touch that had once brought me such comfort had become a painful reminder of all that I’d lost.

“Why don’t you distract the King?” she suggested. “I’ll run for it. I can find a place to hide, perhaps slip out when no one’s looking.”

“Are you mad? You won’t make it five feet.”

“I’ll be fine. I have some... experience with these kinds of things.”

“You’re just ahealer, Mother.”

She smiled a pitiful smile, one of secrets and regret. “Diem, I have never been just a healer.”

My attention was stolen by muffled voices in the hall. I put a finger to my lips, then crept on quiet feet to the door. I crouched low and pressed my ear to a thin flap at the base I suspected they used to deliver meals.

“—with instructions they were to be delivered to you directly.”

“Who sent them?”

“The first hawk was sent by Her Majesty the Queen of Arboros.”

“So she’s alive, after all.” The King chuckled darkly. “And she’s finally sent her vote on Auralie Bellator’s execution. Tell me, Prince, if your Queen spoke true and Arboros wasthe Guardians’ prisoner, what do you think her vote will be?”

My heart sputtered and stalled, then dropped into a gut-clenching freefall.

“Who sent the other hawk, Lieutenant?”

“The Regent of Lumnos, Your Majesty. It arrived minutes ago. It was marked asextremelyurgent.”

My falling heart plummeted straight into hell.

Remis hadn’t just betrayed me. He’d signed my death warrant—and his son’s, too.

Waiting until nightfall was no longer an option. We had to leave this prison.

And we had to do it now.

Chapter

---