Page 284 of Heat of the Everflame

I sighed. “She’s right. We can’t leave them.” I rubbed my aching temples. “If I’m the Queen, can I just order their release?”

“Unless they were captured here in Fortos, you need the other Crowns’ consent to let them go.”

“And if I let them go anyway?”

He gave me a dark look. “Fortos Descended live and die by their rules. The last time a Fortos King broke from the law, his own men quartered him and strung the pieces up as a warning to the next one.”

“Lovely,” I muttered, hiding the Crown away. “I think I’ll wait a while before telling everyone the good news.”

I started toward the King’s body. When my toes brushed the edge of his bloody moat, my muscles unexpectedly locked up. Memories of my father’s death jolted through me in a painful overlay of the grisly scene at my feet.

The pool of blood. The vacant stare. The murder weapon, still protruding from his corpse.

My palms turned sweaty as my legs refused to move. I didn’t realize I was shaking until Luther’s hands gripped my arms to hold me still.

He gently guided me away. “It’s not him.”

I nodded stiffly, grateful he understood without explanation. Luther had tried so hard to talk me out of seeing my father’s corpse. Most days, I wished I’d let him.

“M-make sure he’s dead,” I stammered. “His—his pulse... check—”

“I will.” He gave me a light nudge toward my mother.

She studied my face with concern as I joined her side. “Have you ever taken a life before?”

“Yes,” I admitted, wincing. “But that’s not why—” I paused. My eyes met hers. “Haveyou?”

She sighed heavily. “Yes, Diem. Many times.”

Her answer rocked me. Of course I had suspicions after learning of her role in the Guardians, but hearing her confirm it...

In my head, my mother existed within tightly defined walls. She was a healer—thehealer, the standard to which all mortal healers were held. She’d dedicated her life to saving lives wherever she could. It was everything she was, all she’d ever been.

As the pedestal I’d perched her on collapsed to rubble before my eyes, I wondered if the woman I thought I knew had ever existed at all.

“Whoareyou?” I breathed.

“I’m your mother. I’m the same woman you’ve always known.”

“I’m not sure that’s true.”

Her features pinched. She reached for my hand, but I shrank away.

“He’s dead,” Luther said as he joined us. “We should burn the body. If the soldiers see him, getting out will be much harder.”

Without looking back, I raised a hand toward the King and set him ablaze in an explosion of Ignios flame.

I waited to feel some shame or hesitation, but I felt nothing of the sort. In fact, when I thought on the life I’d just taken, I felt... nothing.

And that scared me most of all.

Movement above us caught my eye. As the smoke billowed to the hole in the ceiling, curious faces peered down from its edge.

I grabbed Luther and my mother and set a brisk pace for the mortal cages. “Getting them out of Fortos won’t be easy. My gryvern can’t carry them all.”

“If you can cover us until the border, I can take them from there,” my mother said.

“Us?” My head whipped to her. “I promised Teller I’d bring you home today.”

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