Page 285 of Heat of the Everflame

“Well I can’t just leave them. They’re my people. They need me.”

“Your familyneeds you,” I snapped. “We’ve needed you for months.”

“Then you can wait a few days more.” She gave me an exasperated look, as ifIwas being irrational. “I’ll be fine. I’ve handled bigger dangers than sneaking through the Lumnos forests.”

I gawked at her, then looked to Luther for support. He was staring ahead, lips quirked up at the corner.

“You’re enjoying this?” I hissed at him.

“I’m realizing just how much you are your mother’s daughter.” Laughter gleamed in his eyes, unaffected by the daggers shooting through my glare.

An idea began to form.

“I’ll get them to the border,” I said to my mother, “and I’ll arrange a guide from there. But you’re coming with us.” She started to protest, and I cut her off. “I sacrificed too much to come here. I’m not leaving without you now.”

The mortals perked up at our arrival, craning their heads in note of the King’s absence.

“I’d like to make a deal,” I announced to them.

“We don’t negotiate with Descended,” one said tersely. “Especially Crowns.”

I tossed my mother the most obnoxiousI-told-you-soexpression I had in my arsenal.

“Good,” I said, “because this isn’t a negotiation. If you want to get out alive, you’re all going to have to do something you hate—trust the Descended.” I gestured to myself and Luther. “Us, and anyone else I tell you to trust.”

Heads shook fervently, mutters of protest rising to a roar. Luther crossed his arms, glaring.

“You could try to look a little less intimidating,” I said under my breath. “I’m trying to win them over.”

“I see how they look at you when you’re not watching. Being intimidating is the wiser choice.”

“If you don’t trust her, then trust me,” my mother said loudly. “She is my daughter. I know her heart.”

“And what abouthim?” one mortal asked.

She and Luther exchanged a stare dripping with hostile tension.

“He has helped other mortals.” Her slow, jerking cadence suggested each word was being chosen with care. “I doubt he intends to do you harm.”

“A ringing endorsement,” Luther muttered.

“Can you blame me?” she snapped quietly.

Muscles twitched along Luther’s jaw. He’d warned me their interactions were not always friendly, but I could barely fathom how they’d worked together at all.

“There will be Descended you trust far less than us,” I said. “I won’t let them harm you, but I can’t ask them to help you if you intend to harm them, either.”

A mortal man stepped forward, his brown eyes fixed on me. “You said you wanted to make a deal. What is it you want in return?”

I let out a heavy sigh. “I know your reasons for distrusting the Descended. I share them all. There are many,so many, wrongsto be addressed. I believe in the Guardians’ mission of bringing justice for the mortals—but some Guardians won’t stop until every Descended is dead.”

Murmurs—too many—of agreement rumbled through the group, turning my stomach into stone.

“Do you think they’ll stop there?” I pushed. “They wish death on anyone they deemdifferent. What happens when they find you different because of your gender, your skin color, or your realm? Or the gods you worship or the people you love? What the Kindred did was a great injustice, but before they arrived, the mortals were at war with each other over these very things. We can’t abide that, either. Isn’t injustice ourrealenemy—in whatever form it takes and whoever it comes from?”

The mortals fell quiet as they looked to each other, reluctant agreement flickering in many an eye.

“I will raise an army against the Descended’s unjust rule, that I vow that to you. But the world I’m fighting for is one whereallare equal, no matter the blood in their veins. Let’s not make hate our guiding light. Let’s choose love. Choose fairness. Choose...” I thought of the strange peace I’d glimpsed in the silvery light. “...balance. Someday we’ll all answer to the Everflame for our choice. This is mine.”

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