Page 290 of Heat of the Everflame

“Blessed Mother, I’ve missed that,” he sighed, his eyes brightening to a brilliant emerald green.

“Enness, I don’t mean to be rude... can you use that magic to do more than grow fruit?”

“You mean, can I fight the Fortos Descended?” I nodded, and he smiled. “I can. And frankly, there’s nothing I’d rather do more.”

He wobbled unsteadily to his feet, and I clutched him as he got his bearings. “Are there others like you? Any Descended I can trust to help these mortals?”

His heavy look suggested I had no idea the box I’d just opened. “How many can you take?”

“As many as I can get.”

He nodded firmly. With my help, he staggered out of his cell and into the corridor. His body shuddered violently, and I looked at him in alarm.

“I... I never thought I would...” He gazed down the corridor as a tear broke free and streamed over his cheek. “People don’t leave this place, Diem. They bring us here to die.”

I wove my fingers into his and held him close. “Not anymore.”

Chapter

Fifty-Five

Enness and I made our way through the prison, stopping cell by cell.

Mostly abandoned by the guards, the prisoners had become a kind of family over the years. Enness knew every name and every crime, those I could trust and the dangerous few I was best to leave behind. Though I believed in his best intentions, I quietly used my Umbros magic to verify the honesty of each person’s promise that I could trust their word.

Our numbers grew to a shocking size. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Each realm had its own prisons and punishments—Descended who ended up here had either crossed the army or a foreign Crown. Neither outcome was common unless mortals were involved.

Their stories gave valuable insight on the Crowns. Unsurprisingly, none had been captured by the Umbros Queen or the Ignios King, both of whom would rather kill their targets than hand them over to Fortos. There were none from Lumnos either, though I suspected Luther’s years of intervention were at play. Most had been captured from Sophos, Meros, Montios, and Faunos, whose Crowns seemed content to play by the rules.

As I healed away wounds and flameroot, the hollow in my chest took on a greater heft. Thevoiceof my godhood was growing distant, and fatigue had turned my brain fuzzy and my movements slow. I wrestled with my better judgment to stop and conserve my power, but that would mean leaving good people behind, and after seeing the squalor they’d lived in and the torture they’d faced, I couldn’t bear to walk away.

At the end of the corridor, the mortals watched with palpable trepidation. By the time I rejoined them with the Descended, the tension in the air had grown thick enough to choke on.

“But they’re criminals,” someone said. “Dangerous ones.”

“So are all of you,” I said dryly.

“How can we trust them when they’re not even trusted by their own kind?”

“Maybe being distrusted by their kind is a good thing,” Runa offered. I flashed her a grateful smile.

A host of brown eyes settled on my mother as they looked to her to take their cues.

She crossed her arms, lips pursing. My anger at her still roiled beneath my skin. I considered bursting into her mind to rant about how badly we needed them, how they were worthy of saving, how I thought better of her than petty prejudice. Just as my temper was about to win, she walked forward and extended a hand to Enness.

“Thank you,” she said simply. “We appreciate your help.”

He clasped it with an easy smile. Throughout the hall, muscles relaxed with fading worry, not the least of which was mine. I led the newly combined group down the corridor while I explained the details of my plan.

I felt their suspicious stares as they took in the charred bones and pool of blood in the hallway where I’d killed the King, but either for fear of me or apathy for what I’d done, no one said a thing. A few mortal children shrank away, and a MerosDescended brought a wave of water to sweep the remnants of my carnage under a door and out of sight.

I raised my palms to the opening in the ceiling and pushed out Arboros magic, conjuring ropey roots that stretched to the prison floor. Enness and another Arboros Descended joined in to thicken the cords and craft knots to make them easier to climb.

Luther’s hand closed around my arm. “Your magic is running low,” he said, too quietly for the others to hear. “I can feel it in your aura. Let the Descended give you some of our magic to strengthen yours.”

I shook my head. “You’ll need all the magic you can get to shield the mortals, and I need those Descended strong when we part ways in Lumnos.”

Luther’s brows carved low, his muscles twitching at the clash of his instincts to keep me safe at everyone else’s expense.

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