Page 337 of Heat of the Everflame

I hooked my arms around his neck. “And what did you say?”

His palms dropped to the curve of my ass and tugged me closer, grinding my hips into his. “I told her how stunning you look naked.”

I laughed and tried to shove him away, but his hands locked together at the small of my back, keeping me caged within his arms.

He captured my laugh with a kiss that was tender and unexpectedly chaste. “Your heart,” he said gruffly. “I told her I love your heart. Your kindness. Your selflessness. The lengths you’ll go to help those in need. There are many things to love about you, Diem Bellator, but that remains my favorite.”

My chest squeezed tight, my body too small a box to contain the world-rattling emotion exploding inside.

“You’re going to ruin my reputation,” I joked. “How am I supposed to scare the Crowns into standing down if you keep telling people I’mkind?”

He dropped another too-brief kiss on my lips, then pulled back and let me go. “You can start by stepping over that border and unlocking the final Kindred’s magic.”

I stared at the plaques set into the Ring Road to mark the Sophos-Montios border. The Montios plaque seemed slightly different. Shinier. A faintly darker shade of gold.

“You really think stepping onto Sophos soil will make a difference?” I asked.

“Hard to say. You were half dead when we crossed into Umbros, and you were drugged with flameroot for all the others. This is the first time you’re entering a new realm without anything holding you back.”

I stepped forward until my toes grazed the border. I stared ahead at the expanse of grassy plains, the sun turning the blades a golden orange where they stretched above a blanket of fallen snow. It was surreal in its tranquility, knowing the famed city that lay beyond. Barely visible in the distance, its sky-high buildings gleamed against the pastel sky.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

My godhood seemed to understand what was about to happen. It whirled impatiently, hurling itself against my chest as if it might drag me into Sophos itself. Its eagerness was less than comforting—every time I heeded its call, it threw my life into chaos.

“I’ll be here the whole time,” Luther said. “Whatever happens, you won’t be alone.”

My racing heart slowed, and I took a deep breath.

“I’m ready.”

Chapter

Sixty-Five

The first day, all I did wasscream.

Like all the realms, Sophos magic was two-fold in nature. Some were graced with the power ofspark—a buzzing, electrifying current that gave power to many of its cutting-edge inventions. Others claimed the power ofthought—an ability to memorize everything they’d ever seen, heard, or read, turning their head into a trove from which they could recall even the tiniest detail with ease.

Then there were the lucky few who inherited both—like me.

It was the former that initially rendered me frantic, trapped in an endless bolt of lightning that sent my body into rigid convulsions as I pleaded to the Kindred to make it stop.

Poor Luther was helpless, forced to stay on the Montios side of the border to keep access to his magic in case we were attacked. He hovered as close as he could, offering comforting words as my staticky hair danced and the grass around me sizzled to a blackened crisp. By the time I passed out from exhaustion, he looked as traumatized as I felt.

The second day, my mind became the greater enemy. Even the tendrils of sparking energy still snapping across my skin couldn’t distract me from the throbbing pressure in my head.All my memories replayed in overwhelming clarity, the magic unlocking details I hadn’t known that I ever knew.

Thankfully, the magic only seemed to enhance the memories I’d already formed, leaving all that I’d forgotten forever lost to the past.

Less thankfully, the memories I did have were too often of my lowest lows. I managed to crawl back to the Montios side, and Luther cradled me against his chest as I relived every dark moment in merciless, excruciating detail.

It wasn’t until day three that I managed to scrape together enough control to resume our journey into the realm’s capital of Sophos City, and even that was a hard-fought battle.

“This city never ceases to amaze me,” Luther said as our horses trotted down the city’s main road. “It’s like stepping into another time.”

I stared up at the towering buildings of metal and glass in mind-bending designs that seemed to defy the laws of the natural world. The paved streets bustled with strange machines, some carrying people that zipped impatiently around us.

Luther led us down a quiet side street, and I pulled my hood low and kept my distance as he negotiated with the owner of an inn to let us tie up our horse. As we walked away, the innkeeper stared at us both, and I became acutely aware of how obvious it was we didn’t belong.

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