Page 48 of Heat of the Everflame

I buried my face in Luther’s chest to hide my laughter. I had turned to him in the night and curled into his side, my head resting on his shoulder. His hand had burrowed beneath my sweater, his flesh hot against mine where it lay in the curve of my waist. The other was joined with my hand atop his bare chest, our fingers intertwined.

“You’re awake,” he said, yawning. “How do you feel?”

“Better,” I said honestly. I nestled in closer. “Warmer, at least.”

His arm tightened around me, and I let out a comfortable hum. It was strange hownaturalit felt to wake up beside him in the woods, limbs draped over each other’s bodies, unhurried and at peace despite the danger that nipped at our heels.

I gazed up at him sleepily. “I could have done a shift on night watch, you know. I may be Queen, but I don’t need to be protected at all times.”

His wry smirk told me exactly what he thought ofthatclaim. Wisely, he kept it to himself.

“You’ll have to take it up with Alixe and Taran,” he said instead. “They let me sleep through my shift, too.” His expression warmed as he brushed away a strand of hair that had fallen into my eyes. “Though I confess, I’m finding it hard to be angry.”

Taran’s voice drifted into the hollow again.

“Alixe, I’mbored.”

I could almost see her eyes rolling in response.

“Go kill something then. Preferably something edible.”

I grinned. “Perhaps we should go put them out of their misery.”

“Perhaps,” Luther answered.

Neither of us moved.

I trailed my finger along his scar where it emerged from the makeshift blanket we’d made of Taran’s cloak, and Luther’s muscles tensed. I tried to catch his eyes, but he was staring up, his smile gone, his expression now guarded.

My heart splintered. I knew Luther had a complicated relationship with his scars. They were a reminder of his greatest tragedy—his father’s brutal murder of his secret mortal mother—and a source of his people’s scorn. He’d been mocked for themby family, even by lovers. Yet he’d chosen to keep them, rather than have them healed away.

I still didn’t fully understand why, but I was grateful for it. I was covered in scars of my own, on my skin and in my heart. In a Descended world that demanded perfection, it was our imperfections that had bonded us together.

“Now might be our only chance to speak alone,” he said quietly.

I glanced at the large crack in the tree that opened up to the forest. My stolen cloak hung over it like a curtain, held up by two daggers stabbed into the bark, a thoughtful gesture to give us both darkness and privacy.

I looked back at Luther and nodded. “Tell me what you know about my mother.”

He took a deep breath and sat upright, then grabbed me by the hips and pulled me into his lap until I was facing him, my legs straddling him on either side. He gave me a flat look at my attempts to drape Taran’s cloak over his bare shoulders, snatching it from my hands and wrapping it around me instead.

“I first met her when she became the palace healer,” he began. “I’d been watching the Guardians, so I knew she was their leader, but I also knew she was the best healer in the realm. For the children, that was more important. I let her work, but I kept a close eye on her.”

I smiled. “That sounds familiar.”

“Well,shedidn’t attack my guards or threaten to cut off my hand.”

“Pity. It worked out so well for me.”

“For us both.” His arms looped low on my back, nudging me closer.

“One day,” he went on, “I went to Mortal City for a half-mortal child that had been discovered. The girl was alive but had been gravely wounded by her Descended parent.”

I laid a hand on his arm and squeezed gently, knowing the similarities to his own story and the brutal memories that must have evoked.

“I took the child to your mother and begged her to save the girl’s life. She did—but she also realized the girl was half-mortal. She knew my duty as Keeper of the Laws was to execute them, not save them. She suspected what I was doing, and she said she wanted to help. She told me she had ways to transport people out of sight of the Descended. I knew her involvement with the Guardians, so I knew she was telling the truth.

“We started working together. She helped me with the children, and I helped with conditions in Mortal City—food and medicine for poor families or supplies for the healers, whatever she requested. Your mother and I were never friends, or evenfriendly, but together, we saved many people.”

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