Page 53 of Heat of the Everflame

Taran handed off the spear to Alixe and unceremoniously dumped the bushel of berries he’d gathered into my arms. “Sorry, Queenie. Lu’s gotta pay for that one.”

Taran threw his head back and let out a wild roar. Alixe groaned and rolled her eyes, but Luther’s expression turned exhilaratingly savage. He barely had time to shrug off his overcoat, its pockets bursting with mushrooms and eggs, before Taran came barreling into him.

“There’s no magic out here, Princess,” Taran yelled triumphantly, ramming a fist into Luther’s ribs. “You might have a fair fight for once in your life.”

“I’ve never needed magic to put you on your ass,” Luther grunted back as he drove a shoulder into Taran’s torso.

They tumbled to the ground in a flurry of blows and swears. This was no doubt a regular occurrence, as they paused in unison just long enough to rip their shirts off and set aside their weapons before clashing again. The glow of the sun’s final rays turned their skin into liquid gold as their muscular bodies rippled and flexed with effort.

I sauntered up to Alixe’s side, humming in appreciation. “A lot of mortal women would pay their life savings to watch this.Andmen.”

She crossed her arms, looking significantly less enthralled. “A lot of Descended would, too.”

Luther pinned Taran to the ground and glanced up at me with a wild-eyed smirk that had my stomach dancing.

“Think I can tell a few more sad stories and guilt them into oiling up and wrestling for the good of the realm?” I asked Alixe. “I could probably make enough to replace the Crown’s taxes entirely.”

“Taran will do it,” she said. “Just bribe him with a cask of good wine.”

“And Luther? What do I bribe him with?”

She glanced at me and dragged her eyes up and down my body pointedly in response.

She turned back to our campsite and I reluctantly followed with one final look at the free show. When we got to the hollow, we dumped the bounty we’d collected into a pile and set about separating the items and brushing away the stray dirt.

Eventually, Luther and Taran joined us, arms draped around each other’s shoulders, sweating and panting and looking distracting enough to make my cheeks hot.

“Who won?” I asked.

“Me,” they both answered.

Alixe frowned at the spear of fish. “We could build a fire to roast them, but I’m not sure how we would get it alight. I lost my flint during the battle.”

“I can manage that,” I answered.

“Your magic is back?” Taran asked, and I shook my head. “Then how?”

It was an effort not to roll my eyes. As formidable as they were, with the best education and training gold could buy, I sometimes forgot just how magic-dependent their upbringing had been.

“Have you learned nothing from me today?” I said. “The forest always provides.”

I set about gathering the items I would need while the others collected wood. When I finally crouched at our makeshift firepit to generate the glowing embers, Alixe watched with raptfascination. Once the fire was lit and roaring, she made me repeat the process again and again, then she pulled together her own supplies to practice until she’d done it successfully several times.

“I’m surprised they didn’t teach you in the guard,” I said as we turned our skewered fish over the flames. “It’s one of the first survival skills I learned.”

The three Corbois glanced awkwardly at each other.

“Descended have little need for survival skills,” Alixe answered after a long silence. “If we leave the cities, we bring a caravan of supplies. If there’s anything we run out of or forget...” She hesitated.

“You simply take it from the first mortal you find,” I answered for her, and she winced and nodded.

I knew well the laws permitting Descended soldiers to seize any possession from a mortal without repayment “in instances of urgent need.” My father had lost many a haul of freshly caught game when hunting near them in the woods. It seemedurgent needmore often translated topassing fancy.

I bit back a snide retort, reminding myself that these Descended, at least, were trying.

But it was times like these where I understood the Guardians the most. Though I adored the three Descended sitting beside me, when confronted so plainly with their obliviousness, the urge to unleash all my anger at them for years of injustice from their kind could be difficult to withstand.

Luther’s knee nudged mine. “Things will change,” he said quietly. “We will change them.”

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