Page 57 of Heat of the Everflame

He winced and looked down. “When I healed enough to walk, I ran through the fighting to the Lumnos pier, hoping to chase after you. I found Henri on the boat, attempting to stow some flameroot your mother had hidden nearby, and I confronted him. I could tell he knew where they had taken you, but he refused to tell me, even when things became... heated.”

I held my breath. “Did you hurt him?”

Veins popped on Luther’s forearm as his muscles tensed.

“No. Once I realized he wouldn’t give in, I brought him and some other mortals back to Lumnos. I knew it’s what you would want.”

I sat up in surprise and stared at him, but still, he refused to meet my gaze.

“Sorae was frantic. She could sense you were in danger, but unless you summon her, her ability to find you takes time. I hoped, perhaps... if I could just get close enough...” He trailed off, then pulled my hand closer. “I’d seen the rebel boats going south, so we started there. For days, she and I flew in circles, hoping for some sign of you. And then...”

He closed his eyes.

“And then you found me,” I murmured.

“Yes. And then you sent me away.”

His harsh facade was still in place, but it was fractured, his dark fears oozing from within the cracks. When he finally looked up, I saw the imagined loss of me in his eyes and the wound it had left behind.

He dropped my hand and stood, turning his back to me as he paced around the fire.

“You would have done the same for me,” I protested, rising to my feet.

“It’s not the same. You’re my Queen. It’s my duty to protect you.”

“And if I were not your Queen, would you have abandoned me? Left me to die?”

He whipped back around. “Never,” he snarled.

“No, you wouldn’t,” I agreed. I walked up and pressed my hands to his chest. “I don’t need somedutyto protect you, Luther, because we both know the Crown isn’t why you protect me.”

We glared at each other in silence, neither of us truly angry but both of us too stubborn to give in. He reached up and seized my wrists as if he might pull them away. After a moment, his shoulders drooped.

“No,” he said, sighing. “It isn’t.”

He dipped a hand into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a small object, then tightened his fist around it before I could see what it was.

“Sorae refused to fly, and I didn’t know if I could find you again by foot. A search like that could take weeks, if you were even still in Arboros.”

His voice picked up speed as his anxiety and fear came pouring out.

“I went to see the Guardians and threatened them within an inch of their lives. To their credit, few of them broke, and those that did knew nothing useful. Taran had to talk me out of breaking into the prison in Fortos to get your mother, in casesheknew where you were. I might have done it anyway, and then I heard the rebels were trying to barter you, and I wondered if I should stay at the palace, in case you were returned. I didn’t know what to do. You were missing, and I... I was...”

He laid his forehead against mine.

“I was lost,” he whispered.

My heart clenched at the agony in his roughened voice. “And yet you found me,” I said, and he gave a tight nod. “How?”

For a long time, he didn’t move, didn’t speak. Then he pulled back until my hands fell away. He slowly raised his fist in front of him and flicked the object in his hand open.

I arched my neck forward to peer at the small gold disc. At its center, a red arrow whirred softly as it spun against an ivory dial, then stopped with aclick.

Suddenly, I knew what he held—and what it meant. I’d turned to the very same object when I was lost in my own darkness and desperate for a way out.

A compass—a gift from the Crown of Meros, given to me at my Ascension Ball—spelled with Kindred magic to lead to whatever one’s heart most desires.

I took a hesitant step forward, and my breath caught as the arrow juddered in parallel with my movement. I raised my hand to cup it beneath his palm. The second my skin touched his, the arrow disappeared, and the dial glowed bright.

---