Page 165 of Heat of the Everflame

My temper prickled. These Kindred, with their divine egos, had defaced our home and rebuilt it in homage to themselves. My interest in anything they had to say was rapidly dying.

I gave a cursory, half-hearted skim of the books in the cases, mostly fawning biographies of the Kindred written by the earliest Descended. Only one item piqued my attention—a small, well-worn notebook on a lavender pillow. Unlike the others, there was no label for its contents.

I lifted the lid and gingerly picked it up. The inside was all handwritten in a fluid, elegant scrawl without dates or sections. I flipped to an early page at random and began reading:

The locals, too, are at war. The hate reminds us of home and all we have lost. It grieves me. I do not wish these people to know the despair we have seen.

We try to help them with our gifts. We end their diseases and feed their hungry. They call us their saviors and bow to us as gods. My siblings welcome it. I do not.

They even gave us names in their language. They call me Montios, for my love of their beautiful mountains.

I gasped.

This was the diary of aKindred.

I’d always known they existed—the Descended were proof of that—but it was oddly disconcerting to imagine them not as gods but as people, each with thoughts and feelings of their own.

I flipped to another page:

When Lumnos fell, it was expected. Her heart is a soft place where love thrives. Nor were Meros or Umbros any surprise. They are drawn to pleasure, and we have all been lonely for so long.

My siblings and I warned them against their unions. Then our eldest fell. Sophos, our guiding light! I could not believe it.

Though it may have been I who sealed our fate. I have always preferred solitude over the company of others. Once I found my love, that changed. When he and I steal away on Rymari to the mountains, I feel the peace I have always longed for.

Every day, our beloveds age. The thought haunts us all. Sophos believes there may be a way to bind their short lives to ours.

Whatever the cost is, I will pay it. An eternity with him is worth the highest price.

A chill skittered over my skin. Montios had hoped to give her lover eternal life—instead, she’d sacrificed her own immortality to age and die at his side. She had indeed paid the ultimate price, but in a twisted way she hadn’t expected.

I’d made a similar vow earlier to the Queen—to sacrifice everything for my goal. Was I destined for the same fate?

I flipped to the end and frowned. The final section had been ripped out, leaving shredded edges along the center as evidence. I thumbed back a few pages and began reading:

The locals are grateful, though some resent our presence. They fear Lumnos’s unborn child, as well as the life growing in Fortos’s mate. What role will our descendants play in this new world?

There is a plan, but our youngest will not agree. Our lives are shorter now. We must persuade him before our time expires.

I confess, some days I fear him. What happened in our homeland did not scare him, as it should have. Instead, he speaks of it with reverence. Even our Mo—

“Your Majesty?”

My head snapped up. Symond leaned against the doorway, head cocked and smiling. His shirt from earlier was missing, and his skin was coated in dried blood.

“What happened?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”

His smile pulled wider. “It’s not my blood. But your concern is noted.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whose blood is it?”

“Someone who should have known better than to cross the Queen of Umbros.” He stood upright and jerked his chin. “Come. There are Centenaries waiting in your quarters to help you dress for dinner.”

“Have you seen this?” I breathed, holding up the diary. “This was written by aKindred.”

“I have not. I’m not allowed to step within this room.” His smile tightened. “I didn’t think anyone was, save for Her Majesty.”

I reluctantly set the book down in its case and closed the glass lid, then left the room, locking the door behind me with Yrselle’s key.

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