Page 198 of Heat of the Everflame

I craned my head to see more clearly and let out the tiniest sigh. Luther and Taran were invisible, cloaked behind what I guessed was Alixe’s illusion.

But my relief was cruelly cut short.

Trickles of crimson blood dripped seemingly from mid-air and pooled on the floor. Luther’s wound must have already seeped through the new dressings—a fact that terrified me almost as much as realizing I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.

The gryvern gazed at the ruby splatters, tendrils of smoke curling around the end of its snout. With each new drip, it followed the trail upward, stopping eye-level with where I knew Luther’s wound must be. The creature’s lips curled back, its fangs bared. A harrowing growl reverberated through the silence.

Its jaw cracked open, and a dark glow began to swirl in its throat.

Dragonfyre.

I shoved the curtain aside.

“Looking for me?” I yelled across the room.

The gryvern’s head twisted back to face me, its slitted pupils growing wide.

Luther’s voice called my name, then cut off with a strangled sound—Taran’s intervention, no doubt.

“I’m the one you want,” I shouted. “Come over here and face me.”

The creature leapt toward me and crossed the expansive room in a handful of strides. I straightened my shoulders, refusing to cower, even as my hands trembled at my sides.

The gryvern stretched its head high and its wings wide to show off its impressive size. Fire-warmed breath brushed across my skin.

“I have no desire to hurt you. Or her.”

The gryvern watched me, giving no reaction.

“You can let us go. Fly away, pretend you’ve seen nothing. Your Queen will never know.”

Hot smoke hissed in my face in unhappy response.

“Fine. Tell her, then. But I beg of you, give me a head start—enough to avoid a battle so your Queen does not get hurt.”

The beast crouched back onto its haunches, seeming to weigh my pleas against its orders.

I took a risk and stepped forward. “You know she’s going to die soon, don’t you?”

Its golden eyes dimmed as its wings lowered almost imperceptibly.

“You gryverns can sense it, can’t you? The coming of a new Crown.” I edged forward another step. “I don’t want her to die, either. I want us to be allies. Look at my intentions—do you see it in me? Do you see that I only desire peace?”

Its gaze lowered to my chest as if it was reading my heart right through my skin. Its wings folded back against its body.Slowly, carefully, I raised my palm to its snout, letting my hand hover for a knee-shaking moment before I set it on the gryvern’s rough scales.

“Help me,” I pleaded. “Let me escape, and I will protect her as best I can.”

A tense, quiet moment passed between us. A ripple passed across its muscular body, and I felt the faintest press of its snout against my hand.

I let out a heavy breath. “Thank you. You w—”

Thump, thump, thump.

The gryvern and I looked toward the terrace in unison, then back at each other, two sets of wide eyes.

“It’s only my gryvern,” I rushed out. “She means no harm, I swear, she—”

A pulse of terror shot through the bond from Sorae as she swooped low in the sky and caught sight of me standing beneath the Umbros gryvern’s bared fangs. She speared for the balcony with a piercing war cry that promised death and destruction on my behalf.

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