Page 222 of Heat of the Everflame

Put that in his hand, he’d said.It calms him to know he can always find you.

I grabbed the compass and flipped it open in a frantic prayer that its magic might lead me to a last-minute solution, but its quivering red dial only pointed to Luther, just as it had every time I’d looked at it since the night of the Challenging.

“What is it?” Lily asked, looking hopeful.

My shoulders sagged as my hand flopped to my side. “Nothing. It’s noth—”

The compass shuddered with a strange whirring sound. I looked at it again and squinted, then glanced up, my eyes following the line of its arrow to Luther—then further, to an area of the room just beyond him.

“What’s going on?” Remis asked.

“I’m not sure,” I mumbled. I stood up and walked around the bed. Remis and Avana began pelting me with questionsand demands, but I didn’t listen, my brows dipping as I strode toward my desk.

I’d thrown everything off it when I arrived, but one object had escaped my sweep. Another vial—this one a dark emerald green, a gift from the Arboros Queen at my Ascension Ball.

I turned to Remis, interrupting him mid-sentence. “Arboros—do they have a cure for godstone toxin?”

“You’re asking thisnow?”

“Answer the question,” I shot back.

He looked at his son and sighed. “No, they do not. Arboros and Sophos have been researching it for centuries.”

“Is it possible they lied? Maybe they found one but kept it secret for only their use?”

“Unlikely. A cure would give them all the leverage they could ever want over the other Crowns. They could trade it for any demand they pleased.”

I looked back at the vial on my desk, my frown curving deeper. The Arboros Descended had claimed the potion could cure any disease—except for ailments sent directly from the gods.

“What are you looking at?” Remis asked.

I didn’t respond.

“Answer me,” he snapped.

My fists clenched at his entitled tone, aggravating the gash I’d cut in my palm and sending a fresh torrent of blood dripping from my hand. I snatched the vial from my desk and whipped back around to hiss some furious reply—then stopped stone-still at the sound of aclick.

A burst of heat shot up my arm. I slowly raised my palms and unfurled my fingers. In one hand, the vial from Arboros. In the other, the compass—its arrow now missing, the blood-smeared dial aglow with a brilliant light.

The compass’s sign that I’d just found what my heart most desired.

Numb and stunned, I shuffled back to Luther. My body moved on its own, my mind trapped outside myself, watching each step with bated breath. My hands uncorked the Arboros vial and raised it to Luther’s mouth, letting the tonic trickle down his throat.

When only a handful of drops remained, I swore and jerked it back. I’d assumed it was meant to be swallowed—but I didn’t know for sure.

I peeled the soiled gauze from his wound and grimaced at the grey, decaying flesh. I turned the vial over and shook it hard as blood splattered from my hand across his skin. I scraped my fingers inside the glass to collect every last drop, then pressed them directly into his wound, the healer inside me cringing at the crude yet effective method.

“What was that?” Lily asked. “Will it help him? Or...” She swallowed. “Is it like the other vial?”

I had neither honesty nor false hope to offer. I gave a vacant blink and shook my head. “I truly don’t know.”

We shared a long look, neither of us saying any more.

I crawled into the bed beside him and laid my cheek over his chest to listen for his heartbeat. It was unchanged—still weak, still struggling.

Lily followed suit and nestled into his other side. She tucked under his arm and set her head on his shoulder. She reached out for me, and I took her hand, our fingers entwining as they lay joined on his chest.

I closed my eyes and focused on the rhythm of his heart—the one I cherished more deeply than any other.

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