Page 297 of Heat of the Everflame

“You said you’re building an army,” Runa called out. “What if we decide we want to join it after all?”

A true smile brightened my face, and the void inside me eased the smallest bit.

“Go home for now,” I said. “Tell your families you’re safe and hold the ones you love. When you’re ready to fight... come find me.”

Once they were finally out of sight, we returned to Luther and Sorae. He dismounted and rifled in our bags, tossing me a small blade to replace the ones we’d left behind in Fortos and my mother a hooded cloak to stay hidden.

“Maybe we should wait here,” I suggested. “Give our magic a few hours to rebuild.”

“You’ll need more than a few hours,” he said. “And they may have seen us land. If we don’t get airborne soon, they might come looking.”

“And if they do, they’ll find the others,” my mother said. “So let’s get going.”

Her tone had taken on that stubborn, emphatic edge that warned against debate, so I reluctantly nodded. Luther mounted and held out an arm to help my mother.

“Move back,” she said archly. “I’ll be sitting behind my daughter, not you.”

His jaw strained. His icy gaze slid to me for confirmation, and I gave a helpless shrug. My mother’s dislike of Luther bothered me more than I’d expected, but at the moment, I was too anxious to mediate and far too tired to care.

He stiffly slid back to make space. “Diem,” he began, “we should really talk ab—”

“You’re veryfamiliarwith my daughter,” she interrupted. “Shouldn’t you address her as ‘Your Majesty’?”

Luther and I both blinked in surprise. I could count on one hand the people brave enough to speak to him that way—and one of them was me.

His brows pulled inward. “Your daughter has permitted me t—”

“Her Majesty,” she corrected.

A low, unhappy noise rolled from his throat.

I managed a weak smile despite my mood. “She has a point, Prince. You are so fond of titles.”

His stare dragged to me. “As you wish, Your Majesty. I certainly wouldn’t want to get toofamiliarwith my Queen.” His eyes darkened with the same ravenous focus I’d felt when he’d stripped me bare in Umbros. I could almost feel the rough gripof his hands as he’d stroked them up my thighs, the heat of his tongue against my skin...

A breathy hum slipped past my lips. My mother shot me a sharp-eyed glare, looking almost like she somehow knew where my mind had been.

Behind her, Luther’s mouth curved up. Hedefinitelyknew where my mind had been.

I cleared my throat. “Hurry up then, let’s go.”

The second my mother and I were mounted, she began prodding at the slashes in my clothes.

“What happened to your wounds?” she asked. “Even Descended don’t heal this fast.”

“I’m not like most Descended,” I said simply, urging Sorae back into flight. “Something you’ve apparently known for a while.”

She offered no response to that.

“There was something you wanted to discuss?” I called out to Luther, already missing the feeling of being tucked within his arms. I regretted not standing up to my mother—now that he and I were apart, my unease had worsened tenfold.

“If we cannot safely land in Lumnos—”

“We will,” my mother and I said at the same time.

A long beat of silence passed.

“Of course, we’ll do our best,” he began again slowly, “but if we cannot do so safely—”

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