Page 308 of Heat of the Everflame

The Fortos commander.The same one we’d fought at the Lumnos palace—the same man who had launched a bolt at us with the aim to kill.

The others threw back their cloaks. More soldiers. More weapons, many tipped with glittering black.

“The Regent of Lumnos ordered you to stay in Lumnos and turn over that gryvern,” he called out.

I rolled my eyes dramatically to hide my relief that they hadn’t heard the news of what I’d done in Fortos. “If Remis wants my gryvern, he can get her himself. I’m not stopping her.” I glanced at Sorae. “Do you want to go serve Remis?”

She snarled loudly, and I looked back to the man with a smirk and a shrug.

“It doesn’t matter what either of you want,” he said coolly. “You defied the Lumnos Crown’s orders. That makes you subject to arrest.”

“Sheis the Lumnos Crown,” Luther shot back. “My father is a usurper. And this is Montios, not Lumnos. The army can’t enforce his orders here.”

The man chuckled with disquieting triumph. “Well then, ifsheis the Crown, then she’s subject to arrest for visiting a foreign realm uninvited. Either way, she’s coming with me.”

I stared at the wave of sharp godstone pointed at me—and more importantly, at Luther. “If my gryvern and I go with you, will you let my Prince remain here?”

Luther’s head snapped to me. “Diem, no.”

I didn’t look at him, only the Fortos commander, whose hateful grin continued to grow. “Only if you come peacefully. If you resist,hepays the price.”

I nodded slowly and walked toward him. Luther moved to block me, and the commander’s finger tightened on the trigger of his crossbow.

“Stop,” I begged. My eyes stayed on the commander, but my plea was all for my Prince.

Stay with my mother, I said into his thoughts with the last tiny shreds of my magic.Get her to Teller.

“Don’t do this,” he begged.

I cleared my throat. “Sorae, return to the Lumnos palace. Once you’re there, obey Remis’s commands as if they were my own.”

Her steps were heavy and sluggish, as if she was fighting against the magic that bound her to my orders, even knowing her protests were in vain. With a hung head and a heartbroken whirr, she leapt into the sky, disappearing into the clouds a few moments later.

I couldn’t bear to look at Luther as I strode forward and offered up my wrists. The commander grabbed them and jerked me forward, nearly sending me tumbling down a rocky slope.

“You hurt a hair on her head,” Luther growled, “and I will hunt you down and remove yours from your neck.”

The commander chuckled, unmoved by his threats. One of his men clamped shackles to my arms and ankles.

“Oh, and one more little thing,” he said to me casually. Too casually. “We’ll be executing your mother before we go.”

“No,” I breathed.

He raised his crossbow to my chest, the godstone tip so close it snagged the fabric. “Go into the cave and get the prisoner,” he barked at his men. “Tell her if she fights back, her daughter dies. If the Prince fights back, theyalldie.”

The soldiers stormed by Luther, taunting him with jeers and vulgar promises of what they might do to my mother before she died, trying to goad him into a reaction so they’d have an excuse to fulfill their leader’s threat. But Luther, my valiant Prince, held silent and strong, his smoldering focus on the godstone bolt at my chest.

As the men reached the cave, a slow rumble filled the air. The ground began to tremble, and I staggered to stay upright as the quakes turned violent.

“What the hell are you doing?” the commander shouted.

The ground jerked beneath him, sending him crashing into my side and jolting the crossbow’s trigger. I sucked in a breath as the bowstring twanged—then gasped in relief as the arrow hit the stone ground and snapped in half.

I tumbled forward, wincing at the crack of my knees against jagged rock. The strange creaking sound I’d heard at Rymari’s gravesite cut through the chaos.

Then, the rumbling stopped. The earth stilled.

“Fortos’s cock,” a soldier swore. “How’d she dothat?”

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