Page 345 of Heat of the Everflame

“Because we—oh, would you like to see the laboratory where my mother works?” He didn’t wait for a response, tugging me enthusiastically toward the doors.

“Stuart, what did you mean by—” I sucked in a breath as we spilled out into the open air and another brush of the powerful aura coated my skin.

Stuart tugged me closer, leaning his face in to mine. “Diem, are you alright?”

Luther put his palm on Stuart’s face and shoved him away. “Off,” he snarled. “I’ll escort myQueen from here.”

Stuart squeaked and shrank back. Luther met my reproachful look with a possessive glare, gripping my ass in a way that communicated loud and clear he intended to do more thanescortme. I considered scolding his coarse manners, but watching him get worked up over a mortal teen was giving me fodder to tease him for weeks to come.

And there might be the tiniest possibility that my shameless, utterly reprehensible heart was twirling at being so passionately claimed.

“Do you feel that aura?” he hummed in my ear.

“I thought it was you,” I whispered back.

“No. My magic is still locked down.”

I tensed. “Then who?”

“I don’t know. With you and Doriel nearby, it’s hard to tell where it’s coming from. Close, I think.”

I glanced nervously at the horizon north of the city, scouring the distant Ring Road for any sign that Ophiucae and the Guardians might have followed us, but I saw only endless fields of golden grass shimmering in the wind.

We followed Stuart to a glass-paneled dome filled with an impressive variety of plants. I perked up as I realized mostwere rare medicinal herbs that usually could only be grown in Arboros.

“My mother works here in the greenhouse,” Stuart said. “They’re trying to breed hardier versions of these plants to grow in other soils and climates. If they can do it—”

“—then more people can get access to them,” I finished excitedly. “That’s incredible. Is it working?”

He grinned and turned to face me, walking backward. “It is. My mother’s a genius. She just created a strain of eelwood that—oh, I’m so sorry!” He spun around as he collided into the back of a towering, weapon-laden man.

The man turned. “It’s alright, don’t worry about—” He froze. “Your Majesty?”

“Perthe?” I choked out. “What are you doing in Sophos?”

He hastily saluted and bowed. “Keeping my oath. I swore to you I wouldn’t leave his side.”

I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of why a member of my personal guard was dawdling in a Sophos greenhouse. “Wouldn’t leavewhoseside?”

He stepped to the right, revealing a pair of Sophos Descended chatting with a young man.

My blood ran cold. Though his back was to me, I’d know that familiar auburn hair from miles away.

“Your brother, Your Majesty,” Perthe said. “Teller accepted an invitation to study in Sophos.”

Chapter

Sixty-Six

“Teller?”

“Diem?”

My brother and I gaped at each other in blinking, blank-faced shock.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Remis sent me here to—” He paused, his eyes darting to Luther, then Stuart, then back to me. “Where is she?”

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