Page 373 of Heat of the Everflame

“Who cares what their blood is, you spineless coward,” she barked. “You’re as evil a person as any Descended could be.”

He reached up to grab her, and I flicked a finger to bind his arm with cords of light. She took advantage, jabbing him repeatedly while he flailed in pain on the ground.

“My Diem would likeyou,” I told her. I cringed as her heel stomped between Vance’s legs. Repeatedly. “She’d like youa lot.”

She wiped the sweat from her forehead and offered me the sword. “You’ll handle him from here?”

“Happily,” I answered.

I took my blade, feeling a sense of victory as it finally returned to my grip. I’d never cared much for the Sword of Corbois—the day King Ulther passed it to me, appointing me as the future head of House Corbois, whatever small fondness my father had for me came to an end.

And, secretly, I agreed with Diem. Itwasembarrassingly gaudy.

But every now and then, I caught her staring sadly at my shoulder where its hilt used to rise. I missed the light in her eyes when she teased me for it. If wearing this tacky sword would win that back, it was worth any cost.

My eyes snapped up. A column of light and shadow rose into the sky. There were other Lumnos Descended here, but I knew on some primal level that this magic belonged toher—and it was meant forme.

I wrapped Vance into a cocoon of shadow vines and dragged him behind me. I would have preferred to kill him—ideally in a slow, exceedingly painful way—but my Queen wouldn’t want that. I already knew she would set him free. There was no heart so dark that she didn’t believe she could bring it back into the light.

I dreaded what this war might do to her capacity for hope. So I would do everything I could to nurture it, even if it meant sparing the life of a scumbag like Vance that my own dark heart would happily kill.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked.

“To my Queen. You can beg her for mercy.”

“I’m not begging that cunt for a damn th—”

His words were interrupted by my fist smashing into his face. Selfishly, I allowed myself a few more blows, savoring the crunch of his bones beneath my knuckles and the spray of his blood on my skin.

Damn, that felt good.

“Insult her again, and even my Queen’s orders won’t be enough to keep me from ending you.”I smacked a patch of shadow magic over his mouth to cover his gurgling response. The only way he was making it back to Diem alive was if he didn’t utter another word.

I swung back to the street to resume my return.

My Queen needed me.

And I would always answer her call.

I gasped,jerking from Luther’s grasp and stumbling backward until my back pressed against the wall.

“You still think I abandoned you today?” The hurt my words had left behind darkened his tone.

I shook my head, unable to speak. I knew he loved me, but to feel firsthand the strength of his devotion and the depth of his respect...

And he’d been right about it all—how I would have felt, what I would have wanted. The whole time, he’d been exactly where I needed him to be.

As he always had been. As he always would be.

He prowled toward me. “Be angry all you want, Diem. Ignore me. Shove me away. Give me your worst. I’ll take it. In fact, Ilikeit. You’re fucking gorgeous when you’re pissed as hell. But if you’re going to punish me, at least admit the real reason why.”

I closed my eyes, unable to bear being so inescapably seen, so entirely known.

“I thought I’d lost youagain,” I whispered weakly. “I’m so sick of being scared, Luther. Sometimes it feels like the Kindred are taking the one thing that brings me joy and dangling it over a cliff, waiting to see how many times they can pretend to drop you before I throw myself over just to make it stop.”

“If they drop me, I’ll just grow wings andfly.” He took my hand and raised it to my chest, then pressed something metallic into my palm—the pendant he’d given me, etched with the sigil of House Corbois. “I’m a phoenix, remember? I’ll rise again and again. As many times as it takes to get back to your side.”

My fist squeezed around the golden disc. The spark of his magic imbued inside it pulsed warm against my skin.

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