Page 381 of Heat of the Everflame

“The roof took on damage from the dragonfyre, so Doriel closed the library until someone can make sure it’s safe.”

“But they’re letting usin?”

“We’re the someones making sure it’s safe. Tomorrow when it’s daylight, we’ll go up and look. You can stabilize it with your stone magic, if needed. Until then...” He stepped back and tipped his head to the room. “The library is all yours, Your Majesty.”

My eyes swept across the stacks of books, an endless echo of shelves packed to the brim with rare tomes. The network oflights had been shut off, so Luther had cast hundreds of glowing sparks to wash the cavernous room in soft blue Lumnos light.

This wasn’t just any library. The Library of Sophos contained every book that had ever been written in Emarion. Even when the Crowns had decreed that all books on the mortal religions and histories be destroyed, a handful of copies were set aside for the archives here.

All the secrets of my people that I’d previously been deemedunworthyto know now lay before me, waiting to be plucked and devoured like berries on the vine.

I whimpered. “How do I stop time? One night isn’t nearly enough.”

“You have Sophos magic,” he reminded me. “You need only look at a page to remember it forever.”

My eyes went wide. I could flip through hundreds of books tonight and “read” them in my mind later. This was more than the gift of one night. This wasmonthsof reading material.

I spun to face him. “This is my surprise?”

He smiled faintly. “It is.”

I nearly squealed. I threw myself at him and flung my arms around his neck. If I wasn’t so obliteratingly overjoyed, I would have burst into tears at how much this meant to me.

That he knew me well enough to understand.

That he cared enough to make the effort.

That he was selfless enough to give me this when I knew what he really wanted.

I pulled back. “But what about our night?”

“What about it?”

“Earlier, you... in your memories, you said...” I swallowed thickly. “Tonight, I thought we might...”

“We still can, if you want. Blessed Mother knows I’m ready. But you and I have a lifetime to be together. We might only havethis once.” He set a brief, chaste kiss on my lips. “If finding you has taught me anything, it’s that love is well worth the wait.”

Something shifted in my heart.

Something foundational.

Something permanent.

“Come,” he said, taking my hand. “You haven’t seen the best part.”

We wove through bookshelves and hallways and passed through doors with increasingly strict labels, eventually skirting past a sign readingCrown Access Only. We emerged into a small rotunda that seemed designed to highlight one single, extraordinary door.

The portal was cast from solid bronze and took the form of an enormous tree. It stretched from floor to ceiling with thick roots tangling into steps at its base and jagged branches spreading in a wide embrace across the domed roof. Thousands of glittering red and yellow gemstones set into the metal faintly pulsed with a subtle glow.

“The Everflame,” I breathed.

Luther nodded. “The mortals who built this place claimed it’s lit with embers from the Undying Fire gifted by the Old Gods. Who knows if it’s true, but it’s nice to imagine some part of the Everflame might have survived its destruction. A place we can still visit to pay our respects.”

My eyebrows jumped. “You would honor the Old Gods? Isn’t that blasphemy against Lumnos?”

His expression turned pensive as he admired the shimmering flames. “If mortals and Descended are meant to coexist, why can’t the Kindred and the Old Gods? Why must we choose one and destroy the other? Why can’t there be...” His brows creased. “...balance?”

Balance.

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