Page 391 of Heat of the Everflame

“Diem?”

My eyes shot up.

“The bonded bargain?” Doriel’s brows lifted. “You still want me to talk to Meros, don’t you? I doubt they’ll vote in your favor without my urging.”

I forced myself to breathe and willed my hammering heart to quiet.

I couldn’t risk making accusations. Ineededthat vote from Meros. I certainly wouldn’t get support from Ignios or Umbros, and Faunos was too much of a wild card to risk my mother’s fate on.

After the ritual, I could find the Sophos representatives, force my way into their minds to get the truth—and if Doriel did have a hand in my father’s death, my war would start much earlier than planned.

I clenched my jaw and banished my magic. “Right. The bargain.”

Doriel nicked their thumb, drawing a spot of blood, then offered the knife to me.

With shaky hands, I gripped the hilt. “You vow to do everything you can to convince the Meros King to vote for a pardon for me and my mother? And you’ll recommend the other Crowns do the same?”

“I will. And you... do you swear that you didn’t know about the attack on the island or the attack on my realm—and you vow to kill the man who led it?”

I nodded stiffly, then raised the blade to my palm.

And froze.

Luther was right—I didn’t want to kill Ophiucae.

Andrei’s murder had left a gaping hole in my heart, and though no one could ever replace him, I missed having a father in my life.

Wasn’t Ophiucae my father, too—by blood, if nothing else? He had marked me with his sigil to protect me against his people’s attacks, and he’d asked me to rule at his side. He had even spared the people of Sophos when he could have simply killed me and finished the job. Perhaps I was something more to him than just the woman who broke his chains.

I wanted to try to save him. I wanted a chance to understand him. Maybe even tolovehim.

My gaze locked on the blade in my hand, so similar to the one that had taken my father’s life. That loss had nearly destroyed me. What would this one do to my soul—especially if I was the one who dealt the killing blow?

The knot in my gut tightened.

But maybe Luther was also right that Ophiucae couldn’t be redeemed. He’d killed innocent Descended and taken their children gods knew where. His violent hatred of the Descended might be woven too deep to ever be unspooled.

And I had a duty to protect the people of Emarion—whatever the cost.

My eyes briefly closed.

War is death and misery and sacrifice.War is making choices that haunt you for the rest of your days.

I sliced the blade across my palm.

Our hands clasped, and a spark of my magic sank beneath Doriel’s skin and theirs into mine. The sensation of shackles clamped tight around my wrist.

My fate was sealed.

And now, so was Ophiucae’s.

Chapter

Seventy-Four

“How much longer are we going to wait, Sophos?” the Ignios King griped. “We can’t complete a ritual with only five Crowns.”

Doriel didn’t answer, too busy whispering with the Meros King, their heads stooped, their eyes repeatedly darting my way.

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