Page 218 of Burn of the Everflame

I blinked. Whatever I’d thought he might say, it wasn’t that.

“I share your surprise,” he went on. “When I made those threats, I had every intention of following through. Then I heard that the Crowns locked you up on that island like they did to me. When you stepped in front of my magic in Lumnos, for a moment, I believed I’d killed you, and I felt . . .” His expression turned stormy. “I don’t wish to be the enemy to you that my mother was to me.”

Though I fought it with all my strength, I could not stop the fracture in my heart from opening a little wider.

He rose sharply to his feet. “Put her in the cell,” he said to a pair of nearby mortals.

“Wait,” I protested, “why did you bring me here?”

“Nothing will stop me from seeing my plans through,” he called out as he walked away. “Not even you.”

The two mortals grabbed me, and I thrashed against their hold. Two more ran over to help, each one seizing a limb and dragging me along the rough stone of the ruined streets.

“Stop fighting,” one of them growled.

“Never,” I growled back. I yanked a leg free and swung it toward his head.

“You’re only going to get yourself hurt,” someone else yelled out.

That voice—that familiar voice, the same one I’d heard on the boat. I froze and looked toward it just in time for the hilt of a sword to smash into my temple. Stars exploded in my vision, and my body went limp. As they carried me away, my daze cleared enough to reveal a brown-eyed man standing in the street, watching me go.

Henri Albanon.

Ophiucae’s newest recruit.

49

DIEM

Iwas still reeling from the sight of my former betrothed when Ophiucae’s men hurled me into a giant cage.

“Why won’t he let us kill ’em?” a man grumbled.

“He’s weak when it comes to her,” another said, locking the door behind me. “That’s gonna be a problem.”

The other men muttered in agreement as they strode away. I ran to the cage door and kicked, hoping that even without my magic, my Descended strength might be enough to force it open, but it didn’t budge.

“It’s Fortosian steel,” someone said behind me. Their voice was hoarse and unraveled, like someone who’d just done a great deal of screaming. “Don’t waste your time.”

I turned to see a pair of dull pink eyes staring from the corner of the cage. Their smooth-shaven head and anguished expression told me which Sophos Descended had been spared.

“Doriel,” I breathed. “You’re alive?”

The walls of the building that once housed the cell had been blasted away, leaving it exposed to the open air. From its place halfway up the hill, I could see every mile of smoking rubble that had once been the realm’s shining capital. I realized with horror that Ophiucae had not spared Doriel at all. He’d condemned them to a far more agonizing fate—watching helplessly while their city, and its people, fell.

I had often prayed to see Doriel as thoroughly broken as my time on Coeurîle had left me. The vengeful god who’d granted my wish wasn’t the ones I’d prayed to. It was the one who had given me life.

“Are any of my people still alive?” Doriel rasped.

Though I’d wished for Doriel’s destruction, I took no pleasure in delivering its final blow: “No.”

A heart-rending sound cracked out of them, a guttural sob that frayed with the pain of a soul being ripped to its threads. “You should have killed me in Lumnos. I wish you had.”

Arms still chained behind me, I awkwardly sat on the floor beside them. Though Doriel stiffened at first, I gently leaned my head against theirs, and the dam broke, a flood of grief surging out. Their delicate body shuddered while we sank together in an ocean of their tears—one for each soul that neither of us had been a strong enough Crown to save.

I noticed Doriel gripping their side and looking pained. “Are you hurt?”

They shook their head, then pulled up their shirt to reveal a silvery mark on their ribs.