Page 301 of Burn of the Everflame

Symond looked at me like I was next. I raised my shield, refusing to leave. He scowled and skulked toward the campfire, standing beside it and staring into the flames.

I watched him, wondering if Drusila had been closer to the truth than she realized. “I know grief,” I called out to him. “The specific kind that comes from an unjust death. The way it eats away at you, thinking of all that could have been done to prevent it. It took my sister’s birth to make me care about living again. She needed me to be more than my loss. Your people need you, too.”

“I should make you walk into this fire and burn alive,” he mumbled. “You’re the real reason he’s dead.”

He? I wondered.

Symond stared down at his hands, working his jaw, then let out a grumpy huff. “Call your bitch Queen back. There might be a way to make it work.”

I pushed down the urge to saw off his tongue with something rusty and sent a flare of light magic to catch Diem’s eye. I waved her back, and she returned with the others.

Symond leaned in close to Alixe, studying the black smears on her forehead. “The placement is wrong. Our bones are infused with our magic. It makes them harder to penetrate.” He brushed a fingertip just below her brow. “You need it here. Over the eyes.”

Teller dipped his hand into the mixture and held it up. Alixe nodded her consent, and Teller dabbed the sparkling black paste over her eyelids.

“Here too,” Symond said, pointing to her temples. “That’s the thinnest part of the skull, where it’s easiest to get through.” Teller added more paste, creating a thick stripe across her face. Symond’s head tilted. “Walk away,” he said, voice thrumming with compulsion.

Alixe held still for a moment, then shook her head. “No,” she said firmly.

Symond held his palms out at her temples. “Walk away,” he ordered again.

Alixe clenched her jaw. “I feel the magic telling my body to obey. It’s weaker than before—I can resist it.”

Symond nodded. “There are still ways to get through, but they require more focus. Ophiucae won’t be able to capture a large group of Descended at once. It won’t do much for the mortals, though. Without magic, their skulls are as easy to get through as air. Same with Diem. The only way to make that muck work for her is to drown her in it.” He flashed an icy smirk. “I’ll help.”

Alixe looked at Teller. “It’s hard to use my magic with the godstone touching my skin. Is there a way to fix that?”

Teller thought for a moment. “We could put a barrier between the godstone and your skin. Something like wax.” He looked warily at Symond. “I’ll need to run more tests.”

Symond sighed. “You have one hour. Then I’m using my magic on myself to forget all of you exist.”

The others took off at a sprint for the palace, leaving Diem and I alone with Symond. “Thank you for your help,” she told him. “This will save many lives.”

“Not the ones that matter,” he mumbled as he turned toward the fire, giving us his back.

Diem watched him with a frown. “In Umbros, the man I saw in your thoughts . . . was he a friend? Something more?”

“You’re pushing your luck,” Symond warned.

She chewed on her lip, frown deepening. There was a wound in Symond that I could tell she wanted badly to heal. “Whoever he was, I’m sorry for what happened. I wish I’d known sooner what my blood could do. I wish so many things had been different.”

Symond’s eyes lifted toward the evening sky, where the black of night was beginning to lighten with the coming dawn. “You are the moon, Diem Bellator. You shine so bright, yet darkness follows wherever you go.”

Diem’s gaze dropped, features pinched with a tumultuous mix of emotions I couldn’t make sense of through our bond. “There’s someone I’d like you to see while we wait for Teller.”

“Oh good,” Symond said dryly. “More helping.”

She led us back into the palace, and my heart dropped when she turned for the dungeon. There was only one prisoner in these cells, and I knew immediately why we were here. She slipped her hand out of mine as we descended the stairs.

“Wait here,” she told us.

She walked down the long corridor and stopped in front of a cell at the end, murmuring quiet words. I warred with the urge to drag her away and protect her from what I knew this would bring. Symond eyed me, his interest apparently piqued. Diem unlocked the cell door, then disappeared inside.

“You can come,” she called out.

Symond began to stride forward, and I stopped him with a hand to his chest. “Slowly,” I warned.

“Should I be raising my shield?” he asked.