Page 37 of Burn of the Everflame

“That was done after we passed,” Ignios said. “We wished to live alongside the mortals, not eliminate them.”

“That’s not entirely true, sister, is it?” Umbros said. “We bid our children to intermarry with the mortals and repopulate our kind in this world.”

I balked. “You wanted to replace us?”

“Not a replacement—a union,” Arboros said. “Our people and the mortals, becoming one.”

“By breeding us out of existence?”

Faunos shrugged. “It will happen eventually. The stronger blood will always prevail. Such is nature’s way.”

“Now you sound like our youngest,” Meros muttered.

At that comment, they all went quiet.

“You’re all a bunch of monsters,” I said. “Selfish, arrogant monsters. You came to our world and you thought you knew better than the people who lived here. You thought your magic, your Crowns, your blood, even your names were better. The mortals thrived before you came. We had communities full of art and learning, too. We had our own gods, our own history, and the most beautiful stories. You didn’t take any of the bad parts from our world—the wars or the disease, the distrust of anything different. You just erased the parts that made it ours.” Emotion choked me. “Maybe compared to whatever world you came from, ours was no special thing, but it was special to us. You took away our home, and we’ve filled the Sacred Sea with blood trying to get it back.”

Umbros folded his arms and leaned against his arch, a troubled look in his eyes. “Ironic, isn’t it?” he murmured. “We became the very same evil that we fled.”

“You carry our blood, too, girl,” Fortos told me crossly.

I scowled. “Don’t remind me. You think I’d be related to you by choice?”

Faunos chuckled. “I’m starting to like her. She doesn’t kneel like the rest.”

“There were others like her.” Meros flashed a wide grin. “I married one of them. He put two blades through my gut and one in my thigh before we⁠—”

The other Kindred collectively groaned.

“We know, sister,” Arboros said. “You retell the story of how you conceived your firstborn at least twenty times a century.”

“We had such delicious fights, he and I.” Meros’s laughter faded, and her features turned pained. “Oh, how I miss him.”

“We all miss our mates,” Lumnos said softly.

The shadow of loss darkened their moods. Even the prickly Fortos and flippant Faunos seemed taken by sorrow that blunted my temper’s edge.

“I thought you gave up your immortality to be with them,” I said.

Anger rippled across their faces. Scattered eyes shifted to Sophos, then around to one another.

Montios offered her hand. “This is the story we’ve come to tell you, Daughter of the Forgotten. Will you hear it?”

A sudden gust of wind fluttered my hair across my cheeks, and a memory rose of the joyride Sorae and I had taken through the clouds over the lavender mountains of Montios’s realm. I thought of Rymari—the gryvern whose grave we’d paused at to pay respects.

I met the stony stare of Umbros, whose gryvern’s corpse lay rotting and alone, another victim in the long saga of the Kindred’s curse. Once again, he seemed to see right through my thoughts. His eyes closed in grief-stricken understanding.

My jaw tightened. “No. I don’t want to hear a word any of you have to say.”

Fortos grunted. “I knew it was a mistake to give her our Crowns. We never should have chosen her over our own.”

“You think I want this?” I jabbed a finger at the four-peaked Crown floating over my head. “All these have done is cause me pain. They’re the reason my father is dead and I’m stuck here.” I let out a disgusted noise. “Freeze in hell, the lot of you.”

I stormed past Umbros on a warpath toward the stairs. I was halfway down when I heard his voice.

“Would you like to get unstuck?”

I stilled mid-step. “Are you saying you can get me off this island?”