Page 42 of Burn of the Everflame

“Go back to camp,” Auralie told her son. “You’ll be safe there. They’re not targeting mortals.”

She reached for him, and he jerked back. “I’m not running to safety while everyone else is in danger.”

“Teller, this is no time to argue.” Her voice was firm but hoarse from the still-fresh loss. “Go back to camp.”

“Father didn’t teach me to turn my back on people who need help. Neither did my sister.” His tone turned sharper. “Until today, neither did you.”

Auralie flinched.

“Where’s Lily?” I asked him.

“She left when I tried to speak with her.” He looked around in a panic. “She could be in danger. I have to find her.”

“The cousins were told to gather the children and flee through the canals,” Eleanor said. “I’m sure Lily went there to help.”

My stomach dropped. Months ago, Diem confessed that she’d shown the secret canal entrance to Henri, her then-betrothed. Though she might have seen good in him, I had not. If there was any chance he’d joined Ophiucae’s army . . .

“The canals can’t be trusted,” I said. “Go to the dungeons instead. Use shadow magic to stay hidden.”

Eleanor and Taran exchanged an alarmed look.

“We can’t,” she said. “The dungeons are full.”

“Those Crown-wearing pricks arrested half of Mortal City,” Taran growled. “Locked the mortals up without charges.”

“Your father tried to stop them,” Eleanor rushed on. “The Crowns said the cease-fire only applied to mortals who confessed to being a Guardian, and none of them did.”

Her ashamed expression spoke the words she didn’t: We failed her. We promised to protect them, and we failed her.

I knew the feeling.

“Take the children to my chambers,” I ordered. “The doors are fortified. Lily’s blood will open the bloodlocks.” My stare cut to Teller. “So will yours. Find my sister and keep her safe.”

He ran to the other room and began gathering hidden blades from beneath cushions and under tables, then darted into his old bedroom, reemerging with an armored breastplate and a few more knives. My heart reeled. It was just like his sister—perhaps even her doing.

Taran’s brows rose high. “Lu, your room . . . are you sure?”

I’d always been intensely private about my chambers. There were too many secrets hidden there that could destroy me. Even Taran and Lily had never been invited inside.

No one had.

Not until Diem.

Thankfully, I’d hidden everything incriminating before I last left Lumnos. I knew I might never return, and the secrets I kept risked more lives than my own.

I nodded to Taran. “Get the children to safety, then you and Zalaric find Alixe. She’s going to need every strong Descended she can get.”

Taran grabbed some knives from Teller, and they ran from the suite with Eleanor following closely behind. Auralie and I remained on the terrace. Her gaze stayed fixed on the palace gates, mine lurking in the skies. Though his aura was approaching, there was still no sign of the man that had fathered my Queen.

His soldiers, however, were impossible to miss. They emerged from the trees in a wave, cloaked in his shield. Their numbers had grown exponentially since the battle in Sophos. The handful of men we’d faced that day had become an army, and more were still arriving.

Auralie’s eyes narrowed as she scanned their faces. She paused periodically to shake her head or let out a short, disappointed sigh. “I didn’t realize how many of my Guardians had chosen to join him.”

“He’s offering them what they’ve always wanted—revenge.”

“That isn’t the Guardians’ goal. We want an end to the Descended’s reign, not a slaughter of the Descended themselves.”

“Would you feel that way if Diem wasn’t one of us?”