Page 2 of Burn of the Everflame

“It’s not worry. No matter how often this world tries to tear her down, Diem always finds a way to survive.”

A touch of pride warmed her face. “Then what is it?”

The truth was too raw, too painful to explain. I dropped the axe and slid my hand into my pocket, rubbing my thumb over the etched case of the whirring golden compass—a gift to Diem from the Meros King at her Ascension Ball. Ever since Diem went to Coeurîle, the compass had slipped into an aimless spin. The island’s ability to block magic was apparently strong enough to thwart the compass’s spell to point toward your heart’s greatest desire.

I told myself that as long as its arrow continued to move, that meant Diem was still trapped. Once it stopped spinning, that meant she was free.

And the second that happened, I would go get my Queen.

“The realms are under siege,” Auralie said. “The ports are barely functioning. The Emarion Army’s a mess—since Diem has the Fortos Crown, no one can agree on who has authority to command it in her absence, and every battalion they send to face Ophiucae never returns. Soon, the Crowns will have to admit they need help.” She glanced over her shoulder at the rebel camp, then lowered her voice. “And we might have just the weapon they’ll need.”

She pulled a small ceramic jar from a pouch at her waist and handed it to me. I pried open the cork stopper, and the smell of citrus and smoke hit my nose as I peered inside at a vibrant scarlet balm.

“Flameroot,” she explained. “The Guardians managed to bring a supply of it from the island, though Vance took much of it when he left.”

My lips twitched with a scowl. Auralie had used the substance for years to hide Diem’s magic, even from Diem herself. Though I knew she’d done it to keep her daughter safe, it had cost Diem the chance to train her magic—a shortcoming that could turn deadly in the coming war.

“It’s a salve, not a tea,” she went on. “My son thinks it might have the same effect when applied to a wound. If Diem smears this on a blade and is able to strike him, it could stop Ophiucae’s magic long enough for us to kill him.”

“Teller made this for you?” I asked.

Auralie looked pained at my surprise. Though her reunion with her son had been teary-eyed and tender, once he’d learned how much she kept from her family over the years, things between them quickly strained.

“I told him it was for Diem. He’d do anything for her.”

My eyes narrowed. “Is it for Diem? Or is this going to end up on the tip of every Guardian weapon?”

She shrugged, her gaze darting away. “That’s up to Diem to decide. It was Teller’s condition to telling me.”

Smart man, I thought, my respect for him rising. “You’re certain this works?”

“Not yet. We need to test it. I was hoping you might be willing to⁠—”

“No,” I snapped.

“Just a small cut⁠—”

“No.”

“I thought you said there was nothing you wouldn’t do for her.”

The jar nearly cracked in my clenched hand. “Do not challenge me on what I would do for your daughter,” I warned. “I’d drive a blade into my own heart if I thought it would help her. Diem could escape at any moment. When she does, she’ll be the target of the most powerful people on the continent. I won’t risk leaving her to fight them alone.”

“She won’t be alone.” She pointed to the camp. “The Guardians captured the port in Meros and the island without Descended help. We’re more skilled than you think.”

“Oh, I’m well aware,” I said, my tone low and lethal. “I watched my guards take their final breaths after burning alive at the hands of the mortal you left in charge in Lumnos—the same man who ran me through with godstone. I know just how skilled at bloodshed Guardians can be.”

The nobler part of me regretted using Vance’s crimes against her. Auralie had been irate when she learned what he’d done with the Guardians in her absence. After hearing how he’d held Diem down and sliced her open to take her blood, Auralie wanted him dead as much as I did.

I drew in a breath, trying to dull the fiery wrath that now seemed to be my baseline state. “Even if I wanted to help you, I can’t. I don’t have my magic outside of Lumnos. Testing it on me will do you no good.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Whatever the Crowns had done on the island, it hadn’t slowed the deterioration of the realm borders or the Forging spell that enforced them. Just like before, my magic occasionally returned in random, temporary bursts—a fact I’d kept to myself.

“Fine,” Auralie conceded. “But if you get your magic back . . . will you let me test it then?”

As if on cue, a familiar prickle of energy tingled in my chest. Like a struck match in a vat of oil, my magic sparked to life, searing through my veins.

My jaw clenched at the timing. I knew what a sign from Blessed Mother Lumnos looked like. For whatever reason, she wanted me to help Auralie.