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Fight.
A large pool of crimson forming beneath her lower back.
A twisted metal shard, snapped off from a fallen chandelier, protruded from her back.
“I need you to fight, Lily. This is not your time.” Fight, the voice inside me echoed.
A soft glow spilled from beneath the blood-soaked gauze at my palms.
I could still sense the phantom tingling in my palms, the silvery glow that was somehow cold and hot, ice and fire.
Close enough to smell the cedar and leather of his woodsy musk.
But sitting here, in the royal palace, surrounded by Descended—the very situation my mother had spent a lifetime trying to keep me away from—felt like the turning of a page. A goodbye.
Meros, Realm of Sea and Sky,
Faunos, Realm of Beast and Brute, home of Descended who were rumored to be more animal than human.
Arboros, Realm of Root and Thorn.
Montios, Realm of Stone and Ice,
Sophos, Realm of Thought and Spark,
Ignios, Realm of Sand and Flame,
Umbros, Realm of Mind and Secret.
savory: assassins, spies, courtesans, opium dealers, and the like.
Umbros was a haven of darkness and sin, tolerated by the other realms only for fear of its ruthless Queen.
I feel like she is the next in line for this relam
“Well they were born of both the Kindred and mortals. Much as they may deny it, mortal blood will forever run in their veins. What did you expect them to be like?” I shrugged. “Empty. Emotionless.”
He was the one holding his sister, Princess Lilian. They’re the King’s niece and nephew.” Oh, gods. Oh, gods. The man I’d been searching for all this time was Prince Luther.
“Diem... was there only a broken bone? Prince Luther said you saved his sister’s life.”
Hope without reason is... it’s cruel.”
“The bargain was for life, Diem.
“If she doesn’t fulfill the bargain, then her life would be forfeit. She would be executed by the Crown.”
“Prince Luther knows. He’s the one who negotiated it with your mother on behalf of the Crown.”
My mind was a mess.
An unwed mother and her bastard infant.
flameroot. The vial
That bottle was my anger and fear, my anxiety and resentment—all my darkest emotions in tangible form.
Each quiet splash felt like the creaking open of an old, heavy door, its iron hinges rusted from ages of disuse.
Princess Lilian had been so appreciative of my help that she’d given Teller a kiss on the cheek and an open invitation to visit the palace any time.
The Descended had infected our once-thriving kingdom like a virus, infiltrating our homes and our religions, our cities and our universities, only to rise from the ashes of the Blood War and ban mortalkind from the very same realms that mortal hands had built.
Leaving this place behind and making a new life for myself across the continent.
The first to join the passion of physical touch with the intimacy of a kindred spirit.
But I was made of swinging fists and rash words, my edges too jagged and my temper too hot. Nothing about me was delicate.
I wanted to burn.
I threw back my head, and I gave my body to the inferno. And I burned.
And I wondered how long I had until the fire in my soul burned me alive.
Only it wasn’t her at all. It was my mother’s body, her fiery hair, her aged hands—but staring back at me, silver eyes wild with terror, was my own face.
Beware of answered prayers.
To be disarmed is to court death.
As the voice inside me purred in anxious anticipation, a burning sensation pricked at my skin.
I looked down to see my hands aglow with a silvery light, my fingers twitching in surprise.
I refused to let this be my end.
Destroy. A blinding flash glowed red through my clenched eyelids. A
Understanding crashed into me. I had felt these things once before in my life, a long time ago. A time I’d tried desperately to forget.
If my theory was right, nothing was safe from its touch.
A gnarled tree, with leaves of flame, inset in a circlet of vines—the sacred Everflame, the Tree of Life and Death.
all life began as sparks from the Everflame that fell to the earth as glowing seeds. At death, those found worthy by the Old Gods would be placed among its burning branches, where their earthly bodies would turn to ash but their souls would remain forever warmed by the Undying Fire.
Descended’s abilities being tied to the soil of their realm of origin—or as they called it, their terremère.
“Ow!” I yelped as a painful current shot through my body. “What was that?”
The border!! Magic that’s her realm
