Spark of the Everflame (Kindred's Curse, #1)

by Penn Cole

For anyone who has ever been told their spark shouldn’t burn so bright and for all the people who loved them precisely because it did.

“Blessed Forging!” I said sweetly. A long string of crude slurs trailed me as I dashed out of the alley and back onto the wider main road.

If there was anything I needed less than two angry men with knives questioning me, it was six angry men with knives questioning me.

With my mind now clear and my emotions no longer blunted to a dull edge, the injustices of the world grated on me in a way I found more and more impossible to ignore.

My whole life, I’d tried to convince myself I didn’t care what others thought or did, but with the lifting of the fog, I was beginning to realize that I very much did care. And I was sick of pretending otherwise.

I didn’t want gentle or delicate. I wanted to burn.

“If it’s not dangerous, it’s not worth wasting a favor on,”

“Albanon, you better hold on to this one.” He slapped a very nervous-looking Henri on the arm. “If you can.”

I bet he can't 👀

The spiked, scaled head of a sea dragon. The wings and front talons of an eagle. The body of a lion. Kings of the sea, sky, and land—all transformed into a single beast. The fearsome amalgamation was the stuff of nightmares, unlike any other creature in our world.

I should break your ribs for disobeying me, but then our guests would be compelled to help you set the bones. While that might be a just consequence for both of you—” His eyes jumped briefly to mine. “—I’ll settle for burns and barbs.”

I wondered if Luther had a spouse—surely no handsome face could be worth putting up with that.

Men sold the strength of their bodies as sellswords and assassins, bricklayers and carpenters. Why should it be any less acceptable for women to sell the softness of theirs?

Don’t choose a mediocre life for a mediocre man. Go be exceptional. If he’s worth it, he won’t judge you. And if he’s really the one, he’ll come along for the ride.”

“Who the hell are you?” There was something very humbling about being sneered at by a child wearing silk.