Glow of the Everflame (Kindred's Curse, #2)

by Penn Cole

He smelled like the forest—my favorite place in the world, the only place I felt truly alive. He smelled like home. It made me hate him even more.

And do you know why they’re so scared of women like us?”

“Because they damn well should be.”

“But rest assured, my Queen, when I do kiss you, there will be no confusion. You will know that I have claimed you—and I won’t have any desire to deny it.”

“Luther,” I whispered. “My Queen,” he breathed.

“With all due respect to my lovely cousin, the only person I’m getting down on my knees for is you, my Queen.”

“If a kiss is the reward, my Queen, I’ll get on my knees for you whenever you want.”

“Good girl,” he murmured. My thighs clenched.

“Shall I get back down on my knees until I earn another kiss?”

I will keep you safe, and I will not apologize for it. Not now, not ever.”

“Not even if you despise me. Not even if I am nothing to you. Because my calling comes from a higher authority than even you can claim, Your Majesty. As she guarded my heart, I will guard over yours. Even if it kills me.”

They saw kindness in each other, a love that might surpass the walls that divided them. And cruel as it might be, I would challenge the gods themselves to protect it at all costs.

“You’re a Corbois, Diem,” he murmured into my ear. “Embrace your phoenix. Rise from the ashes, and burn bright once more.”

“Oh dear, Diem. What will we do with you?” “Kneel.” A broad, masculine hand closed around Jean’s wrist and squeezed, trembling with the force of its angry grip. “Kneel to her, Jean. That’s what you’ll do.”

“Keep your hands off my Queen,” Luther snarled. “And you will address her by her title, or I will rip out your tongue with my hands and nail it to the door of House Hanoverre.”

“You are my Queen, and I am your sword. Point me at your enemies, and watch them fall. Lead this world, Diem, and I will follow you—into war, into death, into the tundra of hell itself.”

“You are the fate my heart was spared for. As long as it beats, you will never fight alone.”

I don’t just want a piece of you—I want them all.” His thumb raked across my lower lip. “I want every breath, every laugh, every tear. Every taste of your mouth, every inch of your skin. I want to kneel at your feet, soaked in the blood of your enemies, then worship your body until you scream my name.” His hands slid to my hips and tugged me closer. “Yes, Diem, I want to serve you—in every way a man can.”

“I want to burn alive in that fire in your eyes. I want it to melt me down and forge me into the weapon you need me to be. I want to stand by your side for the rest of my life, and I don’t need you to marry me and make me a fucking king to do it.”

This night—this was the fire that had forged me. And someday soon, when the burning glow of my grief cooled away, I would show my father’s killer, and all of Emarion, just how deeply my blade could cut.

“When are you and Luther going to put all of us out of our misery and fuck each other already?”

Because in this world of injustice and cruelty, where innocents died every day while people in power turned a blind eye and hid in the comfort of their privilege, doing something and failing was better than doing nothing at all.

seared into mine with equal passion. “I would have walked into the flaming heart of the sun itself,” he shot back. “If you are suffering, nothing will keep me from coming to your aid. Least of all something as trivial as death.”

The ride to the arena was long. Torturously, excruciatingly long. Envision-every-worst-case-scenario long. Consider-grabbing-my-brother-and-making-a-break-for-it long. Plummet-into-a-can’t-think-can’t-breathe-hands-trembling-state-of-overwhelming-panic long.

“Perhaps, for the right person, we endure the pain, because the torture of never having them at all is the more unbearable fate.”

There was only the two of us—the loyal Prince and his cherished Queen.

“On behalf of House Corbois, I, Luther Corbois, wish to Challenge the Queen.”

“I am yours, Luther Corbois. Scars and all.”

“Burn, my Queen. Glow so bright, the darkness trembles.”