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

by Penn Cole

For every spark that has lost its light and needs a little help remembering how to glow.

“I need you to trust me. I’m telling you, on my life, that you are not imagining this. I don’t know how in the nine realms this happened, but that powder won’t make it go away.”

He smelled like home.

My destiny beckoned, clear and unmistakable. Survive the Challenging. Complete the Rite of Coronation. And destroy the Descended.

I’d told her that the bright and the dark were my friends, silent companions that answered to my beck and call.

My eyes stayed fixed on Luther, the strength in his gaze calming my pounding heart.

“He might be dangerous, but I’m gods-damned fatal.”

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

To show off your scars is to tell the world you’re not ashamed of what you’ve overcome. Frankly, I can’t imagine any better symbol of strength.

“Good girl,” he murmured. My thighs clenched. Diem one, Luther ten.

My instincts screamed at me to correct him, to explain that when I’d said he was nothing to me, I’d only meant we had no formal ties—no shared blood or years of friendship, no advisor roles or obligations. To confess that I couldn’t understand why he trusted me, cared for me, so much more than people he had known his whole life. And worse, that I felt exactly the same. And how much it scared me.

“I don’t care if he’s in the afterlife. If he hurt you, I’ll find a way to make him pay.”

As long as I stayed here, I was safe.

Because Lumnos, Realm of Light and Shadows, was no longer merely my home. It was my flesh and bone. It was a part of me—it was me.

His touch was the changing of the seasons, the dead, cold grey of winter thawing and giving way to the colorful hope of spring. The promise of something new, something exquisitely alive.

“The most precious rewards come from the battles most fiercely fought.”

“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 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.”

“You already have all of me.”

I think it’s a symbol of surviving when the world burns down around us. It’s a reminder that no challenge can destroy the parts of us that truly matter. We’re not reborn in the flames. We’re revealed.”

But family in the way you see it, full of loyalty and unconditional love—we make those bonds by choice, not by blood.”

“If anyone you loved was going through this, you would be there for every step of it, no matter how dangerous it was. You deserve someone who’s willing to do the same for you.”

“I don’t answer to you, Prince. I’m the fucking Queen.”

“You are fearless. You are strong. You do not cower in the faces of gods nor kings.