Chapter
Forty-Four
oes this mean I finally get to call you by your name?”“D My lips hooked up at Luther’s question, but I kept my eyes shut, basking in the warmth of the sun on my face and the breeze combing through my unbound hair. The boat rocked softly against the waves as we crossed the Sacred Sea to the island of Coeurîle where the Rite of Coronation would take place.
“I make you my advisor and you’re already asking me for more?” I teased. “How greedy of you, Prince.”
His knuckles grazed the bare skin along my spine, exposed by the low back of my dress. “I did say I wanted all of you.”
“If you insist,” I said with a pretend sigh. “Though I have grown rather fond of hearing you call me ‘my Queen.’”
The heat of his body pressed to my back. One hand curled around my waist and splayed scandalously low on my stomach to pull me against him. The scratch of his stubble tickled my neck as he leaned down to my ear, his tone dark.
“As you wish, my Queen.”
My smile grew wider.
After yesterday’s successful Challenging, my newly forged family had celebrated late into the night. The seven of us laughed and drank and recited the story of my victory again and again, each retelling growing more exaggerated than the last.
There was much about what happened at the Challenging that I still did not understand—things I shouldn’t have been able to do, powers no Lumnos Descended had ever been gifted—and I was well aware that the submission shown by the Houses had been a desperate, insincere act. My fight with them was far from over.
But I was alive.
My brother was safe, and soon, we would be reunited with my mother, thanks to Luther’s promise.
The threat of an attack against my loved ones was vastly reduced, with all of Lumnos now terrified of me and my power.
In a few hours, I would be coronated, with the authority to strike down unjust laws and appoint a new generation of
leaders.
And I had Luther.
Late the previous evening, after endless rounds of Descended wine had left me drowsy and stumbling, he had swept me into his arms, carried me to bed, and tucked me in with a tender kiss. I’d drunkenly refused to let him leave, and when I’d opened my eyes this morning, he was still there, dozing beside me with my hand clasped in his.
Though the grief of my father’s death would be with me always, for the first time in a very long time, the clouds had parted,
and I was happy.
Truly, finally, buoyantly happy.
There was only one other burden still weighing on my heart: Henri.
Our breakup was long overdue. We’d been drifting apart for months, even before I was revealed as Descended. We’d clung to each other in a desperate need for familiarity in a changing world, but we were no longer the naive girl and carefree boy we’d been when our feelings first took root.
I did care for him, and a part of me always would, but my path, and my heart, led elsewhere.
In truth, when I’d gone to Henri’s home the night before the Challenging, I had planned to end our betrothal once and for all.
I did not wish to face death leaving either of us bound in an engagement that never should have been.
Though that conversation would have to wait until he returned to Lumnos, I prayed we might find a way to preserve our friendship and work together—for the mortals’ sakes, if not our own.
A shadow passed over my face as Sorae circled high above.
“It’s a shame I can’t ride her to the coronation. I was hoping to see the other Crowns’ gryverns.” I frowned at Luther.
“Sorae really can’t set foot on Coeurîle at all?”
“She would die the second she touched the soil,” he said gravely. “That’s how the Fortos gryvern was killed during the Blood War. The rebels shot a bolt into its wing while it flew above the island. Other than a beheading, or godstone to the heart, it’s the only way to kill a gryvern.”
I shuddered at the prospect of any of the ancient creatures losing their lives, but especially the majestic one flying
overhead, who had become like an extension of my own soul.
Go home, I commanded her. I’ll return soon.
Her shrill howl of protest echoed the discontent that pulsed across the bond, but she was bound to obey. She reluctantly changed course for Lumnos, the silhouette of her massive winged body fading into the horizon.
“I enjoyed your speech to House Corbois this morning,” Luther said as he moved to my side at the bow of the boat. “I’m not sure my father can say the same.”
“At least I offered him a second chance.”
He waved a hand and conjured a faux circlet of light and shadow above his head. “It’s a new world, Remis,” he mimicked in a haughty voice, “Get on board, or get out of my realm.”
I turned to tease him for his terrible impression of me, but the sight of Luther in a crown to match mine left me unexpectedly flushed and more than a little breathless.
I looked back out over the water to hide my burning cheeks. “We’ll know soon who our allies are. I gave Remis, Garath, and Aemonn until the end of the day to decide if they can support our vision.”
“Our vision,” he repeated softly. “My entire life, I’ve worked against the Crown in secret to protect the mortals and half- mortals. I always knew one day I would serve a Queen who shared that goal, but...” His gaze slid to me, bright and gleaming with feeling. “The reality is better than I ever could have imagined.”
My blood went hot. I wondered if I would ever, in the centuries that I prayed lay ahead of us, get used to the way it felt to
be looked at by him.
I hoped not.
My fingers twitched out in reflex to brush his hand, our bodies always seeming to seek each other out. “How did you know you would serve a Queen with the same goals?”
He took a deep breath. “I think it’s time I told you my final secret.”
A thrill of anticipation rippled through me, though it cooled at the apprehension lining his features. “I know we agreed on brutal honesty, but if you’re not ready...”
“I am ready. I’ve been ready. I’ve wanted to tell you this since the day I met you.”
I frowned. “Then why haven’t you?”
“Because, while I was ready... you were not.”
I started to argue, but the pain—and relief—on his face kept me quiet. I could sense that guarding this truth, whatever it was, had worn rough on his soul, and he was ready to let it go. I had sworn to trust him, and now it was time to keep my word.
I nodded and wove my fingers through his with a light squeeze to show my support. For a moment, he stared at our joined hands in silence.
“My father’s wife, Avana,” he began, “is not my mother. Not by blood nor any other measure. After their marriage, Blessed Mother Lumnos sent my father a vision that his firstborn son would be the most powerful of the Lumnos Descended and the unquestioned heir to the Crown. However, he was having an affair with a woman named Florille, and she, not Avana, became pregnant first. But Florille...” His gaze lifted to mine. “Florille was a mortal.”
My eyes went wide with sudden understanding. Luther—the beloved, feared, universally respected Prince Luther, the late King’s favored and the hero of the realm—was a forbidden half-mortal, just like me.
No wonder he had been so guarded. And no wonder he had been willing to take such risks to help my mother. This could destroy not only him, but his entire family. If this was the secret my mother was holding over his head, Luther would have been willing to do anything to keep it quiet—even betray his King.
“My father took both women to spend a year at a house in the countryside so that when Florille gave birth, he could pass me off as Avana’s full-blooded Descended child in order to avoid my execution under the progeny laws.” He paused, his features hardening. “It’s not uncommon in the large Houses for parents to be cold to their children, but Avana openly despised me. She wanted nothing to do with me, and for years, I did not know why.”
His eyes turned stormy. “After my birth, my father sent Florille to an institution for the mentally unstable in Sophos to discredit her in case she told anyone about the pregnancy. But she never stopped thinking of me. She never stopped trying to escape and get to me...”
Roughness colored his voice and gripped my heart as it ached for him and the boy he had been. I lifted one of his hands to my lips and pressed a kiss to his knuckles as his fingers tightened around mine.
“Years later, Florille somehow made it back to Lumnos. She waited outside the Descended school with a bouquet of flowers. Even though she hadn’t seen me since I was an infant, she looked at me and somehow knew instantly I was her son, and I knew she was my mother. Meeting her was like coming home for the very first time.” He grimaced, the agonizing effort of reliving these moments evident on his face. “She told me the truth about everything. So much about my life finally made sense —why Avana hated me, why my father had been so insistent that I prepare to be King, even though my magic hadn’t yet come in. Florille wanted to take me out of Lumnos and away from him, but she had no money, and she was too weak and wounded from her escape. For months, I kept her hidden in unused rooms in the palace so she could heal while I saved up gold for a new
life.”
His expression darkened. “But I was young and inexperienced with keeping secrets. I had not yet learned to hide my emotions. My father noticed that I suddenly loathed him and Avana. He suspected I’d learned the truth, so one day, he followed me, and he found Florille.
“They began to argue. She threatened to tell everyone the truth if he didn’t let her take me away. So...” He swallowed thickly, face twisting as if the words were an agony to speak aloud. “So he killed her. Or he tried to—until I stepped in front of his attack.”
“Your scar,” I breathed. My hand flew to his chest, and he nodded, covering it with his own.
“His magic ripped my body apart. He thought I’d been killed instantly, but my mother realized I was alive. She threw herself over my body to protect me. He hit her with another bolt of his magic and left us both there to die.”
“Oh, Luther,” I whispered. I snaked my other arm around his waist and pulled him close, laying my head against his chest.
His heart was pounding, a tremble in his hands as he clutched me tight.
“That’s when the Blessed Mother appeared. She healed me and told me it was not yet my time. She said her people needed help, and I could bring it to them, if I was brave enough. Then she showed me a vision of myself as a man, kneeling to a powerful grey-eyed Queen.”
I took a sharp breath and pulled back to look at him. “She showed you... me?”
He stared into my eyes like he was looking beyond them and into the past, seeing the vision all over again. “She never showed me a face, only the eyes. I knew the Kindred had grey eyes, so I believed Lumnos herself was planning to return to Emarion to reclaim her Crown. But when I saw you with Lily that day in the palace, I couldn’t help but wonder...”
“That’s why you helped me, isn’t it? That’s why you protected me all those times at the palace and covered for me when you knew I was lying.”
He nodded. “I could feel your power, I could sense how strong it was. But you swore you were a mortal, and Maura said she saw your brown eyes as a child. And you said your father was from Fortos, not Lumnos. None of it made sense, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I felt in my soul that I was meant to help you.
“When we shared that vision the night of the rebel attack, I saw a crown over your head, but it wasn’t the Crown of Lumnos. It was something else, something I’ve never seen before or since. I thought perhaps it was the Blessed Mother’s way of telling me you were one of her disciples, like me. Then the King died, and Lily told me the magic had chosen you...” His eyes lingered on my glowing Crown. “I finally understood. You are the Queen I was always meant to serve.”
“But you came to the lodge that night to kill me,” I protested.
“No—I came to swear fealty to you. I had my sword out to offer it in your service. Then I saw you standing there half- naked and spitting fire, the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, and I became...” He smiled guiltily. “...distracted.”
My cheeks warmed. “Why didn’t you say something? If I had known—”
“Would you have believed me? You hated the Descended, you had no faith in the Kindred, you thought I murdered your mother. To you, I was the enemy.”
He was right, I realized. I wouldn’t have believed him. I would have accused him of concocting a ridiculous story to win over a new Queen, and it would have pushed me even further away.
He nodded, seeming to read my thoughts. “I decided to prove myself through my actions instead. I wanted to show you that I would serve you, whatever you demanded of me. Even though I failed you at times, I hope you see now there is nothing I would not do for you.”
“I do.” I cupped his cheek, and he leaned into my touch. “And you never failed me, Luther. Far from it.”
I knew nothing would ever erase his guilt over my father’s death. I recognized it, because it was the same burden I carried, too. I suspected that even finding and killing the murderer would never truly free either of us from our self-appointed blame.
But we could try. We could learn to forgive ourselves, and begin to heal—together.
“I saw the vision of us again during the Challenging,” he said.
“I saw it, too.” I frowned, remembering the strange, glowing figure. “The man that spoke to me—did you recognize him?”
Luther shook his head. “He called you ‘Daughter of the Forgotten.’ Does that mean anything to you?”
“No, but I’ve heard it before. My godhood said it just before I got the Crown. So did this woman with black eyes who stopped me in Mortal City the day my mother disappeared. I think it might have been the Umbros Queen, actually. And King Ul —”
“The Umbros Queen was in Lumnos?” he said sharply. “In Mortal City?”
“I think so. She took over my mind, and she knew things about me I didn’t even know. And she told me to stop taking the flameroot my mother had been giving me.”
“Flameroot?” Luther’s eyes flew open, his voice heating with anger. “Your mother was giving you flameroot?”
“She gave me a dose of it every day. I think that’s how she was able to hide me from the Descended and convince me I was a mortal. I stopped taking it after she went missing.”
He recoiled harshly out of reach. His focus darted around while he muttered clipped words under his breath. “That’s why
you never... and why she wanted to go to... fuck.” He growled so fiercely the air seemed to vibrate with his wrath. “Blessed
Kindred, this explains everything.”
“Explains what?”
“Your mother has been manipulating us all with her secrets for too long. She has much to answer for, and I’m done protecting her.” He snarled and turned to the front of the boat, staring forward with narrowed eyes. “The moment you’re coronated, we’re going to get her.”
His body was quivering, a rope ready to snap, so I didn’t push him any further. I was too excited to speak anyway—finally, my mother would be coming home. At long last, I would have answers to all the questions her disappearance had left behind.
We made the rest of the trip to Coeurîle in silence, Luther distant, me eager. Even when our boat slowed to a stop at a wooden pier marked with the sun-and-moon emblem of Lumnos, his attention seemed far away.
He took my hand and led me to the end of the pier, stopping just before our feet hit the lush emerald grass, still verdant despite the winter season. “I wish I had counsel to offer, but King Ulther never revealed what went on within the Kindred’s Temple. That knowledge is only for the Crowns to know. The others will guide you.”
I nodded. A letter had arrived by messenger hawk this morning from the Sophos Crown with the time of the ritual and the rules of visiting Coeurîle—no weapons, no escorts, no gryverns. No other details were provided, save for one cryptic note: Be prepared to bleed.
An ominous message, especially considering I—and all the other Crowns—would have no access to our magic while on the island.
“I should have stashed a dagger somewhere,” I grumbled, staring down at my dress. In a nod to my realm, I had opted for a silk gown of pale blue-grey edged with dark embroidered vines and glittering gemstone stars. “Why did I pick today to start following rules?”
I took a hesitant step forward. The second my foot touched the soil, a horrible emptiness engulfed my body, as if my very soul had been siphoned out. I tried to conjure some shadows, or reach out to Sorae, or feel the Forging magic of my realm—all of it was simply gone.
I rubbed at my chest, the absence already causing a dull ache. Luther cracked a small smile. “Now you see why Descended rarely leave their realm. Being stripped of our magic is disconcerting, to say the least.”
My eyes darted nervously toward the boat. I had every intention of telling Luther about my relationship with the Guardians just as soon as the Rite of Coronation was done and we had a moment to breathe. In the meantime, I’d insisted he thoroughly examine the boat for any suspicious changes this morning, making an excuse about security being so lax that even Lily and Teller could thwart it. Though he’d found no sign of tampering, a nagging worry had me wishing I’d made the time to tell him
the full story.
“Be careful out here,” I urged.
He tugged me back toward him onto the pier and slipped a hand into my hair, holding me at his mercy for a rough, passionate kiss that left his woodsy musk in my nose and his taste on my tongue.
“Go get coronated, my Queen,” he murmured against my lips. “We’ve got a realm to save.”
