The Kindred's Curse Saga, #3
Heat of the Everflame
by Penn Cole
Contents
Chapter 60
Overview
Diem is confirmed as Montios’s Crown and learns the late king died during the Coeurîle attack. She accesses Montios’s Forging, freeing Luther’s binds, then uses it to locate a powerful, unfamiliar threat in the Forgotten Lands who marks and threatens her through the vision.
Shaken but resolute, Diem decides to pursue and kill him immediately, demanding the Council’s magic and an exit, signaling a new confrontation ahead.
Summary
Diem rejects the Council’s claim that she is Montios’s Crown, yet recognizes an undeniable pull to the realm. Hepta cites Rymari’s gravesite ward as proof and reveals the late king’s warning that his heir would be unusual. The Council confirms the king died after the Coeurîle attack and has concealed it from the other Crowns until their new Crown emerged.
Remembering her coronation’s strange pain and altered Crown, Diem reaches for Montios’s Forging. The magic answers eagerly, carrying Luther’s signature; she shatters the binds suppressing his power. Considering the Umbros Queen’s spying, Diem dives deeper to search for the Descended killer within Montios.
Within the Forging, Diem senses an alien presence and forms a vision: a twisted, firelit forest in the Forgotten Lands and a silvery-eyed man eerily familiar to her. He seizes her wrist through the vision, calls her “Daughter of the Forgotten,” promises the world for her “liberation,” orders her to find him, and threatens to kill her if she spies again. He brands a glowing ten-pointed star at her throat and hurls her out of the vision.
Hepta rushes to help as the Council stares at the mark. Diem identifies the man’s location in the Forgotten Lands and insists on leaving immediately. When the stone door resists her drained godhood, she demands not guards but the Council’s magic, vowing to find and kill the threat before he harms anyone else.
Who Appears
- DiemProtagonist; confirmed as Montios’s Crown, accesses Forging, frees Luther’s binds, confronts a marked foe, resolves to hunt him.
- HeptaElder Councilor; confirms Diem’s status, reveals the late king’s death, aids her after the vision, urged deliberation.
- Silvery-eyed manMysterious figure in the Forgotten Lands; seizes Diem through vision, brands her, demands she find him, threatens death.
- Montios CouncilorsCollective council; acknowledge Diem as Crown, conceal king’s death, witness her mark, hesitate as she demands their magic.
- LutherDiem’s ally; sensed within Montios’s Forging as she breaks the binds restraining his magic.