52 pages • 1 hour read
Glow of the Everflame
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Chapters 18-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
Toward the end of the ceremony, Diem asks Eleanor about her interaction with Luther. Diem insists that she is not romantically interested in Luther because she is already engaged to a mortal. Eleanor is visibly shocked by this information. Remis interrupts their interaction, calling on Diem to light Ulther’s pyre with her magic. Luther encourages Diem to summon her magic, but when she sees Andrei and her friend Maura in the crowd, she cannot connect with her powers. Sorae swoops in and lights the pyre with her breath.
Chapter 19 Summary
Andrei comes to see Diem in her chambers. They make amends for their argument. Andrei swears that he still loves Diem and only wants to protect her. He doesn’t know anything about her birth father or Auralie’s whereabouts. She insists that he act as her advisor, but Alixe arrives and warns Diem against this course of action. She states that Diem cannot be seen with another mortal, then escorts Andrei out. Diem feels isolated after Andrei leaves.
Chapter 20 Summary
Diem consults Luther about her failure to use her magic at the funeral. He is worried that she was unable to summon her powers, and he suspects that the other houses will challenge her right to the Crown. As their conversation intensifies, Diem feels heat rising between them. She gives herself over to Luther, and they kiss, clutching at each other’s clothes. Suddenly, Eleanor and Taran knock on the door, interrupting them. Taran insists on training Diem to use her magic so that she will be able to survive the Challenging. The cousins also invite Diem to join them for their family dinner. After the others leave, Luther reminds Diem how much he likes and respects her.
Chapter 21 Summary
Diem dresses for the Corbois dinner despite her hesitation to join the family. She is shocked when she sees Iléana sitting with Luther and suddenly doubts everything that he has told her and everything that just happened between them. Diem dismisses her feelings to focus on the dinner. She feels proud of herself when she calmly fields everyone’s questions, including those about her eye color and parentage. When the conversation shifts, Diem notices how cruelly Remis treats Luther. Remis wants to marry Luther off, suggesting that he would be a good King Consort. After the dinner, Diem looks for Luther, but he and Iléana are gone.
Chapter 22 Summary
Diem runs into Luther after the dinner. When he treats the royal guards rudely, Diem accuses him of being cruel. Sorae swoops in to protect her, and Diem trips on her shoes. Luther lifts her up to keep her from falling. He then brings her to her room, removes her shoes, and massages her feet, begging to know how he can prove himself to her. Diem insists that she just wants him to tell her the truth. A pained Luther vows that he will do anything to serve and protect her. Diem wants to kiss him again, but he leaves before she can.
Chapter 23 Summary
In preparation for the ball, Diem practices dancing with Lily and Teller in the dungeon. Luther arrives and apologizes to Diem for his behavior last night. They agree to be friends. As they wait for Taran and Alixe to arrive and help Diem practice working with magic, Diem studies Luther and acknowledges that she is “attracted to him” (274). However, she reminds herself that all Descended are attractive. She asks him again about his secrets, and he promises to tell her someday. He puts his hand on her chest and reminds her of the vision that they both saw the “night of the armory attack” (279). He doesn’t know what the vision means, but he insists that it is important. When Alixe and Taran arrive, they can begin Diem’s lessons. Diem realizes that none of them understand how she feels, and she suddenly feels alone.
Chapter 24 Summary
Diem feels discouraged after practice because she still cannot summon her powers. She meets with Eleanor, who tries to reassure her.
Alone on her terrace that night, Diem studies the notes that Teller gave her about the Descended. She looks out over the city and the forest beyond her chambers, wondering if they’ll all be at war soon. Aemonn knocks on her door and brings her a pendant with the Corbois sigil. He assures her that she can trust him and promises to protect her during the ball.
Chapter 25 Summary
On their way to the ball, Diem and Aemonn run into Henri. Aemonn calls for the guards to remove Henri, who is armed. Diem demands that Aemonn show mercy and then speaks to Henri alone. He reveals that he has come to the palace despite her warning letter because he is convinced that the ball is the perfect time for the Guardians of the Everflame to attack the Descended. Luther arrives, and Diem instructs him to lock Henri in the dungeon until the ball is over. She vows to kill anyone who harms Henri, then tells Luther about the Guardians. He promises to stop their attack without bloodshed. Diem reconvenes with Aemonn, and they make their entrance at the ball.
Chapters 18-25 Analysis
Diem’s intensifying feelings for Luther complicate the novel’s thematic focus on the Challenges of Balancing Love and Duty and the Burden of Leadership. As the prospective Queen of Lumnos, Diem has been imbued with a new sense of power and authority. The Descended assure her that the gods wouldn’t have chosen her as the new queen if she didn’t have magical capabilities, but they also urge her to listen to their counsel lest she endanger House Corbois and herself. Ironically, this state of affairs indicates that Diem does not have the freedom or control that her queenly role initially suggests, and this issue also extends to the context of her romantic life. When she promises Henri that she’ll marry him and make him her King Consort, she soon realizes that the Descended’s prejudices will make it impossible for them to accept Henri’s presence among them. Realizing that current political realities threaten to rob her of her agency, Diem reflects that whether she is “Mortal or Descended, Queen or not,” her heart doesn’t feel as though it is hers “alone to give” (203). Thus, Diem’s political burdens force her to compromise her desires, and at this early stage, she cannot decide whether to forge a connection with Henri or to act on her burgeoning feelings for Luther. She therefore remains trapped between her personal desires and her political responsibilities.
As Diem struggles with these existential questions, Luther’s presence complicates her ongoing Quest for Self-Discovery. Because Diem cannot decide whether to trust him, she often treats him as her enemy despite his insistence that he is protective of mortals and loyal to her. Her doubts prove that she is incurably skeptical and prefers to use her intelligence and wit to puzzle out the nuances of her world rather than unthinkingly trusting in other people. Her resistance arises from her knowledge that bowing to other people’s judgment would erode her personal power even further.
As a young woman in an unexpected position of authority, Diem is eager to prove herself capable, and in her mind, Luther is a serious hindrance to her goals. Because she has intense feelings for him, their magnetic attraction causes her to lose her usual resolve. Her description of their kiss in Chapter 20 conveys the powerful force of their still unacknowledged love and its effects on Diem’s psyche. As she states:
I needed to pull away, put distance and cold, empty air between our bodies. I needed to remind him, and myself, that we were allies, reluctant friends at best, but nothing more. Never anything more. And I tried to do that. I really, truly did. But my body wouldn’t obey. My heart wouldn’t, either. I used the last shred of self-preservation I had left. I slipped my arms around his waist, laid my cheek over his heart, and pulled him against me in a hug that was eager for all the wrong reasons (227).
In this frenetic passage, Cole conveys the intensity of Diem’s conflicting emotions as she pulls Luther close despite her intention to put “cold, empty air” between the two of them. Her desperate attempts to label the two of them as “allies” and “reluctant friends at best” reflects her urge to reject the idea that she could be falling in love with a Descended—and one whom she has regarded as her nemesis. However, the very strength and vehemence of her denials imply that she does indeed harbor deeper feelings for Luther, and her physical mannerisms and movements convey what she really wants. As she moves close to Luther, hugging and kissing him, it is clear that her emotional self is taking the lead and overriding her trepidation. At this point, however, Diem realizes that if she acknowledges her love for Luther, her new loyalties might require her to forsake Henri and betray the mortals—the very people whom she has always regarded as her community and her family.
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