Page 5 of Jeweler to the Blessed (Champions of Chaos #1)

Their magic is a bastardization. It wasn’t theirs to begin with, so they must take to sustain it.

— ALARIC SARE’S LETTERS TO ISABELLE ARKOVA

L ower Hill was more alive than I cared for, but this morning’s earthshake provided a distraction.

Many had stopped to talk about the movement.

As I quickly scanned the street, my gaze lingered on Forest’s Edge to the east. It was a bit distant but didn’t look like much from the outside.

Dingy windows prevented passersby from seeing in.

The large wooden door looked like it might prove heavy to open.

Everything about the building seemed intent on turning away visitors, but I guessed that was its appeal.

Few wanted their vices paraded for all to see.

I took a deep breath, and the sweet scent of doknots hit my nose. The only part of the Selection Festival I enjoyed was fried dough covered with sugar and cinnamon. White banners were being hung from all the buildings in preparation for tomorrow.

With a final glance at the tavern, I slipped into the flow of people walking. I wouldn’t learn more about Alaric’s visitor by staring, and standing still only made me an easy target for the Blessed.

“Emberline! Wait up.” Jasmine, a friend from my apartment building, hurried down the street. Our friend Serena followed behind, looking tired and dazed. My pulse spiked as Jasmine’s long black hair swung with her enthusiasm to catch me. Having any emotions on display made me anxious on her behalf.

The Blessed out this early appeared occupied with festival preparations, but one was never sure when they would take.

Of course, the law required consent from the fed-upon party. It just rarely happened that way in Lower Hill. This area was so much the domain of the Blessed, it seemed any guards here looked the other way when accidents happened.

The Blessed didn’t have a foolproof way to know when someone was experiencing an emotion.

Facial cues were often used. The tilt of Jasmine’s lips as she caught up told me she was excited, but the Blessed would see a smile and think happiness.

They’d see tears and assume sadness. It was always best to keep your emotions from your face.

Years of practice helped me mask mine. Sometimes, not even that mattered.

Sometimes, they simply sampled—with a glide of their hand against exposed skin—hoping to collect the needed power.

To a passerby, it could look as innocent as bumping into someone on the street, but we all knew better.

“What are you two doing here?” I asked as the girls fell into step with me .

Jasmine gestured to Serena. “I had to collect this one from Forest’s Edge.”

Serena’s smile was devious, but the dark circles beneath her eyes gave away her exhaustion.

Jasmine’s brown eyes danced with mischief. “I think you should give me a going away present.”

I wanted to laugh but held it in. “I’m the one leaving. Traditionally, you would gift me something for my journey.”

She waved me off. “I’m still not convinced you’ll do it. No one ever leaves Kavios. It’s not done.”

Her tone was playful, but it hinted at a truth I’d only suspected.

Miners and traders were the only ones who left the city regularly.

I didn’t know anyone else who had. It was partially why I planned to leave during tomorrow’s festival, when those selected were announced.

I’d use the city-wide distraction to slip away unnoticed.

“Anyway,”—Jasmine innocently twisted a strand of hair around her finger—“I wanted to ask you if Matthew has been by the shop?”

A snort nearly escaped my lips. “You know I can’t tell you that.” I paused, tilting my head in thought. “Besides, would you really want to know if he had?”

Serena rolled her eyes. “Oh, she wants to know.”

Jasmine bounced again enthusiastically. The action accidentally disturbed the cream-colored sleeves of her dress, exposing her dark brown skin. Quickly, she pushed them back down. I wasn’t the only one who took precautions.

“Please.” The hint of a whine entered her voice.

“I would never tell you if Matthew purchased jewelry for you. Particularly not a specific piece, like, say … an engagement ring.”

“Is that you telling me he’s been to the shop?” She squinted at me as we walked, as if trying to make out a secret language scribbled on a page.

I shook my head, repressing another smile for my friend. “It’s not a code. This is jeweler basics. Never talk about who commissioned what pieces. You never know who they’re for.”

She started to laugh but covered her mouth with her hand when Serena gripped her arm in silent warning.

“I bet that’s a juicy story.” Serena’s words were calm as she slowly surveyed the street.

Confirming her near-outburst went unnoticed, Jasmine returned to the conversation. “Matthew doesn’t have a mistress. He can barely handle me.”

She wasn’t wrong. Matthew worshiped the ground she walked on.

He’d been waiting for Jasmine to give him a chance for years, and she finally had.

I wondered what had made her give in. She used to frequent Forest’s Edge with Serena and spoke highly of how the Blessed could make her feel.

Matthew wasn’t Blessed. Maybe she realized the high was only temporary.

Anything permanent between a Blessed and one without magic was a joke.

I struggled to bury the envy that tightened my chest as I thought about having a permanent attachment to anyone. The weight of my secret made a true partnership impossible.

“I wish you’d allow for some flexibility in this relationship. It would make my trips to Forest’s Edge more fun again,” Serena said.

Jasmine flipped her hair. “You told me you finally took a shot at that guard last night! You’re doing fine without me.”

It was considered an honor to repay the King’s Blessing by protecting the royal family or the city. Guards were the only positions of service Blessed took. They needed to wield magic to defend against the worst scenario. Only Blessed could stop Blessed .

Serena pursed her lips. “Saying hello and bedding him are not the same.”

“Well, at least it’s not just you. I heard he turns everyone down,” Jasmine said.

“I’m running out of time,” Serena whined.

“Yeah, where are you going on your date with Jacob tonight?” Jasmine elbowed Serena with a smile.

“We’re not exclusive yet.” Serena sounded defensive. “But I don’t know how long I can avoid the conversation. Jacob keeps trying to bring it up.” They both stifled giggles.

The group in front of us laughed loudly, and it seemed like one of them had dropped something on the street.

I wouldn’t judge them for finding joy wherever they could, just like I wouldn’t judge Jasmine and Serena’s inability to suppress their feelings—even if it was ill-advised.

The man who laughed stopped to pick up the item, and another man bumped into him.

It was no accident.

The man who ran into him wore an adamas gem, and yellow flashed as the Blessed’s hand slid against exposed skin, taking the displayed emotion.

Recognizing his prize, the Blessed, a dark-haired man who appeared to be supervising the street vendors for the festival, wrapped his hand more tightly around the first man’s wrist. I didn’t think gripping harder helped steal the emotion any faster.

It was just another example of a Blessed exerting power.

It only lasted seconds, the Blessed taking what he could before the flash of yellow in his ring cleared—the first man’s joy spent. The Blessed mumbled something that sounded like ‘excuse me’ under his breath before walking away.

Stumbling to catch up with his companions, the first man took a few steps to collect himself. As the girls said, taking could be … intoxicating. Eventually, he was back on track, moving like nothing had happened.

The normality of it disgusted me.

The violation. The disregard. The ability to be used and then thrown back into whatever you’d been doing. Maybe that man returned to his friends with a little less life than he had before.

That’s what no one liked to think about.

Our emotion—the way we felt—was the essence of who we were.

I’d studied this with Alaric. What we experienced and how we reacted to the world around us made us …

uniquely us. Every time a little of that was taken, a little of our life went with it.

It was impossible to know how much was gone.

I’m sure every emotion was even a little different.

As a child, I once naively entered a Blessed’s house, where Mother worked as a cook.

The Blessed homeowner tried to take from me.

When she couldn’t, she tried again. She didn’t touch me the second time.

Mother intervened. The Blessed woman must have pulled harder with her magic, thinking she’d made a mistake.

That deeper pull was what Mother intercepted, placing herself between me and the Blessed.

Its intensity took years of her life, her hair graying and skin wrinkling before my eyes. Maybe it took a little of her mind too.

Mother gave everything to protect me from discovery. This, too, was part of why I must leave. I couldn’t let anyone else pay the price to protect my secret.

While my condition had made it dangerous for me and my family in Kavios, I was thankful never to have lost these little parts of myself. Part of me wished I could do more to protect everyone else too.

Our trio was sobered by what we’d witnessed and kept our heads down as we continued walking.

Farther down the road, as we finally exited Lower Hill, a Blessed woman pulled a man onto one of the side streets.

The orange blinking of her ring signaled lust. The goofy grin on the man’s face said he was well aware of what he was giving and what she was getting.

I wished the value exchange of emotion to the Blessed was always so clear.