Page 54 of Jeweler to the Blessed (Champions of Chaos #1)

I wish I’d prepared her more. I’m sorry. I didn’t think I could do it without clouding her judgment. So I taught her all I could, hoping she could judge for herself.

— ALARIC SARE’S LETTERS TO ISABELLE ARKOVA

A s we returned to the Masquerade, I took slow, deep breaths.

They did little to stop my heart from beating through my chest. We were lucky the candle lighting was so dim.

I’d tried to set myself to rights on the walk, but I was a mess.

Unfortunately, the blood splatter on my gown was the least of my worries.

The prince wasn’t so invested that he wanted to search the grounds for Hart. He handed me off to the first guard he saw.

“Don’t leave her until she’s with the other one,” he said.

Once the prince’s back was turned, Hart found me, dismissing the temporary guard.

“Ready?” he asked.

Chaos save me. I couldn’t believe they had Alaric.

The price to save him, accepting the King’s Blessing, and becoming one of them—becoming everything I hated.

Doing everything I didn’t want to do. It wouldn’t just be turning over the gems for the Blessing.

I would be making the crown the king commissioned.

I glanced at Hart through my partially clumped lashes. My tears from the king’s study had barely dried. I didn’t hate Hart, and he was Blessed. He fought the Blessed from inside their walls. Maybe I could do this.

My thoughts returned to our first trip to the mines. He’d asked me offhandedly if I cared about what happened to a Blessed. At the time, I’d considered it the Blessed’s choice to become what they were—to accept the adamas.

What did I know? How many Blessed were coerced the same way the Glanmores were doing to me?

The thoughts ricocheted in my mind, giving me whiplash. I couldn’t accept adamas. I couldn’t become Blessed.

I could and would for Alaric.

Alaric. The task that had him caught was the same as mine. To make my fate worthwhile, I would do what he couldn’t. He strove to free the captive and failed. He wasn’t Blessed. I could only guess he knew about the secret entrance. I hoped its presence hadn’t been revealed in his capture.

Hart would help me complete what Alaric could not. Then, I’d resign myself to life within a cage. I could do what Alysa said: I could accept the adamas and never take. It wasn’t like the king tracked it. It wasn’t like I needed to take to use the magic.

Fleeing had been a beautiful idea, but I wasn’t made for pretty things. I was made to suffer at the pleasure of the Blessed.

I’d do it gladly for Alaric. The man who raised me. The man who ensured I had the support I needed for my livelihood and the love I needed to exist outside it. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for that man.

“Everything alright, Chaos?” His brow furrowed now as he reassessed my appearance. He stepped closer.

I couldn’t tell him here. My skin itched just standing inside the castle walls. I needed to get out of here—away from all of this. If this was my last night of freedom, I would use it well.

Hart said he’d follow me anywhere—I might put that to the test with this.

Would he follow if I chose to become what I claimed to hate?

Yes, he had chosen to fight from within, but he also knew how I felt about the Blessed.

I could tell him he’d opened my eyes to shades of gray with the Blessed.

In my mind, they could no longer all be painted with a single stroke.

My spine straightened. We didn’t have time to have this argument here. The captive was waiting.

“Let’s get out of here.”

He searched my gaze. I knew he saw more than I wanted, but he didn’t press.

Though the castle was more than distracted by the delights and debauchery in the ballroom, we decided walking down the front steps wasn’t a great idea. It was better if everyone thought I’d returned to my room.

Hart left me with the night guards, giving me time to change before he waited below my window. My dress was a bit much for our journey through the Oldwood.

Outfitted in trousers, a long-sleeved tunic, and sturdy leather boots, I grabbed my gloves from the table before climbing on the desk and levering myself onto the window’s ledge again .

“What kind of chaos are we unleashing here?” The voice I was only too familiar with said quietly from below.

With everything closing in around me, this felt normal. It felt right. “A wise man told me Eris inspires chaos. She doesn’t cause.” I paused. “Feeling inspired?”

The heat in his gaze set my skin aflame again. I wanted to let it consume me. There was so much to do on my last night of freedom, but the look in his eyes had me wondering if we should add another item to the list.

“A wise man, you say? You should probably listen to him more often.”

I sighed. “Ready?”

He’d insisted on this part. Last time, I’d fallen clumsily into the bushes below.

This time, he would catch me. He knew my secret, knew of my immunity.

He’d proved time and time again that I was safe with him.

This trust between us, it was like a barrier removed—a layer of clothing peeled away by a new lover.

That thought was too on the nose.

Free the captive. That was my focus. I had planned to do it before everything began to unravel around me.

The same part of me that knew which gems were adamas and which were quartz had known the captive was the true source of the adamas.

If I removed them from the equation, I’d accomplish what the Feared desired—I’d remove their adamas source.

It was convenient that my approach didn’t come at the cost of my life.

It reassured me as much as it worried me that Alaric had the same plan. He’d been caught trying to free the captive. I had to believe Hart and I could be successful where Uncle failed.

With a final glance at Hart, I jumped from my perch on the windowsill.

His touch was another problem altogether. I may no longer fear it, but I could feel something between us every time, even through a layer of clothing.

Goddess, save me. His touch would be my undoing.

I shook away the scalding images of his hands freely roaming my skin. We didn’t have time for whatever obscene fantasies my mind conjured. Searching the path, there was no sign of guards in either direction. We made our escape toward the mines.

Hart tugged me close behind him, our hands linked, as we hiked through the Oldwood.

He was unwilling to risk that I slip under its spell in the darkness.

I found comfort in the solidity of his grasp, a comfort that had been sorely lacking this evening.

So I didn’t tell him the magic of the forest wasn’t pressing against me.

I had a feeling its message had already been delivered.

I contemplated how to get the words out that I needed to as we hiked by what little light spilled from our stolen torch. The darkness beneath the canopy of the Oldwood dimmed any help from the moon.

“What did the prince want?” Hart asked as we left the city.

The command of his voice soothed as much as the question granted me a way to broach the topic I’d been struggling with. Words I’d been searching for slipped from my lips with little further encouragement.

“The Glanmores have Alaric.”

Hart stopped walking and turned slowly to face me. Something in the stern set of his features urged me to continue.

“They’ve had him the whole time. They caught him trying to free the captive. ”

Hart’s fingers massaged his temples. “You didn’t think that was relevant to tell me before we went to free the captive ourselves?”

My hands were on my hips. “I’m telling you now.”

Somehow Hart was smirking. He knew I’d been wrestling with something since returning with the prince. The shape of the problem may not have been known, but he’d known there was a problem nonetheless.

He’d followed me anyway. That fact was more reassuring than it should be.

“Is he alright?”

I shook my head, remembering the state of him, the tattered garment, the blood, the way Vaddon kicked him as I left.

A muscle in his jaw twitched with his next question. “What do they want from you?”

I tore the bandage from the open wound. “I’m to be the fifth Blessed tomorrow.”

His arresting green eyes held mine. Even in the dark, I could feel the fire burning behind them.

“We can get you and your family out. Tonight. Alysa will take you all. Alaric wouldn’t want this.”

My intensity matched his. “It’s not his choice. I won’t leave him to die.”

“They won’t kill him if you’re gone. They will need him.”

I sighed. Hart may have a point, but it still didn’t change my mind. “I won’t leave him with them.”

“This is not a choice, Chaos. It’s the illusion of such, something Rodric is far too good at.”

I knew he was right, I did. It just didn’t matter.

I tried to explain. “You’ve shown me that Blessed don’t have to be mindless servants, forever grateful for the power Rodric grants.

I can accept the adamas and never use it.

That keeps Alaric safe and me close enough to find a way to eventually free him. ”

Hart looked like he would argue.

“We need to keep going.”

Silently, Hart recaptured my hand and continued our hike. The strength of his grip told me we weren’t finished with that conversation. As we neared the foothills, the slope increased, and every step, every crunch of dirt and leaves beneath our feet, had me wondering what we were walking into.

I focused on our mission for tonight: to free the captive. If we could succeed at that, it would ease the pressure on everything else.

“We’re headed toward the original mine entrance,” Hart said. “If Alaric was captured days ago, I can confirm Rodric and Elias still don’t know about it. It hasn’t been guarded since you took the position of jeweler.”

I wondered how he knew that. Is this where he went at night while he left other guards at my door? He didn’t give me time to ask.