Page 59 of Jeweler to the Blessed (Champions of Chaos #1)

Choice—real choice—is its own magic.

— FROM CHAMPIONS OF KAVIOS

E ven though my mind was made up, we still had much to do before today’s ceremony. I barely had time to lounge in the satisfaction of last night’s activities. I’d returned to my room late. Most in the castle were still celebrating at the Masquerade, even as the sun rose.

I had no such luxury. Today was the Blessing Ceremony.

Prince Elias had added me to the list of those Selected, which meant I had another ring to make before this afternoon. It was doable, though it would be rushed. It wasn’t like I cared about the state of the gem.

At least it would give me an excuse to ignore the king’s crown commission for another day.

Despite all we had to accomplish, all we had to discuss, Hart didn’t say a word as I veered off course from Alaric’s workshop. I wasn’t sure where my feet were taking me until it became clear. We entered Woodside, and I knew what my gut had already decided. My parents’ building loomed ahead.

With everything that happened yesterday—what I’d chosen—the inescapable truth solidified: I needed answers. The modest building felt like a bastion of secrets at that moment.

Someone in my family must have known I was called to be Chaos’s Champion. I couldn’t speak with Alaric about it. My parents were next on the list.

Today, I would submit to King Rodric’s whims to keep Alaric safe. I didn’t yet know how to use my magic to fight. Any hope I had of fleeing Kavios was gone. I clutched hope tight in my chest that I’d eventually find a way to free us both, but I had other concerns too.

Vaddon wanted to kill me. The Cursed King needed something from Chaos to use his magic—Hart and I had yet to return to those conversations.

We hadn’t even been able to free the captive last night. I told myself that just because we failed once didn’t mean we couldn’t try again.

We .

I let out a breath. Hart was with me. It didn’t fix anything, but it was a welcome positive when everything else seemed stacked against me.

The taste of him was still on my lips. All I had to do was close my eyes, and I could feel his hands on me—his touch—and the heat flaring between us.

“Do you want me to come in with you?” Hart asked.

He hadn’t said much on our walk, but maybe he was cycling through as many questions about what happened next as I was. We’d have time to discuss it while working on my ring.

“Yes.” I didn’t know what I’d learn, but I knew I wanted him with me.

I let us in through the unlocked door. Father was in the living room, reading. He looked up at my approach. His questioning gaze turned to a glare as it moved over my shoulder to Hart.

“Emberline, what are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to Mother. Is she awake?”

He stood, crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s this about, Emberline?”

My tone must have given me away. I studied him, wondering what he knew. Did he know what I was? Did he know fate would come for me?

“It’s about my choices.” I wondered if that was enough. “About the information that’s been kept from me.”

His jaw set, and I knew he knew of what I spoke. “You’ll only upset her.”

I shook my head in disappointment. “I need to talk to her. You can join, or you can stay out here. I don’t care.”

The hallway to Mother’s room was just as bare as usual, but my every step felt like it took me toward something complex, a tapestry woven with infinite colors. Hart’s familiar footsteps trailed behind me.

Mother lay in bed … staring at the ceiling. She blinked a few times at my approach and tilted her head slightly to capture me in her sight. Hart stayed at the door. Father followed me into the room, but Mother’s gaze never left mine.

“Ember,” she whispered. “I hoped you’d come.”

“Mother.” I knelt next to her and took her hand. “I need to ask you something.”

“Of course you do, dear.” Her voice was distant .

“Did the latest tonic arrive?” I asked.

Father nodded, a look of confusion on his face. “She’s been quite strong recently. We went for a walk around the block yesterday.” His brow furrowed, and he looked at me with blame. “Ask your question, Emberline. You’re upsetting her.”

I released a deep breath. I needed to know what she did. “Did you know I was Chaos’s Champion?”

Father sucked in a breath behind me. From the corner of my eye, I saw his hands ball into fists. Mother’s lips curled into a smile.

I focused on her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s your choice, baby,” she said dreamily.

I had made it, but it didn’t explain why they’d told me nothing. “What does it mean, Mother?”

“You are her champion. You can challenge what is known.”

Those were the exact words Hart had used in a time that felt so long ago. I glanced at him over my shoulder. Mother’s gaze seemed to follow.

“You trust him. I knew you would.”

My head spun back toward her. “Who?”

“She told me you would inspire chaos just like her—that your connection would change the tides of Kavios.”

Mother’s words were a jumble in my head. My connection with Hart? Again, I glanced at him over my shoulder, unsure what I was searching for in his features. His brow was furrowed.

I focused on the information I could retrieve from Mother. “You spoke with Eris?”

She giggled—actually giggled. “Oh, yes. It was quite terrifying. I was there when she granted Alaric his boon to protect you.”

“What?” I asked.

Mother was still giggling about Eris .

I turned to Father. “What did she grant Alaric?”

Father sighed. “Alaric said Rodric had too much power. You’d be noticed and found before you had a chance to choose. He asked to have the ability to source the adamas in the hope of buying you time.”

My heart clenched in my chest.

“Why didn’t any of you tell me?” I once again looked to Father. Mother wasn’t really answering my questions.

“We couldn’t,” he said, like this entire thing was my fault.

“Chaos’s Champion chooses their fate. None of us could interfere.

It was more than she cared for that Alaric would protect you, but she allowed it because of how adamas was being used in Kavios.

” He rubbed his forehead. “Isabelle, tell her.”

Mother’s eyes fluttered closed. “You will know her as Eris’s Champion because Chaos will be the language of her heart.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Those words were from Champions of Kavios . The other suspicion I had yet to verify flooded to the forefront.

“How do you know those lines?” I asked Father.

“They’re in that damn book!” he said.

“The book Mother wrote?”

He glared at me like he couldn’t believe I’d make him say it. I shook my head. I didn’t know what he was so upset about. This was my life—written into the lines of a book—by my mother, and she hadn’t bothered to tell me.

“The Glanmores have Alaric.”

Mother closed her eyes, her lips turning down. “The cost to save him is your freedom?”

I didn’t even know how to answer that.

Father clenched his fist at his side. “Alaric was in over his head. He deserves his fate.”

I turned to him. “How can you say that? After all he did for us? ”

“He tried to control the uncontrollable. He thought you would save Kavios. He refused to acknowledge that what you are is inherently intractable!”

I stood, gesturing for him to continue. The way his voice shook, I knew something was there, and I needed to know what it was.

“Chaos’s Champion isn’t a savior. What did your Mother say? She’ll challenge what is known. That means her champion will destroy, devastate, and raze. Only when it’s burned to ash does something new grow.” He spoke with a resignation I was all too familiar with.

“I see.”

And I was starting to. I was a danger to him. My path wasn’t set in stone. It didn’t guarantee a happy ending for those in Kavios.

Maybe I’d built a cage around my emotions, lived without feeling too deeply, without trusting myself for years.

But Father had done the same. His cage was a city that took from his kind, a wife whose light was dampened by their excess, but he was content to move within the world he knew, not risk a new world I could create.

He opened and closed his mouth. Like maybe he realized he’d said too much. But I could tell part of him thought he hadn’t said enough.

Mother reached for his hand, pulling him to her side. “You have a choice to make, baby.”

I’d already made it. Or, at least, I knew the immediate next steps. I’d need time to figure out how to challenge what was known without risking Alaric.

It all came roaring in. The King’s Blessing. His commission that he would demand days later and the power it would grant him. I wouldn’t have as much time as I hoped.

“I don’t know when I’ll see you,” I said .

Mother held my gaze as if seeing my resolve. “We love you. You’ll do great things in her name.”

My gaze turned to Hart, who stood with his arms folded at the doorway. It was time to leave. I wouldn’t find any other answers here. He nodded in some unspoken understanding, and we slipped out my parents’ front door.

I searched the hallway. There were so many magicless families and so many more like them in Kavios. Could I really make their lives any better?

It wasn’t about wresting control of the city from Themis’s Champion, the Cursed King—it was about doing so from King Rodric.

As I’d proved while trying to save Hart yesterday, my control over my magic was unpredictable.

I’d spent too long burying my emotions. Feeling them deeply and freely enough to wield wasn’t something I could turn on by simply snapping my fingers.

I shook my head. Today, Alaric was my priority. If I could survive accepting the King’s Blessing, I could find a way to free the city.

Hart let me get situated with the gem preforming before the questions started. I was surprised it took him that long.

“Is this really what you want to do?”

My back was to him. He worked the foot pedal while I shaped the stone on the spinning blade. “Yes. I’m going to be Blessed. It’s the only way to save Alaric.”

Silence. I desperately wanted to know what emotions flitted across his face.

“What about … everything else?”

I’m glad he, like myself, couldn’t seem to decide what other aspects of this situation to focus on .

I huffed a laugh. “I don’t know. The best I can say is that I’ll figure it out later.

I’m choosing to be Blessed.” I stopped working the stone and turned to face him.

“I still want to free the captive. I’m not hiding from the fact that I’m Chaos’s Champion.

I just can’t do anything today. You saw how hard it was to use my magic last night.

And in the meantime, I must do this to keep Alaric safe. ”

Hart nodded. “I respect your decision, but let’s not call it a choice. You’re taking a path you’ve been coerced into.”

I shrugged.

He stopped pushing the pedal and reached for my hips. It was the first time he’d initiated contact since last night. I let him draw me toward him. He positioned me between his legs as he sat on the stool.

“Mostly, I’m angry you’ll become everything you hate. Even if it’s in name only.”

I pushed back a lock of his hair that had fallen free from the knot. “It doesn’t matter. It will be a meaningless gesture to wear the adamas. I won’t take. I’m honestly not even sure I could. And it will buy me time to figure out everything else.”

“Buy us time.”

My lip curved into a smile. “I was supposed to be fleeing. Maybe joining Alysa and The Storm. You were supposed to be rid of me.”

Hart glared, unamused. “You were never going to be rid of me.”

Something inside me warmed, and his fingers weren’t even touching my skin. This—this was a choice I was glad to have made. The ground was moving around me, but Hart was my stabilizing force.

“What about the crown?” Hart asked.

“I’ll put it off another few days with this.” I held up my ring. “There is only so much they can expect me to do. ”

I swallowed. It wouldn’t be much more time. I doubt it would be enough to learn about my magic.

“Rodric already proved he’d test the stones, so I can’t put quartz in.”

Hart’s fingers pressed into my hips, returning my attention to his intense gaze. “We’ll figure something out, Chaos. I just want to make sure we think everything through.”

Everything was a mess, but Hart’s dedication to systematically solving our problems was reassuring. “The best we can do is try to free the captive again. Maybe tonight? The Blessed celebrate the Blessing Ceremony the same as they do the Masquerade, right? Everyone should be distracted.”

He nodded.

“Alright. Well, let’s finish my ring and get back to the castle.”

Hart looked like he’d say more. His mouth opened and closed around words that wouldn’t seem to slip out. “I’m with you, Ember.”

And that was good enough for me.