Page 65 of Jeweler to the Blessed (Champions of Chaos #1)

Tell Ember I love her. I don’t think I told her enough.

— ALARIC SARE’S LETTERS TO ISABELLE ARKOVA

C haron’s wings snapped open as we reached the surface. I knew I should have tried to take more from Hart to continue to heal him as we climbed, but I couldn’t summon the energy to ask. I wondered what else Alaric had tried to sustain Charon—another item on the list of things kept from me.

My heart clenched just thinking of Alaric. He couldn’t be gone. There was too much left to say—too much left to unravel.

Instead of telling me who waited in the mines, he’d tried to solve the problem himself. A problem that inherently only I—with Chaos’s magic—could solve.

So much would have been simpler if Alaric had told me what he knew. Like Mother, I guessed he’d been trying to preserve my choice. It felt like no matter his intentions, he’d done the opposite.

“We have to keep moving.” Hart pushed through the trees guarding the mine’s entrance.

He turned to face me, and I knew I wouldn’t like what he would say.

“I’ll help heal him once more, then you two should go.”

Anger flooded me, and I was too tired to hide it. “What?” I balled my hands into fists at my side. “Where are you going?”

He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

This was what I’d planned myself as I’d stormed through the Oldwood, but for some reason, I hated hearing him say it.

“I can’t leave my parents,” I said.

Finally, some rational thought was returning. They would be targets for the Glanmores. New leverage to control me now that Alaric was gone.

“Ava is getting them to The Storm. They’ll be fine with Alysa.”

My shoulders sagged. That must have been his stop at Forest’s Edge before we left. Even as my anger pulsed, I didn’t want to slot this kindness into place. I didn’t want to examine why he would do something like that. Maybe he just wanted control over where they were.

He didn’t control The Storm, though. That much was clear. I shook my head.

I probably should let him leave. Whatever was between us was broken. He’d kept so much from me. While some day I might understand the secrets Alaric and Mother kept, I couldn’t understand it from him. We were supposed to be partners. I swallowed thickly, even as I thought it.

We were supposed to be more.

A consuming heat flared inside me as I considered us parting ways. Something else shifted uncomfortably within me, demanding his touch.

“ You can’t, Cursed ,” Charon said. “ I don’t know what happened, but she’s like you now—she’ll weaken if you’re separated. ”

Hart glared at Charon. I closed my eyes and let my head tip back, wondering why the goddess hated me so much. “What do you mean, like him?—”

“We don’t know if that’s true. It might not be the same; Themis didn’t know all the impacts of Chaos’s curse,” Hart said.

I didn’t need to look at him to know he was lying. Words from the first time I saw Hart fell into place. His one moment of vulnerability with Alaric. You know what this means to me. I’m running out of time. That’s what he’d said to Uncle.

Anger roared again at more information withheld. “There was more to the curse than being unable to use your magic without me?”

He rubbed his forehead, exhausted. “Chaos ensured I’d have to find you. Not just for magic. She was clever enough to know that might not be a motivating factor for me.”

I wanted to scream. There was a lot he wasn’t saying again, but it was clear from what both he and Charon had said that he’d be in physical pain at separation. I rubbed at my chest, at the unfamiliar ache the thought of him leaving brought. Maybe I would be, too, now that my curse mirrored his.

“I still have no idea what you want, Hart—Sebastien—whatever, but I know the goddesses didn’t give up on their game for Kavios. ”

“ You don’t have to do anything,” he said.

I heard what he wasn’t saying again. “But you will. Themis said she won’t wait forever. I’m surprised she waited this long. Why don’t you just take the throne and be done with it?”

Charon growled. “ The only reason he’s still standing is because Alaric insisted the Cursed has tried to change what he started. ”

I considered that. What had Hart said? The firstborn found the source of the adamas. He must have done so as he expanded the mine’s production.

“You tried to stop it, didn’t you? That’s what you glossed over after talking about the creation of the Blessed.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. The first sign of life I’d seen in his expression in hours.

“You hated the adamas. I’ve seen the way you glare at those who wield it.

You found Charon and were summoned. You were stupid, impulsive, and shortsighted in your methods to escape your fate.

But then you left. Your Father must have concocted the plan of Order, the Selection, and Blessing all on his own. ”

Charon growled again, and I knew I was on the right track.

“It’s a nice story, Chaos. What does it matter? You’re free to leave. You have nothing binding you to the Glanmores.”

Oh, how I wished that was true. It disregarded the fact that Sebastien Hart was, in fact, a Glanmore, and I found myself inextricably connected to him.

“What did you say to me that first night at Forest’s Edge?

Surely, you don’t have to experience a wrongdoing to know the behavior is wrong.

I can’t pretend what’s happening in Kavios doesn’t exist when I have the power to stop it.

” I held his gaze. It was no longer just my power.

I cleared my throat. “When we have the power to stop it.”

My body thrummed at the rightness of the sentence as much as I hated myself for having to say it aloud .

“You don’t mean that,” he said.

“His curse was that he needed her. What he’d do when he found her was far from certain.” It was a line from Champions of Kavios . I now realized that even in a book of prophecy, this line was evidence that the future was unknown.

And now that I knew who it was about, I knew we had the power to shape it.

Hart’s gaze met mine.

My fingers stretched at my side, desperate to reach for him, to cross the growing chasm between us.

Then I considered all that entailed, the lies, the truths he kept from me, and I crossed my arms over my chest. “Just come with us. Chaos got us here, and Chaos will finish this. We can go our separate ways after that.”

Still, he hesitated.

“ Cursed ,” Charon growled.

I hated that that was what it took. Hart’s shoulders sagged as he finally responded. “Fine.”

Tears stung behind my eyes, and my cheeks heated in embarrassment.

His response was like a knife to the chest. Not only was I unsure if I wanted him here, but he also didn’t want to be here.

Thanks to the goddesses, we didn’t have much of a choice.

I swallowed the hurt, the shame, the rage, and a million other emotions I wouldn’t dare name. “To Linia?”

Hart conceded. “Charon will be free to do what he will there. And we can see if the queen knows anything about this curse.” He gestured between us.

I hadn’t even thought of that. The Library of Linia was known for its texts on magic. I’d wanted to journey there originally because it might have had information on my immunity to the Blessed. Knowing what I did now, I was sure it would have records, at least, of Linia’s Champions .

We’d return, though. This was just for Charon. This was just to regroup. I wouldn’t leave Kavios to Rodric.

“ If you two are finished … I will take us. Get on. ”

I tilted my head back to look at him. He set his body lower, so his stomach touched the ground. Even with that help, I’d have to climb on his … elbow to get to his back.

“Are you … sure?” I asked.

His hiss was anything but reassuring. “ Champion. Get on. Now. ”

I wanted to laugh but couldn’t even force the sound out. “Fine.”

Hart crawled up behind me. We were both positioned at the base of Charon’s neck. I felt the distance between us as Hart ensured no part of us touched. I knew we’d need to change that eventually. Charon still needed to heal, and I’d have to take from Hart to do it. But it could wait.

A somber thought crossed my mind. Everything had changed from the intent of my original quest, but it felt … full circle that it was now our destination.

Charon’s wings snapped open.

“We’ll return,” I mumbled to myself as Charon’s powerful wings flapped and lifted us. There was nothing but uncertainty in our plan, but it was all I could muster at present. I was cursed, and I’d have to come to terms with that—have to come to terms with what it meant for me and for Kavios.

I glanced behind me at Hart—the Cursed King.

My gaze narrowed even as I swallowed thickly.

I wished again for emotions that were easier to repress.

Too many uncomfortable feelings fought for dominance within me.

I shook my head. We’d have to determine what our connected curses meant in freeing Kavios from the Blessed.