Chapter 2
Her perfect Champion has ruthless ambition.
— WHAT MAKES A CHAMPION OF ORDER
HART
Ikept a wary eye on the receding shape of the second dragon as Ember slid from Charon’s back onto solid ground outside the city gates.
Ciril wasn’t surrounded by trees like Kavios.
The city had the Endless Sea to the east, the Pinnacle Range to the north, and endless flat lands for farming to the west. The deep red of the other dragon’s scales disappeared into the mountain peaks without confrontation.
I knew I should be thankful we weren’t greeted with battle, but I couldn’t muster the emotion.
My goal for so long had been simple: free myself from Themis’s summons.
Upon reflection, I knew that path had left only destruction in its wake.
I’d lost family, friends, led a kingdom toward ruin, and, as Ember did everything to avoid meeting my gaze, I knew it had cost me something else I couldn’t bring myself to name.
We deserved to catch a break. We deserved a moment of peace, but we were not to have it. The dragon may have departed, but now we prepared to deal with monsters of a different kind: royals. Queen Lucinda approached us outside the city gates, accompanied by a host of guards.
“I’ll explain that we’re researching Champions for Kavios,” Ember said.
She had done her best not to speak to me on our journey, even going so far as to let Charon block my attempts at conversation.
I wanted to talk to her about these new …
sensations between us, but she’d shut that down, too.
She wouldn’t even discuss how long we could be separated before discomfort set in.
Once I’d found her in Kavios, she’d been like a beacon calling me. I assumed she had the same pull toward me now, thanks to our shared curse. At least we were stuck together—so long as I could help it—so maybe it wouldn’t be an issue.
Fucking Chaos, I couldn’t believe the goddess Eris had cursed her own Champion.
And somehow, that was the least of my problems.
Yes, I’d help Ember break the curse, but I cared more about what came after that.
I wanted to know what she planned for Kavios.
How did she think to fight my father? Would she allow me to help?
I intended to keep her safe until she could see her goals completed, but she’d told me nothing of her plans.
I hadn’t wanted to push her on our journey.
I wanted to give her time to grieve, to rage, but she’d done nothing of the sort.
Now, as the queen and a group of soldiers approached us outside the gates of Ciril, she decided to share. A bad plan at that.
“What?”
Linia’s capital felt bright and airy compared to the enclosed space of Kavios. A stone wall circled it, but with more points of entry than the two at home. The castle had stone columns and grand, expansive entryways rather than tall spires and steep steps. It felt almost welcoming.
Then I glimpsed Queen Lucinda’s expression.
“I’ll explain—”
I shook my head as Ember restated her plan. Perfect. Now she thought me an idiot as well as a liar. We needed to talk, and soon. She couldn’t avoid this forever. “I heard what you said, Chaos. I’m questioning why we would share that with the Queen of Linia.”
A sharp, peppery taste heated my tongue when Ember’s arms folded over her chest. I welcomed her anger like I welcomed my next breath.
“What would you have us say?” she pressed.
This is what days of silence brought us. We hadn’t strategized or challenged each other’s plans. She wanted to walk in and tell them why we were here, but of the three of us, I was the only one with experience in Linia.
I glanced toward the group that approached. “Queen Lucinda is a peacetime ruler. She has no concept of the humans’ true living condition in Kavios. She knows my father keeps his secrets, but his trades are good and his gold is spendable.”
“You still haven’t answered me. What would you have us say?” Ember breathed.
Even as her annoyance grew, she leaned infinitesimally toward my words. Her curiosity got the better of her.
At least I engaged her mind, since she refused me her heart.
“She knows who I am. She’ll let us in on that alone.”
Ember flinched, and I didn’t need the minty taste of her sadness to tell me she was hurt that the queen knew my identity. Thanks to her avoidance of conversation between us, I didn’t have time to explain. I bit down on my frustration, knowing all of this was my fault.
“It would be … easier … if you let me introduce us as more than traveling companions.”
How quickly that sadness returned to anger.
Her icy glare should have had me reaching for the cloak tucked in my pack.
Too bad for her, the faintest taste of smoke hit the tip of my tongue, too.
I didn’t know what game the chaos goddess played, but when she’d connected mine and Ember’s curses in the throne room, she’d added something new. I was sure of it.
The thick, smoky flavor on my tongue indicated Ember’s lust. This wasn’t the same as what I’d sensed from her the few times we touched on the journey, but it was a start. As the smoke mixed with the spicy flavor of her anger, I knew I’d intrigued her again—more than she liked.
A smirk curled my lip without my consent.
She bristled. “Why would we do that? Aren’t all scholars welcome in Linia?”
It was my turn to glare. “Do you want her to know you’re a scholar? Do you want her to know anything about you? She keeps my movements a secret because she has no interest in war with my father and no interest in Themis’s Champion on a neighboring throne.”
Ember looked thoughtful. The topic of my father was another she’d avoided on our journey. One that I avoided, too, if I were honest. I didn’t like the reminder, but if I had any hope of explaining things to Ember, my father was inextricably part of my story.
“If she fears you as you say, she’ll let you in. Why would it matter who I am? Why do I have to be … yours?” She swallowed hesitantly around the word.
I wanted to respond that everyone in this Chaos-cursed kingdom needed to know she was mine. I’d accept nothing less.
Instead, I took a deep breath. “Does she fear me?”
I was toying with her, and we really didn’t have time as the group approached, but the peppery taste escalated to scalding at my question, making it worthwhile.
Ember had been so stoic since we left Kavios.
The tears for Alaric, tucked away. Any fear of our circumstances, repressed.
She didn’t appear to mourn the loss of …
us. She seemed intent on pretending we’d never been anything to each other.
One night with her was enough to know I would never be the same. Yet, she did everything in her power to convince herself otherwise. I might have broken us. I kept things from her, but her dismissal—her ability to abandon any emotion she once felt for me—was impressive in its devastation.
“Speak plainly, Hart.”
Fool that I was, I took her use of my preferred name as a lingering sign of hope.
“Speak plainly, quickly, you two. The welcoming party approaches.”
Now Charon decided to speak to me. I rolled my eyes and hoped somehow he understood my aggravation. “A Champion of Chaos is more dangerous to her than a Champion of Themis.”
“She’s not Chaos’s Champion of Linia,” Ember whispered, as if it were a fact she reminded herself of.
I nodded. “Lucinda is a descendant of Chaos’s Champion, but that doesn’t make her one. She has no magic that I’ve seen.”
Something like a bubble from the first sip of champagne popped on my tongue. I hadn’t felt this yet, but I recognized it immediately. Not quite joy, but … enthusiasm. She wanted to get lost in this subject. In discovering the details about Linia’s Champions.
Good. It was why we were here.
“Can a Champion from one kingdom rule in another? How does that change the goddesses’ game?” Ember’s eyes were bright as she thought through the implications. I didn’t want to interrupt her. I hadn’t seen her this alive since before the Blessing Ceremony.
“They arrive.”
“Later, Chaos.” I leaned close so that if anyone saw us as we finished our conversation, it would help sell the story I planned to tell them—so long as Ember agreed. “She’d never consider Chaos’s Champion would associate in such a way with Themis’s. I only want to protect you. Let me.”
The pinch between Ember’s brows said she heard the words for what they were: her choice.
She shivered as she held my gaze. I didn’t glance again at the approaching party.
They must only be steps away, but Charon hid us briefly beneath his wing.
We stood close enough that I felt her deep breath when her spine straightened, as if those few inches from me granted her the fresh air she desperately needed.
“Fine,” she said, just as Charon’s wings receded to show a dozen guards.
The prickle of Queen Lucinda’s glare pulled my attention to where she stood at the center of the group.
She looked older than my father, even though she wasn’t.
Wrinkles lined her face, and her hair had grayed.
She kept it wrapped in a tight bun atop her head.
The crown that rested on her brow boasted only quartz. I’d tested it before.
She blinked in recognition. “Sebastien. You have a dragon.”
I’d already grown used to Charon’s presence, but the low growl that rumbled behind me contested the queen’s assumption. Her guards raised their blades and tightened the circle around her.
No wonder she’d come to greet us herself. Even if Charon blended in better in Linia, his presence would be questioned by the queen. There were few enough dragons on the continent that she likely knew all who passed through her kingdom.
“Surely, someone else should have investigated that particular fact for you, Lucinda,” I said.
A blush tinged her cheeks, but she didn’t flinch. “I won’t have you telling me how to run my kingdom, Sebastien. You’re hardly a role model for leadership.”