Chapter 41
Challenge what is known.
— ALARIC SARE’S PAPERS FOR EMBERLINE ARKOVA
Rodric’s body slumped and toppled down the dais as Vaddon’s dagger receded.
My mind spun, tracking this new development as I stood between Charon’s massive legs.
They’d borne the brunt of Themis’s explosion of magic, which was good because I’d used my healing magic on Charon earlier.
He’d taken a spear to the neck. He claimed it wouldn’t have killed him, but there was no way I could watch him suffer so horrendously.
None of the other guards had gotten close to us. Charon’s defense had given me precious moments to attempt to force the pendant to activate. I’d spoken my choice aloud. I’d said it in my own mind. I’d ensured Charon touched the pendant as I did so.
Nothing worked.
I was out of ideas.
With Themis’s arrival, I needed to focus on the dais. Things were getting messy. At this point, everyone had tried to sacrifice someone. So at least we knew the ritual they relied on required it.
But what else? Vaddon had joined the fray and slashed at the back of Hart’s neck while Hart fought another guard. But the advisor hadn’t pressed his advantage. He’d retreated.
Elias had made a move to sacrifice his father. I shouldn’t be surprised. He also seemed to have called Themis to watch this spectacle. Elias was nothing if not a showman. But he hadn’t been the one to strike the killing blow against his father.
That was concerning.
“My sacrifice, and the blood of the Champion.” Vaddon held up the dagger, which gleamed with Hart’s blood. “I’ve met the requirements. I am worthy to be yours.”
Themis’s nostrils flared as she strolled the perimeter of the dais.
She might as well be on a morning walk instead of witnessing a trio of attempted murders in her name.
“Do you really think to offer me so little? The blood of the Champion should show your ability to dominate, not your ability to run and hide.”
The rapid beats of my heart had me near breathless as her words registered.
She wanted Vaddon to kill Hart.
Elias lunged for Vaddon. No part of me believed it was in Hart’s defense. Vaddon had stolen the opportunity that Elias had worked so hard to create. Desperation fueled his movements, as evidenced by the wild swings of his sword.
The throne glowed red. I tracked where Vaddon’s hand touched it, summoning anger from the cacophony of gems built into the headrest. Briefly, I remembered the request Rodric had made of me before I fled.
He’d wanted adamas built into a crown. It would have taken all my skill as a jeweler to do such delicate work.
I imagined the best his people could do, once my family had defected, was to insert the preselected gems into the chair back.
It was a dangerous amount of power.
Elias didn’t have a moment to react before Vaddon’s boot hit his stomach. With the might of eight glowing red gems behind him, Elias was flung back from the dais, landing in a heap to the side of the room.
From red, the gems shifted to blue. Vaddon called on the calming magic Rodric had so highly prized.
I wasn’t sure who it was aimed at. Alysa?
She and Elias were the only two left in the room that the magic would impact.
Alysa tilted her head and wandered away from where Hart had protected her from Themis’s attack.
She was calm to the point of apathy almost immediately, and not even the youngleaf she chewed seemed to help.
Fear shot down my spine as the tense muscles of Hart’s shoulders released. His head swayed back and forth as if he heard music none of us could. How could the magic of the adamas impact him? The stones had no effect on Champions.
“The transition of power has begun,” Charon said. “He’s not fully a Champion now that Vaddon offered the sacrifice.”
I wanted to ask how he knew, but it was irrelevant, as Vaddon’s footsteps echoed down the dais.
He ignored Elias, a crumpled heap on the floor, and retrieved another adamas stone from a fallen guard.
The gem glowed blue almost immediately as his strides brought him closer to where Hart swayed. Alone. Undefended.
“We have to do something,” I whispered.
“What exactly do you have in mind?”
Wasn’t that the question? Though I was unimpacted by the calming magic, I knew I wasn’t better than Vaddon with a blade. Still, if that was my only option, I had to try.
“Get Alysa away from there,” I said to Charon. We’d lost everyone else. I needed to get her out of here alive.
Vaddon’s sword raised as he crossed the distance to Hart. Themis watched his progress with a slight curve to her lip. She appeared … impressed by this display.
I had to act. My only choice was to unleash the stored fear in my adamas ring. It wouldn’t help Alysa’s condition.
She screamed as the nightmares took hold. With only moments gained, I couldn’t waste them. I sprinted from beneath Charon, headed directly for Hart. “Get Alysa!”
My heart broke as I realized my nightmare magic affected Hart, too. He screamed my name, and I didn’t have to imagine the scenarios he witnessed in his mind. I shut down my guilt at causing him this pain. He’d consider it worthwhile if we accomplished our goal.
The physical presence of our connection seemed to throb with each step I took toward him. My every move echoed the words I’d whispered earlier. Hart didn’t want to be Themis’s Champion—he chose differently. He wasn’t supposed to have to die for this to work.
I spared a glance at the pendant as I ran. It gave me nothing.
Choice. He wanted to choose. He had tried to choose. Why wouldn’t it let him?
You’re going to have to think bigger.
Eris’s words circled in my thoughts as, mentally, I reached for the connection to Hart. The steps in Themis’s escape clause seemed so clear. Make a sacrifice, spill the blood of the Champion. Why had Eris’s trials not come with a similar instruction manual?
Heat flooded me, like it always did when Hart and I touched. Except now I wasn’t touching him.
My steps faltered.
Of course Themis’s path would have order to it. And Eris’s path would demand chaos.
I picked up my pace, knowing my nightmares would only last a moment longer. I needed to be across the room at Hart’s side by then.
Break the curse. Free Hart from the game.
Those had been our goals, but they hadn’t been big enough for my goddess. I’d always intended to stay Eris’s Champion. I had truly believed I could help Kavios in my role. It was part of why I had chosen the path in the first place.
But maybe I didn’t need the designation of Champion to do hard things.
I’d been doing them my entire life.
My mind spun with each step, with each breath, with each unsteady beat of my heart. I wanted to save Kavios. I wanted to save Hart. I wanted the goddesses’ game to never be a problem for our kingdom ever again. No loopholes. No second chances.
The purple glow of my ring faltered.
Vaddon shook himself free of the nightmares with rapid efficiency as I ran. He moved faster now, though still working to remain steady on his feet. Each step brought him closer to Hart.
Though Vaddon’s sword raised, Hart made no move to defend himself. His shouts had stopped, but he had yet to recover from the nightmare magic.
Break the curse. Free Hart from the game.
Free Hart from the game.
I had been looking at this wrong. It wasn’t that I wanted Hart to choose not to be Themis’s Champion. I wanted him to have never had to make that choice to begin with. I wanted the goddesses to leave us to our fates.
I wanted the game not to exist in Kavios at all.
Black flashed in my periphery as the adamas of the dragon’s eye finally came to life.
I didn’t hesitate. “I choose to end the game. I choose no Champions in Kavios. No influence of the goddesses will drive this kingdom. Each citizen will choose their own fate.”
Darkness so black I couldn’t see my own hand in front of me coated the throne room. My only reassurance was Charon’s voice in my head. “Yes, Ember. Keep going.”
It was the first time he hadn’t called me Champion.
I imagined Charon behind me and the throne ahead. My sprint would have put me equidistant between the two representations of power. While I wasn’t next to Hart, I felt our connection as strongly as if I held his hand now. I repeated the words louder into the darkness.
“I choose to end the game. I choose no Champions in Kavios. No influence of the goddesses will drive this kingdom. Each citizen will choose their own fate.”
Though Hart didn’t move, I tasted the fruity flavor of his joy. He might not be able to speak, but I knew he was with me. I hoped that was enough for the trial.
Power shifted in the throne room, and I was confident that Hart’s joy was evidence enough.
If I could see the pendant, it would have glowed black instead of flashing.
The magic that surged in me wasn’t only one emotion.
It was all of them. Anger, sadness, joy, lust, envy, and fear rolled through me.
I was alight with them, each reminding me of how Hart had broken down my walls and made me stronger for it.
Then the darkness lifted.
Steps still separated me from Hart. I didn’t waste time checking the pendant.
Hart was on his knees, seeming to have recovered from the nightmare magic but not ready to defend.
His mouth moved slowly, as if he mumbled his reinforcement of the choice I’d made on our behalf.
He must have done so even through his nightmares.
It was such a typical Hart thing to do—support me against all odds.
It unfortunately meant that his sword was on the ground at his side.
Vaddon was too close, and he was poised to strike.
Nothing in life was guaranteed. That was part of how I’d found joy. Time with Hart had never been a given. That was what made each and every moment of it precious. As he’d pointed out, we were fated to be opponents in a game of goddesses. We should never have become allies, let alone lovers.
That had been our choice. With the odds stacked against us, we’d chosen each other. He’d chosen me over his Feared. He’d chosen me over his plans. He’d chosen me over and over again when I couldn’t see my own path.
I’d chosen him, too.
And if we had the power to break this game of goddesses, if I had the power to free Kavios from Rodric’s oppressive rule, I certainly wasn’t going to let Vaddon fucking Camm take Hart from me.
Vaddon lifted the sword higher, his strike aimed to sever Hart’s head from his neck. There had to be limits to the healing magic of the adamas gem. I wasn’t willing to test them.
Vaddon swung.
I lunged, throwing myself between Vaddon and Hart with only a dagger to defend us.
The steel of Vaddon’s sword clanged against the short length of my blade.
But I couldn’t hold it in place. No amount of training with Alaric could make such a small weapon defend against such an attack.
I screamed as Vaddon’s blade knocked my dagger from my hand and cut a diagonal line of fire blazing across my shoulder and chest.
I fell to the cold marble floor. Pain surged through me. Searing agony flared with every slowing beat of my heart.
Vaddon’s face appeared above me. The oily slick of his hair was the absolute last thing I wanted to see at the moment.
“I knew I should have taken care of you myself,” he mumbled.
Charon roared from across the room. He’d listened to me and saved Alysa, but that meant Vaddon had an opening to strike me down. The advisor gripped his sword with both hands and drove it down toward my chest.
Every part of me wanted to reject this ending for me and Hart.
It was too much like my parents’—finding each other only to have Mother go somewhere Father couldn’t follow.
I thought of Hart. Freed from Themis, he was the leader this kingdom needed.
He could give the humans here a good life.
My lips twitched ever so slightly into a smile as I thought of the words he’d said in the dingy hallway of my apartment building when I’d told him that a love like my parents’ was dangerous.
“It sounds like the lesson is not to let your partner go somewhere you can’t follow.”
Wait, did he say the words aloud now, or in my thoughts? The pain overtook me. My tenuous grasp on awareness blurred the lines. Then the sickening sound of steel sinking into flesh filled my ears. Yet no new pain pierced my skin.
Vaddon flailed back. His sword clanged against the floor, and another blade was driven through his chest.
Hart didn’t spare him a second glance as he dropped to his knees beside me. “Chaos.” The word hung between us, filled with too much emotion. It sounded like a thousand nights together we’d never have.
He might have killed Vaddon. We might have broken the game in Kavios, but nothing else was guaranteed.
I coughed blood, and the look on Hart’s face said this couldn’t be good. “Alysa, Charon, get some fucking adamas!”
His own stone clinked to the floor next to him, and he cursed again. I hadn’t seen him try it. He searched the room, grabbed one of the fallen Storm, and tried their stone. It struck the ground next. Panic flared to life in his eyes. The bitter taste of his fear was on my tongue.
Distantly, I thought that should have ended. I shouldn’t be able to taste his emotions, but I couldn’t remember why.
“I love you,” I whispered, though I fought for breath to choke out each word.
He scooped me into his arms and pressed his lips to my forehead. Maybe he realized he was out of time. Stone and metal slid against marble. Hart said something under his breath. He gripped an adamas pendant in one hand and pressed his other over my chest, channeling healing magic into me.
My back bowed as the magic flooded my body. The heat of my connection with Hart covered all manner of sins, but I felt the adamas’s power knit me back together. Like delicate needlework, reconnecting parts inside me that should never have been severed.
It felt too good to be true, but my breaths evened out, and the pain receded.
I looked into forest green eyes that said they’d never, not for a second, given up on me.
“That is unacceptable.” That cold, cruel voice filled the room. For the first time, it wasn’t directed at me. Themis’s attention was turned to Elias where he sat on the floor. His arm was still outstretched from sliding his adamas pendant to Hart. The one used to heal me.
Themis’ rage was an ice cold thing. “She ruined my game. I deserve to see her take her last breath.”
The glowing outline of Themis stormed in our direction. Hart was on his feet, steadying me behind him as he prepared for another battle I wasn’t sure we could win. If the game had truly ended, there was no reason she couldn’t kill me. It wouldn’t even be interfering.
Themis charged forward. “I didn’t invest two hundred years just to have—”
Darkness overtook the light that glowed around the goddess, and a too-familiar, childlike giggle filled the room.