Chapter 42
Dragonfire can burn away all manner of sins.
— ALARIC SARE’S PAPERS FOR EMBERLINE ARKOVA
Eris was a vision of the darkest nights and the most unexpected torments.
She was chaos incarnate, her unconventional laugh echoing through the room.
The flame red of her hair fell to the middle of her back, her black dress billowed as if she had landed from the heavens.
The now-familiar blood-red color painted on her lips was no less terrifying as she smiled in my direction.
With the slightest nod of her head, she turned, placing herself between her sister and us.
Themis’s hands went to her hips, clutching at her form-fitting white dress. “You cannot interfere.”
Hart seemed unsure what to do. He stood behind Eris, with me positioned directly behind him. With the healing magic from Elias’s adamas stone, I was as good as new, but I didn’t think that would help against a goddess if one of them decided to attack.
Charon approached, his snout bumping into my back to let me know he was there. “You did well, Ember.”
I didn’t know if I’d ever get used to him calling me anything besides Champion, but I took his use of my name as further proof that my choice had worked. I wasn’t a Champion anymore.
Eris laughed again at her sister, and it sounded like a haunting ringing of bells. “That’s rich, given what I just walked into.”
Themis lifted her chin. “She ended the game. I can do whatever I want to her.” She spread her arms to encompass the entire throne room. “To any of them!”
“Ah, ah, ah, dear sister,” Eris said playfully.
She toyed with Themis even though the Goddess of Order’s rigid posture signaled that she was a bow string pulled too taut, likely to snap at any second. I could not comprehend the relationship between these sisters.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear her choice. She chose to end the game. She chose no Champions in Kavios. No influence of the goddesses”—she gestured between herself and her sister—“will drive this kingdom. Each citizen will choose their own fate. Those were her words.”
“She demands too much,” Themis said through gritted teeth.
Eris waved away her sister’s concern. “We each designed a way out. It’s not my fault that yours lacked creativity.”
Themis looked like she might lunge at Eris. Then her gaze shifted to the pendant that glowed with seven colors around my neck.
Hart seemed to notice the same moment I did. “Fucking Chaos,” he hissed, turning his back on the goddesses.
“This isn’t over,” Themis started. I didn’t hear the rest.
Hart’s green eyes searched mine, and the taste of his fear coated my tongue. “We have to finish this, Chaos. She’ll take the emotion from the necklace, erase the trials, claim we didn’t meet the requirements of Eris’s loophole…”
My mind spun, and finally, I understood why Themis had chosen him.
It wasn’t just his charisma, his drive. It was the way he considered everything, the logic and order of his thought patterns, which I had only learned over years of study with Alaric.
Of course, he was right. Themis would find any way to discredit us.
Any path she took would show we didn’t follow the rules, that we were unfit to claim our choice.
“It’s finished, Themis. There is nothing more for you to do.” The sisters were still locked in their standoff. The way Eris needled Themis with her words, the slight tilt of her head in my direction when she first arrived … if I didn’t know any better, I would say she bought us time.
Time to cement my choice. To end the cycle of Champions in Kavios. To free the city of the goddesses’ hold. To give the people here a chance to choose their own fate.
We had to act fast, and I had a pretty good idea of what we needed to do. “She’ll need you before the end.” That was what Scarlett had told Charon.
I had needed him. I’d needed him to storm the castle. I’d needed him in the throne room to trigger my choice, and I believed I needed him again now.
The postscript of Alaric’s pages had held an interesting note: Dragonfire can burn away all manner of sins.
I had thought this referred to Hart’s sins, those of the Champion denying his summons—those of a young man desperate to do anything to avoid the fate demanded of him.
I thought it referred to Charon and Hart fighting it out and moving forward, toward their shared goal.
Now I considered the words in a new light.
When Alaric and I had worked the adamas stones, we used adamas to cut and shape them.
It took something hard and powerful to work the stone’s delicate lines.
I’d proved in the Oldwood that a standard gem saw could do some damage.
It could break pieces into smaller pieces, but it couldn’t whittle, work, and grind the hardest stone into dust.
Only adamas could truly destroy adamas.
But was that entirely true?
I wanted to destroy this pendant so that there was no chance Themis could suck the emotion from the stone.
I wanted no opportunity for her to require a do-over.
Yes, I could probably chip away at each of these stones with an adamas knife, until they were little more than dust in the wind. But we didn’t have time for that.
Dragonfire can burn away all manner of sins.
The heat of my connection with Hart flared as I thought, maybe, I could burn them away with dragonfire. It was Charon’s flame, after all, that had granted the adamas stones their magic.
“Charon,” I whispered as the sisters continued to debate the merits of my claim to dismantle their game in Kavios. “Charon, will your flame destroy this?”
I could tell now when he smiled. It was still all teeth, but the twist of the scales near his eyes told me everything I needed to know. “It is my creation, Ember, willing or not. Of course, my fire can destroy it.”
Something in me clicked with his words, and that near-physical connection between Hart and me burned to life with the thought. I held the pendant up for both sisters to see. “I claim my prize. Our trials are complete. Our choice is made. Do either of you deny us?”
Eris’s sly grin said I’d taken the most chaotic path, which happened to be her preference. I could have just had Charon destroy it, but I wouldn’t allow Themis to claim she hadn’t seen the pendant glowing in full.
“Do either of you deny us?” I shouted again.
The sweet taste of Hart’s joy mingled with the bitter taste of his fear. Both goddesses were still far too close for his liking. He shifted so that both goddesses could see the pendant as I held it, but the breadth of his body hid mine from view.
“I see the trials complete,” Eris said. Her knowing gaze shot to her sister’s. “What do you see, Themis?”
Themis looked like a tempest ready to wreak havoc. If chaos was passion and heat, like the flame that burned between Hart and me, then order was ice and restraint. It was clear my actions tested Themis’s now. The temperature in the room plummeted as we backed the Goddess of Order into a corner.
“Themis,” Eris warned. “We agreed.”
Once again, I was at a loss to understand the game these sisters played. They had rules they followed and rules they ignored, and it appeared that only the two of them understood the distinction. It made me wonder if their game had higher stakes than which kingdom worshipped which goddess.
“Fine.” Themis threw her hands in the air. “I see the trials complete.”
The words had barely left Themis’s lips when I tossed the pendant into the air and yelled. “Together, Charon!”
Charon was ready. His maw was already open, and fire erupted from it.
I didn’t know how I understood this could work, but in this moment, I was confident that I could help. This thing between Hart and me was bigger than a game of goddesses. It was powerful, it was magic, it was fire and flame.
It was ours. And we would use it now to end this.
Heat licked up my spine, and I turned the hand that tossed the pendant so that my palm faced out.
I pulled from my connection with Hart. That fire, that heat, just below the surface of our skin came rushing forward and flame burst forth from my hand.
The ice of Themis’s fury from moments ago was replaced with a heat so intense I thought I might pass out.
“I’ve got you, Chaos.” Hart braced me as fire poured forth.
The flame turned white with its intensity. I could no longer see the pendant within the blaze, yet more heat surged through me.
“Just another moment, Ember.”
I fought for breath as Hart turned me toward the throne.
Charon’s fire followed as Hart aimed us at the last remnant of his father’s reign.
This wasn’t just about destroying the game.
It was about the adamas in this city and its hold on the people.
We wanted them to choose their own fates, after all.
The room grew hotter, stickier. The air was so thick I couldn’t quite gulp down a breath.
Then, as quickly as it had started, the heat retreated.
Ash was the only remaining evidence of the throne’s gems or the necklace that saw us through these trials.
Something released in the room, like a door opening or a candle snuffing out.
I wanted to believe that this was another shift of power.
A final conclusion on the goddesses’ hold on this city.
The magic of goddesses and adamas would no longer determine the fates of the citizens of Kavios.
Each person would choose their own.
Strong hands held me when I thought I’d fall. I knew the feel of Hart’s hands like my own—like I knew the taste of his emotions. That magic that I’d just proved had nothing to do with the goddess’s curse at all.
We’d channeled flame through the force of our connection. I’d unpack that later, but now, this new facet felt like a natural conclusion of everything we were to each other. I wanted to sink into him. I wanted to be done. I wanted him to carry me to wherever we needed to be next.
But the temperature in the room plummeted again. “You stupid bitch!” Themis stormed forward, toward the spot where I’d tossed the pendant. Every step was permeated with frost. Crystals zipped across the floor, turning the marble into an icy sheet.
Hart moved me behind him and Charon. The taste of Hart’s fear was potent, but the smile that tilted Eris’s lips told me it was misplaced.
“We’re done here, Themis. Neither of us is welcome in Kavios any longer.”
“What did you do?” Themis raged at her sister.
“As I said, dear, it’s not my fault if your solution lacked creativity. Now, we must leave.”
Her final words had the power of a solemn vow. They sent another ripple of power cascading through the throne room. This one blew open the doors, and I knew in my bones that it was headed toward the city.
“Why would you allow this?” Themis shrieked.
“This is well within our agreement. I suggest you refocus your frustration.”
Themis growled. “This isn’t over. I will win elsewhere.” With a final glare in my direction, she disappeared.
Eris gave a final curtsy as if she, too, prepared for a dramatic exit.
“Wait,” I said.
Hart stiffened, and my favorite words to inspire fell from his lips. “Fucking Chaos. Couldn’t we let them leave?”
I smirked at him and turned to the goddess. “The flavor of our emotions. That we can taste each other’s. Our fire. Our connection. Those weren’t part of your curse, were they?”
Eris’s stare seemed to penetrate my entire being. I almost wished I’d let her leave. Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe I hadn’t helped burn the pendant and the throne to ashes.
She raised a brow at me. “They were not.”
“I thought the connection had to do with being Champions,” I said.
Hart took my hand in his. The heat between us was more potent than ever.
She shook her head. “Your connection was unique because you were poised to be opponents in our game, but it was always yours.”
Hart’s piercing green gaze darted between the goddess and me.
“You didn’t disappoint, Ember. You certainly challenged what was known.” With a final wink in my direction, Eris, too, disappeared.