The date was set.
If we took Elias’s words at face value, he warned that if we didn’t attack within two days, we shouldn’t bother doing so at all. We messaged Reid immediately through Harrow, but we had the same circular discussion a dozen times on the return trip to the Storm.
“It has to be a trap, right?” Alysa asked. “They’ll know now about your secret entrance into the city.”
“I don’t know,” Hart replied through grittedteeth.
“If that were his plan, why not have guards capture Hart then and there? Why prolong it?” I asked.
None of us had good answers. My gut said that, for whatever reason, Elias had chosen to help his brother. I didn’t have to know why. It didn’t even have to make sense. Maybe Elias thought this was all in his own best interest somehow. The reason might help us sleep better, but the information itself was enough to go on.
As with many things in this game of goddesses, if we wanted to change things in Kavios, we had little choice but to act.
Early the next morning, Reid sent a reply saying a mole had been identified and dealt with. Nissa, the woman who’d spoken so harshly of Hart’s control over me, had been seen meeting with Vaddon in an alley on Cross Street. He also said they would muster the Feared in the required time. The shortened window wasn’t ideal, but Reid seemed to understand that it was now or never. In a way, Elias’s message helped us stay ahead of this leak. We had discussed a joint attack to be planned in five days, not two. Though Rodric knew we were here, that we had to be planning something, any information Vaddon had collected last night was already irrelevant.
Hart and I slipped away when we returned. We hiked to the copse of trees where we’d spent the prior afternoon. In the morning, we’d finish the trip to Charon’s cave. He deserved a chance to participate. He had as much, if not more, motivation to dethrone Rodric than the rest of us.
I felt greedy for Hart as I curled into him with only a shared bedroll and blanket between us. “Do we have a chance?” I cupped his cheek with my ungloved hand. Part of me wished so desperately that he could take my fear. Alysa and a few of the Storm had filled our adamas stones. Hart and I were still unable to take from each other or anyone else.
“A chance, absolutely. But nothing more is ever known in a battle of this scale. Even if we do have the element of surprise, Rodric still has a hundred Blessed guards, and a hundred more Blessed to be called in should need arise.”
All with adamas. All capable of wielding the stone’s magic.
Our experience with an attack in the Oldwood when I was Jeweler said that the Blessed not serving as guards were not as dangerous as we might think. Many weren’t used to wielding magic in a fight. They preferred to overpower those helpless around them. If we made it a real fight, with both the Feared and Storm pushing back on the exploitation of humans in Kavios, things might not be so much in the Blessed’s favor.
Hart’s words did little to soothe my fear, but I liked hearing them anyway.
“What are you afraid of, Chaos?” Hart whispered into the inches that separated us. He could still taste my fear, even if he couldn’t take it.
As with all of Hart’s questions, it was the right one to ask. I wasn’t truly afraid of Rodric, or of his Blessed. I feared what failure would mean for those who joined us. “How many will die for this?”
Hart didn’t respond quickly. He considered the question. “The Feared would have led an attack with less chance of success on their own. They have decided to give their lives for this. Like some of those you spoke with in the tavern, they want a better life for those they love. They are willing to sacrifice for it.”
“Does that absolve us of responsibility for their safety?”
His finger stroked my cheek. “They didn’t ask us to keep them safe. They asked us to change the tide of Kavios. Every one of them was given a choice. Especially the Storm. Those who go with us want to fight for a path to return to the city they called home.”
The heat of our connection flared, although the casual, almost lazy drag of his finger against my skin had a calming magic of its own. In the safety of his touch, I offered him one of my truths. “I fear for the time we may never get.”
Hart’s gaze met my own. “We were never guaranteed time together, Chaos. In fact, we were guaranteed to be adversaries. We defied expectations and fought for every moment together so far. This changes nothing.” He pressed his lips briefly to mine. “We’ve made the most of the time we have. I, for one, will continue to do so.”
The brush of his lips wasn’t enough. I pulled him closer, demanding more. The slide of his tongue against mine as I opened to him set my body aflame. In this same copse of trees, I had decided to seize the time we had. Our future was still shrouded in uncertainty. We still didn’t know if we could free Hart from Themis. If Rodric truly sought to become Themis’s Champion somehow, we had even more to fear. The Blessed were Rodric’s creation when he’d sought to serve Themis. What horrors would he create if he were truly her tool, ruled by the whispers of the throne?
Hart bit my lip. “Are you with me, Chaos?”
With one look into those forest green eyes, I returned. Hart was here. He was mine. We would make the most of the time we had. And we would fight for a better Kavios to call home.
I kissed him again. My lips traced his jaw, his neck. His hands were in my hair as he told me he loved me. He’d worship me every chance he had. And that a lifetime together wouldn’t feel like enough.
He rolled me onto my back as I helped him peel his tunic from his sculpted chest. Even in the dark, I could appreciate the view.
“You have no idea what you do to me,” he whispered as he captured my lips in another kiss. I soaked in the contact andreveled in every place our skin touched. Our connection burned through whatever fate should have separated us.
His mouth moved to my breast, drenching my blouse with his attention. I lifted my arms, and he pulled it free. His tongue and teeth worked together on the peaked tip. My back arched, and he wrapped an arm beneath me. His broad frame surrounding me only made me want more. More of him. More of this. More of us. A throaty moan slipped free as his teeth toyed with me.
“That’s it.” He caught the sound with another kiss, his calloused hands palming my breasts where his mouth had been. “Give me the noises only I can draw forth.”
He kissed my neck and reached for the hem of my skirt, pulling it up. A whimper escaped me as his fingers toyed with my undergarments, already wet with my desire for him.
