“I believe so. Eris’s magic recognizes and calls its own.”
Hart had said that before, too. When we freed Charon from the mines, it was why my magic had to heal him. “I’m sorry it took me so long to realize. I’m sorry you were trapped.”
His tail flicked as a shiver looped around his partially curled spine.“You were a child. And the adults in your life did everything in their power to keep you ignorant of your calling.”
Anger flared in my chest. “Alaric did what he thought was best.”
“Yes. He did.”
There was something in the way Charon chosenotto argue with me that drove me to defend Alaric further. “He spent every spare moment teaching me not to accept information at first glance. To dig deeper, to pull back the curtain on what an author didn’t want the reader to know. He trained me for his own deception.”
Deception.
The word rang like a bell struck—a warning I’d missed. My face fell into my palms before I could stop it. My sinuses stung, but still I wouldn’t allow tears to fall. I hadn’t since we left Kavios.
Yes, Alaric had deceived me. The man who had taught me what was right and what was wrong. He’d taught me how to form my own opinions. He’d taught me to trust my gut. But he’d never told me the single most crucial piece of information about myself: that I was Chaos’s Champion.
Prophecies foretold I could change the tides of Kavios. I need only accept my calling and take the throne before Order’s Champion—before Hart.
It should be simple, given Hart had proven multiple times that he didn’t want it. I still didn’t know what to do with that. He’d even claimed he’d help me, and Ireallydidn’t know what to do withthat.
“That was a bit much, even for you, Charon,” Hart said from the doorway.
I turned to stare over my shoulder. “How long have you been listening?”
“Long enough.”
I glared at Charon for good measure. He must have spoken into Hart’s mind as well as mine.
“The Cursed was already coming to check on you.”
“Why do you call him that?” If Charon was in the mood to answer questions this morning, I wanted more. I didn’t want to speak of kingdoms or thrones or my uncle’s deception. Not with Hart listening. Not until I had more answers myself.
“He is Cursed.”
I waved my hands in exasperation. “So am I, yet you call me Champion.”
Hart crossed his arms over his chest as if he enjoyed the show. It only served to annoy me further.
“You would have me call you both Cursed? Cursed One and Cursed Two?”Smoke rose from Charon’s nostrils with his chuff.“That is ridiculous, Champion.”
Champion. I let my head fall into my hands again as theword echoed through my mind. Alaric had thought I’d save Kavios. My own father thought I might destroy it. With smoke rising from Charon’s snout, I no longer faulted him for that sentiment, but neither did I want to dwell on it.
“If you and I are connected because of Chaos’s magic…” I raised my head, a new thought unspooling, and I desperately tried to grasp it. “And if magic is balanced … what is Hart connected to?”
Charon’s teeth gleamed in the morning’s first rays of sunlight. He looked terrifying, but I knew he was proud of my question. He didn’t answer it, though. His golden gaze shifted to Hart.
“The throne,” Hart said, still leaning against the doorway. “The throne pulls me toward it at all times.”
My mouth hung open. I tried to snap it shut, to remain unaffected by this new piece of information. Really, I shouldn’t be surprised there was more he had hidden from me. It seemed to be a pattern with those I trusted. I shook my head. “The way Charon’s magic called to me through the Oldwood?”
Hart considered my question as if I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. “I would guess the connection is more similar to the way Themis summons and Eris calls.”
I swallowed. There were times when Charon’s magic had pulled me under in the Oldwood, had influenced me heavily, but that seemed more about hearing the message in the first place. Once I’d heard it, the effects had lessened. As with becoming Eris’s Champion, saving Charon had been my choice. The Cursed King’s story was the opposite. Themis summoned her Champions—a demand to serve. Many would claim it was an honor, but Hart’s legend was that he did not.
How hard did the throne pull him toward his goddess’s goal?
As much as I wanted to say that none of this made sense, Iremembered his reactions to the throne room. The first time I’d been called there as Jeweler to the Blessed was the first time I had seen him panic. I’d believed it due to my audience with King Rodric.
