Just as we’d taken the throne.
Hart’s gaze tracked to what remained of his father’s empty seat. It was mostly ash. He shook his head and clapped Nicholas’s shoulder. His narrowed gaze begged the question Reid had been too occupied to answer and Nicholas had avoided.
“We lost many,” Nicholas said. “Over fifty men and women, but when the citizens realized what was happening, what Charon’s arrival meant, hundreds joined in. They brought whatever they had on hand and helped overwhelm the Blessed.”
Charon huffed smoke from his nostrils.
Nicholas coughed and dipped his head in acknowledgement. “The dragon didn’t hurt things, either.”
Hart nodded and glanced at me. “I can’t say everything went according to plan, but Ember found a way through. She always does.”
“We all knew the risks,” Nicholas said. “If the pulses of magic we felt from the throne room were any indication, it seems you succeeded when it counted.”
“The sibling goddesses no longer hold sway over Kavios. Every citizen controls their own fate—decides their own path. Ember chose a future for Kavios that benefited us all.”
I squeezed Hart’s hand again as hespoke. A swell of emotion flooded between us, so intense that I wasn’t sure whose was whose.
Nicholas turned to face me and gave a respectful bow. “We owe you much, Emberline.”
The group of Feared and Storm gave Elias a wary look. He was likely the only person in the room whom they couldn’t make sense of.
Hart massaged his temples. “I can’t have you roaming the streets, Elias. You may have helped, but you did nothing to stop Rodric’s abuse of humans.”
Elias took a steadying breath, but his face gave nothing away. “What will you do with me, brother?”
Hart shook his head and looked at me.
“We don’t know yet,” I replied when Hart couldn’t. “We’ll need you to remain in your rooms for a few days while we determine the most appropriate course of action.”
With an untroubled smirk that looked too much like his brother’s, Elias gave me a brief nod and left the throne room. Hart sent a few of the Feared to keep an eye on him.
“We don’t have all of the adamas accounted for yet,” Reid said, finally returning to the conversation after his reunion with Alysa.
I scratched my temple. “Alaric has a catalog of all the gems he made. We can use it to take inventory and collect the rest of the outstanding pieces.”
Reid dipped his chin. “I can send someone to the shop tonight.”
The Feared and the Storm may have secured the castle, but who knew how many Blessed never entered the fight?
“I should go to evaluate Alaric’s notes,” I said. I doubted my ability to source the adamas would have been retained with the loss of the goddess’s magic, but either way, I knew Alaric’s work better than anyone else. It’d be faster if I did it.
With a hard thump, Charon’s tail slammed down between me and the door.“Absolutely not, Ember. You need to rest. The inventory of gemstones can wait.”
Hart nodded. “I agree with the dragon.”
“As if I need the Cursed?—”
I laughed, and a weight that had been sitting on my shoulders lifted. Hart’s eyes widened with the sound, and I knew it had been too long since I’d done so. “He’s no longer the Cursed King. You’re going to need to address him by one of his other names.”
Smoke rose from Charon’s nostrils.
I turned to Hart. “I think he prefers Hart, but if you wanted to annoy him, you could probably call him Seb.”
Hart’s smile was warm, and it made the throne room feel like it wasn’t evidence of all the terrible things we’d had to endure to save the kingdom.
Alysa missed half the conversation, but she didn’t seem to mind. “The Feared have secured things enough for tonight. We’re all taking rooms in the castle for now. May I assume you can find your way to one? If the dragon will let you?”
“I’m sure my old room in the tower is unoccupied,” Hart said.
