“Delphine started it,” Lucinda replied as she cut into her meat. “The king who ruled before her calling was much like Rodric. He knew controlling information controlled the population.”
“And Delphine, she was your great-grandmother?” I asked conversationally. Without the longevity of the Blessed’s magic, Linia had been through many more generations of rulers than Kavios had. I guessed that was why the royal family knew something of Rodric’s Blessed and Hart’s summons.
Lucinda nodded. “As I’m sure you read, she chose a brutal path. She took on a burden I’m not sure I could have. Yet, even when she regretted it personally, she knew it to be the right choice for her people. Linia wouldn’t be the kingdom it is today without her actions.”
Yes, the fact that Delphine had to kill Themis’s Championhad been clear. Delphine hadn’t wanted to do it, but she hadn’t hesitated when the time came.
Hart took a sip of his wine, then asked the question that had also jumped to my mind. “Did she ever try to reverse her choice?”
Blair’s spine straightened, as if she’d reply in anger. Lucinda’s hand covered her daughter’s in warning before she spoke. “You know the calling is different than the summons, Sebastien. I can’t imagine why it would matter to you.”
Her smile turned sharp as she tipped the rest of her wine into her mouth. She placed the empty glass on the table and glanced around the room. None of the servants remained. I hadn’t seen them leave.
“Sebastien, I wonder if you’d be so good as to fetch one of the servants for us?”
Hart’s gaze locked on mine as his muscles drew tight and the salty taste of his worry dotted my tongue. He didn’t like the idea of separating. After the attack today, I agreed with him, but I wondered if there was more to Lucinda’s request. If there was something she wanted to say that she wouldn’t in front of Themis’s Champion.
I rested my gloved hand atop Hart’s. His gaze found mine immediately as the evidence of our connection flared to life. “Go.”
His lips flattened, but he must have seen the resolve in my face. The wooden chair scraped against the marble floor as he stood. My fingers touched the hilt of my dagger beneath my dress as he exited the room.
“You’re in no danger from us,” Blair said with a glance at the door closing behind Hart. “We only want to ensure you know your options.”
The more they spoke, the more fear prickled along myspine. I pushed it down, lest the awareness bring Hart barreling back through the door in my defense.
“Some of my comments earlier appeared to give you pause,” Lucinda said.
While true, it wasn’t something I would acknowledge without more information.
“Fortunately, or unfortunately, Emberline, I know more about you than I probably should.” She sighed, and it sounded heavy, as if her next words carried a burden she’d never asked for. “Usually, I wouldn’t entangle myself in the affairs of other royals, but I found the incentive too good to pass up.”
Discomfort urged me to reach for my dagger even though I pushed down any fear that fought to rise in my throat. Had she accepted some reward from Rodric to deal with me? No one else was in the room. The Queen of Linia wouldn’t drive a blade through me herself, would she?
“It appears you and Sebastien are … involved, but if you are the Champion of Chaos in Kavios, I don’t understand how that can be the case.”
I blinked, not sure I’d heard her correctly. My mind spun as I worked through the queen’s words. She knew I was Chaos’s Champion? How?
An awareness of Hart’s distance pulsed through me. Discomfort mixed with … longing. I wished he hadn’t left as much as I didn’t want him to come running back to save me. The kitchens must be on the opposite side of the castle, and I didn’t appreciate how sure I was of that fact. The curse had yet to present itself in such a manner, though Hart and Charon had warned of it.
It felt silly with everything else going on that I had to deal with this, too. I’d take any path to break this curse.
I jumped and gripped my dagger again as, noiselessly, Blair rose from her seat and moved to the wooden cabinet behindme. She opened one of the cupboards and pulled out a worn packet of papers. The princess’s pale fingers lifted the top one, and she read aloud. “Should the impossible occur, give her this. There is a way out that only the two of them together could master.”
I let my eyes fall closed and tipped my head back, driven by an overwhelming sense of … knowing. It had the added benefit of keeping the tears that pricked at my eyes from falling. The princess had only read one line, but I knew who’d written it. His name was a whisper on my lips as I considered what the words meant—more plans he’d set in motion, more plans about me of which I’d been unaware: “Alaric.”
The queen’s smile showed all her teeth. “Yes.”
My heart stopped as the snapping sound I could never quite eradicate from my thoughts broke through. The image of his lifeless body on the floor of King Rodric’s throne room. Themis’s impassive face, not even a thought spared for the life she had so carelessly ended.
Queen Lucinda kept speaking while Blair handed me the papers. “He sent me this and asked that I give it to his niece, Emberline Arkova, only if she arrived with the Champion of Order. Specifically, if it appeared that the two of you loved each other. I assumed it to be impossible when his letter revealed who you were, but your and Sebastien’s interactions leave little doubt.”
I set aside the last detail. It was more than I could handle. I focused instead on what Alaric had done. The words Blair had read indicated that Alaric had known Hart and I would be here together. Is this what he’d planned when he’d asked Hart to see me through the Oldwood before my original trip? Was this another prophecy about us not included inChampions of Kavios?
The questions were too big, too unknowable without Alaric here to explain himself. They reopened the pit of despair I’dworked so intently to shut. He had told a foreign queen before he told me.
Then I froze, considering that again. Why would this queen believe him? Why would she do the bidding of a jeweler?
“I can see you didn’t expect this,” Lucinda said. “I’m not sure why I thought you might have.”
