Alaric returned with a packet of papers, a small leather bag, and a gem. I knew it was adamas the moment he dropped it into my palm.
“This needs to go to Queen Lucinda.” He handed me the papers sealed with wax. “She’ll require the gem as payment.”
I laughed at the audacity. It had been a long time since someone had surprised me so completely. Alaric not only worshiped Eris, but he also planned to send a piece of adamas to another kingdom. I probably should have stopped him. Adamas was a scourge of my own making, but if I couldn’t stop the production itself, it served my father right to have it distributed beneath his nose.
“Alright, jeweler. I’m intrigued. What about the leather bag?”
“I need you to drop it off outside of Ciril.”
I shook my head, bemused. “How far outside the city?”
He cleared his throat. “Scarlett’s hoard.”
I tilted my head back and laughed loudly. Ava must have known I’d be too intrigued to say no, even though the ask was utterly ridiculous. “Fine. I’ll run your errand. For payment, I want your help when I return.”
Alaric tilted his head in question.
“I have my own project—call it a search.” I glanced at the dragon in the corner of the hidden room. “And I think you might have more information on the subject than I do.”
His face went pale as sheets fresh from the laundry, but he swallowed quickly and nodded. “Knowledge I can share. So long as the queen accepts the papers.”
I tossed the gem lightly from my hand and caught it with a flick of my wrist. “Oh, I don’t think I’ll have to convince her. She’ll want the protection the adamas offers, especially if she can take it from me.”
Alaric held out his hand, and I took it. “We have a deal, then.”
The memory of Alaric’s schemes faded. We’d worked together for years after that. I should have been more suspicious of how little information he’d shared on Chaos’s Champion, but truth be told, I ignored it because I liked him.
He dreamed of a Kavios I could never quite see. At least not until I met Ember.
The thought of all he hid from me still stung.
Few people knew me as well as he had. It struck a nerve that I couldn’t truly say I’d known as much about him. I was learning, though. And as Ember shared Alaric’s notes, I knew with absolute certainty where we’d need to go next.
9
The burden is heavy. It will go against everything you've done to survive. But it’s the only path to freedom.
— ALARIC SARE’S PAPERS FOR EMBERLINE ARKOVA
Charon growled low as Hart finished his story.
“Relax, Charon. I didn’t read the papers.” Then he glanced at me. “But I can guess where you need to go next.”
The breath left my lungs. Was this another secret? Another, quieter voice acknowledged that there was no way Hart could have told me everything about his life in the few days we’d known each other, leading up to the Blessing Ceremony.
My broken heart seemed uninterested in rationality.
“Explain yourself,Cursed.”
Hart held his hands up in a gesture of peace. He spoke directly to me. “I wasn’t keeping it from you. I had no idea it was relevant. Alaric had me run all kinds of weird errands. This was simply the first.”
“You didn’t read it?” I asked, refolding the papers.
He shook his head.
“Why not?”
“Ava convinced me not to. She said stealing secrets was no way to start a partnership.”
