Stone fell where Scarlett’s claws gripped the side of the mountain. Her long neck curved toward me, even though Charon and Hart had both positioned themselves between us.
“So, the Trials of the Cursed have begun,”Scarlett hissed from her perch.
I had never once feared Charon. Since childhood, he’d felt like a long-lost friend instead of a dangerous beast. My instincts were not the same with Scarlett. When her talons dug further into the side of the mountain, releasing a small rockslide to the outcropping, I tensed.
“How do you know that?” I asked,finding my voice.
She glanced between Hart and me.“That glow couldn’t have been achieved otherwise.”
I looked down at the necklace I hadn’t yet tucked beneath my blouse. Alaric had said the trials would go against everything I’d done to survive. How did that connect with this glowing adamas? Red was for anger, but neither Hart nor I had taken from each other.
It was true, I’d felt a lot of anger in the cave. Worst of all, I’d expressed it. But how did that fit? I loosed a low groan as the rhyme from Alaric’s notes surfaced in my mind.Sharedemotion they wield, emotion they can no longer hide, only emotion shared will change the tides.
Something sank like a stone in my gut as an inkling of the rules fell into place. I had no longer been able to suppress my emotions. Whether I’d intended to or not, I’d shared them with Hart. I let my head fall, finally understanding what both Alaric and Hart said I’d done to survive in Kavios—hid my feelings.
Every day in my home kingdom, since my mother’s accident, I’d ensured no one could read my emotions on my face. Today, I’d unleashed my anger on Hart. I covered my mouth as I replayed what I’d said.
I stepped back, unsure what I ran from. More horrifying news of what Alaric had kept from me? The fact that every instinct I’d built to survive would need to be ignored to break our curse? Or the terrible things I’d said to Hart to provoke this?
Scarlett gnashed her teeth, and a curled claw reached toward me. I’d been too distracted in my own thoughts, almost forgetting that a deadly dragon loomed above. Hart stepped into the path of her talon before I could react. Her progress slowed. She didn’t appear to want to tear us to shreds. She might be pointing at the necklace.
“I take it you do not know what it does.”
Too horrified to speak what formed in my mind, I shook my head. “Can you tell us?”
This time, the huff of smoke came out like a heavy sigh.“Apparently, if I don’t, no one will.”She glared at Charon.
“I would tell her if I knew, but Alaric didn’t share,”Charon all but growled.“If you have information that could help, we would have it.”
“I don’t know Alaric.”Scarlett looked around in search of another human.“He is the maker of the pendant?”
I nodded. “He was my uncle.”
If Scarlett caught my use of the past tense, she didn’t comment on it.“He was a smart man, then. He found a loophole in your fate—a way for you to free yourself if you so choose. It requires both of you.”It was impossible to miss Scarlett’s snout as it gestured toward Hart.
“How?” Hart asked.
“You’re the Cursed King.”She stated his name of legend as fact, though I didn’t think she’d yet confirmed it.“Your curse was to only draw magic from Chaos’s Champion.”
“Very aware of that,” Hart said under his breath.
Scarlett turned her green gaze on me.“You are now likewise cursed?”
“Yes,” I breathed.
“If you want to free yourselves, you need only to prove it.”
“What does that mean?” Hart asked.
I think Scarlett smirked at him, but that meant both rows of sharp teeth were now on display. The smallest one was the length of my arm. I had to suppress the instinct to pull Hart back, pull him out of harm’s way.
“Every well-crafted goal has many chaotic paths to success.”
“Whose goal?” I asked.
“One who would accept many chaotic paths to success.”
“Eris.”
