I took the lust he offered and forged it into healing magic. I almost wished for the orange glow of an adamas gem between us. It would make things easier—transactional—but as Champions with matching curses, we had no need of the stone.
Blinking rapidly, I attempted to dissolve the unhelpful thoughts. If any information to break our curse existed, I’d find it in Ciril. The Library of Linia held the most knowledge on Champions’ magic in the Three Kingdoms.
I cleared my throat as I molded more of Hart’s lust into healing magic. “How’s that, Charon?”
“I’m sorry, Champion, a little more would be best.”
My teeth clenched, but I nodded. Charon only spoke to Hart to taunt him. I wasn’t sure he realized the folly of that plan—it meant I had to speak to Hart on his behalf. “He needs more.”
Hart’s lip didn’t curl, and his pine green eyes didn’t flash with mirth. His words were flat. Maybe that was why I felt them like a slap. “I could go all day.”
Another nod to myself. I couldn’t spend time considering what that meant. Who he fantasized about. It was nothing to me. Whatever bloomed briefly between us had broken. I had trusted him with everything—my immunity to the Blessed, the discovery of my magic, and my indecision with how to carve a place for myself in Kavios. He couldn’t even give me his real name.
A small, quiet voice in the back of my mind fought to be heard. It said that he’d showed me my magic and helped me uncover everything my family had hidden. He’d known too much about the Cursed King for any other outcome to be true. Was it really his fault I refused to make the connection?
No. I didn’t accept that, either.
I trusted too few to let such a significant deception pass. A lie of omission was still a lie. Whatever might have been had washed away, leaving only this curse in its wake.
“I have what I need, Champion.”
Charon’s sentence barely finished before I tugged my hand free of the minuscule connection to Hart. “He’s good.”
My heart raced as I pulled my glove on. That smoky tang still coated my mouth, and I felt Hart’s gaze the same way I knew an adamas gem from quartz in my palm—instinctively. His stare demanded attention on this seemingly new facet of our connection, but I remained determined to ignore it.
Cursed.The word had lost all meaning to me, yet I knew I needed it gone. That was why we were here. I couldn’t win thegoddesses’ game when my opponent fueled my power, even if my opponent seemed to care little for this fact. Or the fact that he was a Champion at all.
Still, Iwantedit gone. I needed all connections to Hart severed.
The other dragon roared in the distance, and my legs tightened around Charon.“Easy, Champion. You’ve done your part.”
I hadn’t done nearly enough. Kavios needed me. King Rodric’s bastardization of the Champions’ magic had ruined the lives of humans in my home kingdom for too long. To free them, I needed a way to break this curse.
Only one Champion could sit on the throne. I wasn’t sure I was the best choice, but I had to be better than ceding the city-state to Themis. She cared nothing for those she ruled, so long as her definition of order was maintained. Hart tensed at my back, as if he sensed my fear of the goddess’s rule through him.
With another flap of Charon’s magically reinforced wings, the city of Ciril drew closer. The Library of Linia held my only hope. We would learn about the other Champions. Each of the Three Kingdoms had its own pair. I knew little of Aven, but a prior queen of Linia had been Chaos’s Champion. Her descendant held the throne now. I didn’t know what had happened to Themis’s Champion, or how the goddesses’ game had played out in this kingdom, but I’d search for those answers.
Alaric had taught me that all history held value. History taught us not to repeat others’ mistakes. It taught us how to forge our own path.
I may be cursed, but I would find a way to break the goddesses’ hold on my fate.
2
Her perfect Champion has ruthless ambition.
— WHAT MAKES A CHAMPION OF ORDER
HART
Ikept a wary eye on the receding shape of the second dragon as Ember slid from Charon’s back onto solid ground outside the city gates. Ciril wasn’t surrounded by trees like Kavios. The city had the Endless Sea to the east, the Pinnacle Range to the north, and endless flat lands for farming to the west. The deep red of the other dragon’s scales disappeared into the mountain peaks without confrontation. I knew I should be thankful we weren’t greeted with battle, but I couldn’t muster the emotion.
My goal for so long had been simple:free myself from Themis’s summons. Upon reflection, I knew that path had left only destruction in its wake. I’d lost family, friends, led a kingdom toward ruin, and, as Ember did everything to avoid meeting my gaze, I knew it had cost me something else I couldn’t bring myself to name.
We deserved to catch a break. We deserved a moment of peace, but we were not to have it. The dragon may have departed, but now we prepared to deal with monsters of a different kind: royals. Queen Lucinda approached us outside the city gates, accompanied by a host of guards.
“I’ll explain that we’re researching Champions for Kavios,” Ember said.
She had done her best not to speak to me on our journey, even going so far as to let Charon block my attempts at conversation. I wanted to talk to her about these new … sensations between us, but she’d shut that down, too. She wouldn’t even discuss how long we could be separated before discomfort set in.
