The idea of distance was laughable as my gaze returned to the hidden compartment. Soon, the entire length of our bodies would be crammed against each other. What I felt in our fingers would be little more than a drop of rain before the breaking of a storm.
“How long is the ride?” I looked to Carl, unwilling or unable to see what I knew would be the taunt of Hart’s raised eyebrow.
“We’re still a good few miles from the gates. You’ll need to be in there for at least an hour to pass safely and get to the drop-off point in Kavios.”
I sucked in a deep breath. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
Maybe if I said it enough times, it would be true.
Carl must have seen some resolve in my features because he didn’t question my decision. He only waited patiently as Hart crawled down into the space and lay on his side. It was not deep, and the breadth of his shoulders made me wonder if the cover would even close the way he lay. I didn’t question it. My mind raced ahead to how this would play out. Once I crawled in, he’d curl around me to help scrunch his size.
Goddess, why?
It was a fleeting thought, and one I didn’t expect answered. Eris may have chosen me, but she’d done little for me throughout my lifetime.
I couldn’t avoid this forever, so finally, I stepped down into the hidden compartment and laid my back to Hart’s chest. To his credit, he tried to keep space between us, but as Carl placed the plank back in place, Hart realized what I had seen from above. He had to curl ever closer to me so that his shoulder wasn’t in the way of the cubby’s lid.
Panic flooded me, and my heartbeat raced.
His breath in my ear felt like both a dream and a nightmare. “This is tighter than I thought. Do you have enough space?”
I didn’t, but I knew my emotions betrayed me in every way. My response was irrelevant. The weight of him surrounding me as the cart started to move was … solid. Reassuring. It felt good. Which only made my heart beat faster. I tasted his amusement on my tongue, something sweet and fruity, before he spoke.
“We’ve got at least thirty minutes until we even reach the gate. Do you plan to ignore me the entire time?”
His breath was warm on my skin, which was already alight at all the places our bodies ran against each other. I feared what he’d learn on this ride. I feared the heat that curled low in my belly with him so effortlessly wrapped around me. No part of me feared the man himself.
I thought he knew it, too. And hadn’t that always been the problem?
“What do you want to talk about, Hart?” The cart jostled over bumps in the road, and I fell back into his chest. “How nice it is that after weeks of trying to keep some space between us, we have no choice but to eradicate every inch of both physical and emotional separation?”
He laughed, and it shot warmth through me the way tossing a new log on the fire shot sparks and heat into the night sky.
“At least you’re being honest now. I’ll thank our anger trial for that.”
The weight of the pendant knocked against my sternum as the cart rolled forward. Hart and I hadn’t discussed our new inability to access physical strength. “Are you worried about our missing magic?”
His response wasn’t quite a chuckle, more like a long exhale with a few huffs. I’d say it was almost relief. “I fought so hard for so long to free myself from anything to do with goddesses. Not having access to one of the magics, it feels like a step I never thought I’d take—even if it’s only a step toward breaking our curses.” The hand that rested lightly on my hip tensed like he wanted to grip me, but he did everything in his power to resist. “I think I’d given up on the possibility.”
Something Scarlett had said gnawed at me.A way for you to free yourself, if you so choose.I hadn’t given her words their dueconsideration in the moment, but I knew we needed to. These trials presented a way to break free. The only thing I’d wanted to be free of was this curse, but that wasn’t true for Hart, was it?
I tucked the thought away for later. We could discuss it if we proved we could make any progress on the trials. “If you didn’t want your magic, then why were you searching for me? You said one of your deals with Alaric was to source information on Chaos’s Champion.”
“What else could I do? After I’d tried a dozen other paths and failed, I knew it was the only way all of this would end.”
Another bump in the road sent me back into Hart’s arms. I wiggled to put a few inches of space between us.
“Chaos.” He sounded pained. “It’d be better for everyone if you … didn’t do that.”
My cheeks heated as I tipped back into him with another bump in the road. The evidence of my effect on him pressed against his trousers. My mind blanked, and I wished I could think about literally anything else. “If you wanted me to end the game, if you never meant me any harm, why didn’t you just tell me who you were?”
I heard his swallow, his hesitation, because that was the real question, wasn’t it? He claimed he was not a threat to me. He claimed he didn’t want the throne. Inherently, I believed both things. I don’t think I’d ever doubted them. But if all of that was true, why lie to me? Why not tell me who he was?
“Will you believe that I didn’t know if my intentions would matter to you?”
A scoff slipped through my lips. “You didn’t trust me? That’s rich.”
“Terrible stories had been told of the Cursed King. I am Themis’s Champion, the one to bring order to the city that betrayed you. I was single-handedly responsible for sourcingthe first adamas stone and for giving others the power to misuse it.” He huffed again, part humorless laugh, part exasperation. “No part of who I was deserved you, but against all odds, you thought differently.”
