The rolling tide of sadness broke free from where I tried to hold it. Like a wave cresting against a rocky shore. It wasn’t pretty. It was jagged, dangerous to unleash. My secret shame.
And I’d shared it with Ember.
A blue glow flickered in the room. The red from the necklace that Ember held had all but dulled in my mind. It had become a background color, and I no longer felt aware of its meaning.
I stared at the adamas gem in her hand. She pulled her gaze from it to meet mine. “Thank you, Hart, for sharing this with me.”
The gem flickered again. Slow and steady. The blue flash was mine.
I was too stunned to speak. At some point in my story, I’d forgotten why I was telling it. I’d forgotten that confessing my sadness was a step on our path to freedom. Mother’s sacrifice would shepherd us to our goal.
I wrapped my fingers around the adamas gem on the ground, the one that marked my mother’s death. The one I’d left as a reminder to my future self. I placed it on the altar and whispered a thank you again for everything she’d done for me.
Ember removed her glove and followed my lead, touching the stone in honor of my mother.
Her hand skimmed the wooden altar. I caught her flinch, though it was slight. She pulled her hand back, and a smear of blood dotted her finger. “It’s just a scratch.”
It might have been anywhere else, but not here.
In another flash, darkness coated the room, thicker than a cloud of smoke. I couldn’t breathe, unsure if this was a memory, but something reminded me that it was new and terrible.
The answer was irrelevant. My instinct remained the same.
Something clawed inside my chest, fighting to break free, fighting to protect—to defend. I was still her guard. I covered Ember’s body with mine as the high-pitched giggle I’d come to hate filled the room.
18
Eris didn’t need to win. She just wanted Themis to lose.
— ALARIC SARE’S PAPERS FOR EMBERLINE ARKOVA
Something purple flashed in my periphery as darkness flooded the cave. Caught in a wall of muscle and fabric, I fell sideways too fast to catch myself. My landing on the cavern’s cool dirt floor felt featherlight, and the weight that held itself just above me was more than familiar.
What was Hart doing?
“Well, isn’t this unexpected? Or perhaps precisely as expected. I can never be sure.” The voice was high-pitched and feminine, and I recognized it immediately from King Rodric’s throne room.
Panic rose, and my limbs shook. Wefought to free ourselves from Eris’s curse. She couldn’t be here. It was only Hart’s steady weight that allowed me a moment’s peace to think. Did she know what we were doing? Did she care? Hadn’t Scarlett claimed Chaos designed the loophole?
“You two should be careful. The progress you’re making could draw unwanted attention.”
I gripped the pendant tighter. I couldn’t see it from this angle, with Hart’s broad frame covering me.
Wait, so she knew what we were doing? Was she alright with it? It was her curse we were attempting to break, after all. I guessed that if all went according to plan, I would still technically win the goddesses’ game. Though I still wasn’t sure Eris cared about winning. Alaric hadn’t thought she did. The Goddess of Chaos was hard to comprehend.
“Oh, do get up.” Eris snapped her fingers, and Hart and I stood before the altar. The wooden rise was so slight and her stature so small that she barely met Hart’s gaze. It was irrelevant, though. No one would question the power she wielded as her flowing black gown twirled.
The engulfing darkness had subsided, and a deeper hue, a deep violet, flashed faintly, granting us light to see. Just as quickly as Eris had repositioned us, Hart put himself between the goddess and me.
“What are you doing here, Eris?” I don’t know where my confidence came from. I was just so angry. At Hart’s loss. At mine. It wasn’t Eris who had killed Alaric, but in my mind, it might as well have been. Her game was responsible for all of this.
She tutted. “This is my altar, my place of worship. The better question is, what are you two doing here, Champions?”
My gaze drifted to the pendant clutched tightly in my hand. As my fingers unwrapped to expose the light, I couldn’t help but notice another new color flashed along with theblue.
Purple. Fear. That hadn’t been there before.
My head snapped in Hart’s direction. His back was all I could see as his body created a wall to prevent the goddess’s direct access to me.
