What deep-seated fear had he revealed? He hadn’t said anything.
“I think he’s too distracted at the moment, Champion. He’s had bad experiences in this cave, as he’s no doubt told you to get that gem to flash blue. I don’t think he could handle a repeat.” Eris pointed at the gem with a long, pale finger. The gem’s lighting was adequate, but the chaos goddess brightened the cave. She seemed to glow like the moon on a cloudless night.
I don’t think he could handle a repeat.The words cycled through my head. I had looked at the pendant right before Eris arrived. Purple hadn’t flashed then. I’d seen the first hint when he threw himself over me with the goddess’s appearance.
He hadn’t voiced his greatest fear, but he’d shown it to me nonetheless.
Hart’s greatest fear was the goddess killing me?
“Hart.” I reached around him to clutch his arm, working to lower his weapon. Eris was a special kind of untameable, to be sure, but… “I’m her Champion. Is she really going to kill me?”
“My mother worshipped her. It didn’t spare her.”
Point taken.
His words were rough, and his sword didn’t lower, no matter how little I thought it would help against a goddess.
“He’s leaving out a few important details.” Eris waved her hand dismissively. “But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to see if you two know what you’re doing.”
The goddess’s voice was lyrical, and her black dress swayed with movement as she spoke. It was as if she danced across her own altar in worship to herself. She trackedmy fingers as they smoothed my hair and tucked it behind my ear. Hart just stood with his blade drawn between the goddess and me.
I thought of everything I’d learned from Alaric. When studying history, when collecting facts to make a case, when in doubt, ask more questions. “What do you want to know?”
She laughed again—the sound of tinkling bells chiming in the wind. “No hemming or hawing about what you’re doing. That’s a good start.”
The most dangerous part of all this, the part I continued to gloss over, was the seventh stone. Scarlett had said it would test us the most—that it was the most important to Eris of all the trials. Maybe I could learn something about it in this conversation.
“Why do you hesitate, Champion?” Eris licked her lips like my answer would be the most delicious feast. Worse, I didn’t know how to respond.
I had hesitated in Alaric’s workshop. I hadn’t been able to say anything I needed to say. Yes, I’d admitted the constant ache I now carried from Alaric’s loss, but that wasn’t my only wound. Maybe my sadness wasn’t wrapped up in what hurt the most but in expressing all the pain associated with a single act: deception.
To me, Hart’s offenses were so different from Alaric’s, but to anyone looking in, they were identical. I didn’t know what to do with that.
The goddess studied me the same way Alaric and I used to study his forbidden texts. Her focus was uncompromised. “So, you know the answer, you’re just not willing to say it?” She nodded knowingly. “That’s always been your challenge, hasn’t it?”
My anger at her simple yet accurate evaluation made me careless with my words. “If you know everything, why are you here?”
“Chao—” Hart’s shoulders tensed, and his gaze flicked toward me. He shook his head, cutting off his own use of the nickname in front of the goddess. I imagined that if I could see his face, his brow would be raised, and he’d grace me with a flat line across his lips.
“I take it as a compliment that you see so much of me in her, Sebastien.”
His attention returned to the threat in the room. “Fine, what do you want? To tell us to hurry up? We’re working on it.”
She clapped her hands together with glee. “You never cease to fascinate me, Sebastien. I can taste the sickly sweet chaos of your decisions. And each one is a treat.”
With her words, the flavor of Hart’s fear lessened. The goddess’s focus on him gave me a moment’s reprieve from his fearforme. I hated that the difference was evident to my senses.
“I bring a warning. Three colors now flash. My sister doesn’t have much faith in humanity’s ability to surprise her, but she’s not an idiot.” The goddess pointed to the necklace once again. “She’s bound to notice that.”
“She can’t interfere,” I said.
Eris laughed, and I guessed I deserved that.
“She couldn’t interfere before, either,” Hart grumbled, “and yet she convinced Vaddon to kill you. She sent assassins after us to Linia.”
All fair points, I knew. Was it really too much to ask that the rules of this stupid game be followed by its creators?
“What do you think she’ll do?” I don’t know why I looked to Eris for answers. She’d never given me the ones I required. She’d left me in the dark for my entire life.
