“I’m looking forward to the game’s conclusion,” she said before she disappeared in another billow of darkness.
19
I know it’s hard for you to show so much of yourself, but freeing a kingdom was never going to be easy.
— ALARIC SARE’S PAPERS FOR EMBERLINE ARKOVA
Icrawled up the ladder and out of the cavern in a haze. Hart’s heat at my back, his careful hand helping my steps as I nearly missed a rung, kept me moving. The trapdoor on this side led into the Oldwood.
I still clutched the adamas pendant. Light emanated from three of the stones, although not all of them glowed. A solid glow indicated that we had both completed the trial. A flashing light meant only one had. When we emerged through the wooden door and into the forest, the pendant’s light was still necessary to guide us.Even though the moon had shone brightly above us as we ran through the castle gardens, now, the Oldwood’s thick canopy blocked most of the natural light.
I rolled onto my back, wanting a moment to rest. The depths of the Oldwood had once terrified me, made me reconsider all my plans of escape. Here in the dirt, with a comforting shadow cast over my face, it didn’t seem so bad.
Nothing about Hart made sense to me. I studied him from my spot on the ground. The sharp lines of his face were somehow more distinct. The stubble he’d shaved while we were in Ciril’s castle was back. His brow arched over his deep green gaze as I raised my hand for him to take the necklace.
“You’re doing well.”
He grunted.
“I thought we were going to save fear for later. So we had access to the nightmare magic.” I worried this whole experience had somehow sent us back multiple steps in our ability to communicate with each other. Maybe it was too much. Showing me his pain. Showing me he feared. They weren’t small things for a man like Sebastien Hart.
He shook his head. “You still have it.”
While true, I didn’t appreciate being two trials behind him. I sighed as he accepted the necklace and hung it around his neck. I stared at the dragon’s eye, the seventh stone. Eris’s words presented ideas I could no longer ignore.
“What if the seventh stone could do more than free us from the curse?”
His brow furrowed in thought. “We need to break the curse. Ensuring there is no connection in our magic is the only safe way for you to take the throne.”
I shrugged. “Eris said to challenge what is known.”
Hart studied me. I would guess he knew what I spoke of, but he wouldn’t say it. He’d make me do it. At least this ideahad nothing to do with my emotions. “What if we could free you from the game instead of the curse?”
His mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. If I’d learned anything from his story in the cavern, it was that being free of Themis was what he’d always wanted. With so much historical disappointment, he might be unwilling to consider it finally within reach.
“How?”
Wasn’t that the question? “I don’t know, but breaking a curse doesn’t seem quite big enough for how she spoke of our actions, does it?”
“Who knows?” He reached back down toward my still-outstretched hand. His movement slowed as we made contact. Even after encountering a goddess together, he paused to gauge my aversion to his assistance.
My gulp was louder than I liked as I realized I didn’t have any resistance to this offer. Before I accepted his hand, I asked the question I didn’t truly want the answer to but knew was necessary to ask. “Why was fear connected to Eris for you?”
The curl of his lip into that smackable smirk was quick. “Oh, Chaos.” He shook his head slowly and maybe a little sadly. “It wasn’t for me.”
I knew that. I’d known it in the cavern. When I tasted his fear on my tongue, even at Alaric’s workshop, I knew it was for me. I’d known the same when he covered my body with his in the cave.
He’s had bad experiences in this cave … I don’t think he could handle a repeat.
The goddess’s words circled even as I tried to convince myself he was scared of Eris. He found her unpredictable and wild—which she was, of course—but I couldn’t ignore the way he stood in front of me, the defensive stance. The way hissword never dropped, even though I was sure it was useless in the face of a goddess.
So, you know the answer, you’re just not willing to say it? That’s always been your challenge, hasn’t it?Eris’s chastisement stung.
“You feared for me.” My hand dropped back to the ground to steady myself as I sat up. I’d played these games with myself since learning his identity. He only feared losing me because I was the source of his power. He only wanted me close so he could access it.
Those theories didn’t hold up to careful examination. But I hadn’t wanted to look closely.
He led the charge to break our curse. He shared when I couldn’t. His actions told a story I couldn’t ignore.
