She nodded. “Someone saw the guards chase you toward the castle. How did you get out?”
“I have my ways.”
She rolled her eyes at him.
The uncomfortable feeling in my chest eased. Ava’s question meant she was unaware of his mother’s altar, of the secret pathway between the castle grounds and the Oldwood.
“What do you need this time?” Ava asked.
Hart glanced over his shoulder at me. “We have a few more tasks to attempt.”
We’d discussed returning to the city to finish the remaining trials, but not the exact shape of each one. Hart still wanted to preserve lust, since it granted healing magic. We’d failed topreserve fear and our nightmare magic, but there was little to be done about that. I wasn’t sure what I wanted regarding lust. His words at the campfire seemed to indicate I’d be able to stoke lust for him the same way he did for me. Maybe I wanted to prove it.
Either way, it was mid-afternoon, and I didn’t want to attempt to stoke lust in the tavern if it was empty. It would be no different than a private room. The more crowded, the better we’d blend in.
“Do you have anywhere in mind for joy?” I asked him. “Or envy?”
He searched my features in a way that I was sure saw too much.
“Maybe we could go to my father’s shop?”
Hart took a step closer to finish our conversation without Ava and the trader hearing. “For which emotion?”
I shrugged. “Envy, I guess. It never sat right with me that I did all the work, and my father’s name on the door meant that he got all the credit.”
“Ava,” Hart called over his shoulder. “Have there been eyes on the Arkova jewelry shop?”
She looked up from the list she reviewed with the merchant. “It’s less frequently watched than Alaric’s, but there have been patrols.”
Hart’s brow raised in challenge when his gaze returned to mine. “At least we know how to get out again if we have to run.”
I bit my lip to stop a smile. “You want to go now?”
He nodded. “In Woodside, there’s more activity to hide us during the day.”
That had always been true. The rest of the city quieted when the sun set, and all activity then happened here on Cross Street in Lower Hill. We were still wanted. There was still riskto this plan, but I found that part didn’t worry me anywhere near as much in Woodside. Or maybe it was because Hart would be with me.
“We’ll be back,” Hart called to Ava. He held my gaze when his hand closed around mine. I let it. My hand warmed in my glove. I wasn’t sure whether it was the heat of midday or the heat of our connection, but my palm dampened with sweat. Still, there was something reassuring about the spark between us.
Walking the streets of Kavios with Hart was so much easier than anything I’d previously experienced. I used to spend so much of my time trying to be small—to not take up space, to not draw notice, especially in Lower Hill. None of that was relevant with Hart’s broad frame between me and any passersby. He didn’t drop my hand, though he glanced at me multiple times as if he checked my comfort.
When I’d been jeweler and he’d been my bodyguard, it never occurred to me to question whether he was Blessed. I never saw his adamas, but something in the way he expected the world to move around him made it a foregone conclusion. Now, I knew that confidence came not from a Blessing but from a summons. His apparent pedigree, not of the Blessed but of the royal line.
I shook my head. That part would never get easier to swallow.
We might as well use the time to plan. He said we needed to decide together what to do once we made it through these trials. If I couldn’t bring myself to discuss the remaining emotions, we needed to at least talk about next steps and whether he’d be part of them. As I opened my mouth to broach the subject, a green glow pulled my focus.
A guard across the street … spoke with the shop owner. The green adamas indicated that the magic of persuasion was used toachieve the guard’s desired outcomes. Gooseflesh erupted on my skin. The shop owner handed over a bag of coins to the Blessed in uniform.
“Are they…” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
Hart’s hand gripped mine tighter and urged me forward. He spoke under his breath. “Coercing business owners to pay some kind of fee?” He nodded. “Looks like it.”
All businesses and citizens paid taxes, but that was an annual occurrence. Citizens took their contributions to a specific office of the king. This act had a decidedly less official feeling.
“They can’t…”
Hart urged me forward. “Unfortunately, right now, they can. The only way to change it is to finish these trials—to finalize our plans. Come on, Chaos. We can’t do anything for them on the street.”
