“What do you want?” If Elias was here, he must have had good information that Ember and I were, too.
“I knew Father would find you eventually. I’ve been waiting for a credible sighting. Vaddon’s source tonight provided.”
With the trials, with Ember, with thoughts of our future, I’d all but forgotten the conversations we’d overheard between Vaddon and his sources.
“What is Vaddon doing?”
I liked to think that my summons had never sat right with Elias. Father had thought I was going through a rebellious stage. He was obviously more than happy to keep ruling while I sulked. Elias couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t want to be Themis’s Champion, but he didn’t believe it should be forced upon me. I assumed his opinions had changed with Mother’s death.
Elias shook his head. “Vaddon is obsessed with the goddesses’ game. He has been since he learned Emberline could source adamas.”
Themis had used Vaddon, that was clear, but what drove him? Faithfulness? Zealotry? That wasn’t really Camm’s style. He only acted when there was something in it for him.
I remembered when Father first understood what the adamas gem could do. When I wouldn’t imagine ways to exploit the magic with him, he’d called Vaddon. Vaddon hadseen the potential immediately. He’d offered to create a plan for distribution to the worthy but negotiated then and there that he’d be first to receive the stone.
He didn’t have the devotion to be a believer. He was wholly devoted to himself.
“What’s in it for him, Elias?”
He ran his hand through his shoulder-length brown hair. Father had always joked that Elias was a less potent version of me. His hair was shades lighter, his green eyes just a little less piercing in their intensity. We both had symmetrical features, but where his captivated most, rendering them unable to look away, the sharpness of mine meant most gazes didn’t linger.
Although Ember had never seemed to mind. She studied my face whenever she thought I wasn’t looking. I always knew, and her gaze held a weight I never wanted to ease.
Elias pulled me from my thoughts. “I’m not sure.” He rubbed his manicured hands together, wringing them as he considered his next words. He knew something. The hesitation meant it had to do with Father, the one person he wouldn’t betray.
I’d ruined my chance to influence Elias’s choices when I got our mother killed and then fled. I’d left Elias too long in Father’s clutches. Rodric never gave him his due, though. He’d trained Elias to seek his approval at every turn. Regret churned in my stomach, but I couldn’t think about how I could have done better, made different choices. I had to deal with the reality of my relationship with my brother.
“This is important, Elias. Father’s plans are irrelevant in the goddesses’ game.”
Elias sucked his lip between his teeth, and my blood ran cold. That one action confirmed the fear I’d been suppressing since overhearing Vaddon’s conversation.
What if Father’s plans weren’t irrelevant?What if Themis truly had a way to replace me as her Champion?
They had checked Mother’s books. Her collection rivaled Alaric’s. In fact, I’d stolen many tomes from her collection to give to Alaric in the early days of our friendship. But those texts wouldn’t have focused on Themis.
Vaddon’s source would have been through the teashop in Woodside. Had he found what they were looking for? My gaze drifted to the bag at Elias’s hip.
He straightened his spine like he’d made a decision. “I can’t tell you, Sebastien.”
“Fucking Chaos,” I cursed under my breath.
“That’s precisely why,” he said, sounding vindicated. “I have no idea where your loyalties lie.”
Anger flooded me, and I was glad I had no access to magic. I surged forward and pressed Elias against the wall, my forearm holding him in place. “Let me make it clear. My loyalty belongs to Ember.”
“Sebastien, she’s Chaos’s Ch?—”
“I don’t care,” I hissed, and pressed my arm down harder against him. My leg knocked against the bag he carried. The rectangular shape was precisely what I was hoping for. If it held the information Vaddon had claimed to have, it was a prize great enough to coax Elias from the castle.
Elias winced and held up his hands. “Fine. Whatever. I’ve never understood your position on this anyway. Why not take the throne? Why not fulfill your summons? Who even thinks to ignore agoddess?” His voice rose in pitch as he continued.
I leaned in close. I wanted to tell him that Father’s days were numbered, that the way they treated the humans of Kavios had gone unchallenged for too long, but as harmless as Elias sometimes seemed, I feared he’d scurry right back to Father with that information. The beauty of confronting a kinglike Rodric was that his hubris was such that he didn’t believe anyone would challenge him. I needed him to feel that way until the moment it was too late.
Instead of raging at Elias, I reached into the leather bag and pulled out the book. Anticipation shot up my spine as I read the title,What Makes a Champion of Order.
Fucking Chaos, I couldn’t believe this existed.
Why had Themis waited over two hundred years to put this into Father’s hands?
