Ember nodded, and she turned fully to face me. “When I first spoke with my mother upon returning, she pointed something out. She said that of course I’d be angry with Alaric if he were here, of course I’d fight with him over all he kept from me, but I’d forgive him, too. At the time, I had no such designs on forgiving you. It was different with you, even though the action was the same. She told me the faster I acknowledged that, the better off everyone would be.”
I wasn’t sure I was breathing. I knew precisely what her mother spoke of; I’d been begging Ember to acknowledge it since Linia. I’d tried pressing her on it. I’d tried letting her come to me. Neither option had helped.
Soft footfalls ahead pulled her focus. “The path intersects with the main trails just ahead.” She pointed. “We need to get in position. Reid said we’d know when the distraction happened. He said the guards would leave the adamas cavern entrance.”
I scoffed. “Reid used to be a thief. Someone who valueddiscretion above all else. Now his plans are so bold, so large that we’ll … just know?”
“That’s what he said.” She turned and took the remaining steps to the tunnel that intersected the main mine paths.
I stepped in front of her. “Let me do the initial check.”
As quickly as I could, I peered out. It was understandable why no one gave this path a second glance. It looked decrepit. The walls were near collapsing, and the entrance was stacked with stones. This path looked like one of the many old, unused sites.
Farther down the main trail, two guards stood at the entrance to the adamas room.
“So we wait?” I asked in a whisper when I told her what I saw.
She nodded. Anticipation mixed with anxiety left a sickly sweet taste in my mouth. I wanted desperately to return to her previous conversation. With one glance at her, I thought she knew it.
“You haven’t asked about the queen’s requirements to give me Alaric’s packet of papers about the trials.” Did she sound … disappointed?
“Ember.” I tipped her chin so that our gazes locked. What should I tell her? That I already knew what it was? There had been no evidence provided to me, no key. I’d known simply because there was only one answer she would have so heavily guarded from me. One emotion she wanted desperately not to confront.
“You know, don’t you?”
There was no heat in her words—a resignation mixed with something solid. Something deep. A new connection forged between us in this moment.
“No one?—”
She waved me off. “I’m not asking if someone told you. I’masking if you know. The same way you alwaysknowwhen it comes to us. The way you know when I need you to silently support me versus when I need you to challenge me. The way you see my exhaustion when I’d rather hide it. Or the way you seem to understand my thoughts before I can articulate them. That’s how you know that the queen had to believe I lov?—”
The earth shook beneath our feet, and a low roar echoed against the walls like a beast stood before us, even this deep in the mines. Screams erupted, shouts heralded workers toward the entrance, and all traces of the conversation that had me hanging on her every word were forgotten.
“No,” she hissed, and I knew where her thoughts went. “She brought Charon into this?”
Yet I had relaxed upon hearing the familiar roar. If anyone could cause a distraction, it was a dragon with a few hundred years of captivity on his mind. Maybe Alysa’s plan had more merit than I thought.
Ember pushed my shoulder as if sensing that I was happy with this turn of events. “This is dangerous. He shouldn’t be here.”
I chuckled, unable to hold it in. “It’s a good plan, Chaos. It doesn’t point back to the Storm. Only to a freed dragon who is angry from his years of captivity.” I tilted my head in thought, offering her what comfort I could. “It’s not like Alysa could have forced him to do it. He had to have volunteered.”
She sighed as another group of miners ran past the tunnel where we hid. Momentarily, I felt Ember’s worry and recognized it for what it was. What could human miners with pickaxes do against a dragon?
“Let’s hurry,” she said. “The faster we get what we came for, the faster he can get away.”
I listened for another group of miners and guards to rush past. When the footsteps were no more than an echo, I did afinal search of the path. My heart raced as I grabbed Ember’s hand. The rapid beats had nothing to do with this stupid heist and everything to do with the words she’d been on the verge of spilling. I hated that she’d been interrupted, but now was not the time to continue. With a regretful tug, I pulled her down the path, toward the adamas cavern.
The large, locked door stood between us and our goal. Her father’s anger filled the adamas ring on her finger. She didn’t waste his contribution. With little more than a thought, she channeled the anger into strength and broke the door’s lock.
I scanned the empty cavern beyond. The circular, hollowed-out space was much the same as the room in which my mother’s altar to Eris was built. I could easily spot the quartz deposits. Pickaxes and scaffolding dotted the walls.
My father must be desperate. He still mined the stone. Did he hope to stumble upon adamas? No one but Ember or me could tell which of the deposits had been transformed by Charon’s fire into adamas. Rodric only fooled himself into thinking he could stumble upon a solid piece of the gem.
Another roar sounded from above. We needed to hurry. Ember’s gloves were off, and her hands searched the stone desperately for the heat she was all too familiar with. Her gaze darted toward me while I stood by the door listening to what was happening above. I kept a lookout as she pulled a pickaxe from a workstation and swung at an identified deposit.
The clang of the axe against the gemstone rang through the cavern. She reached for the heat of the adamas stone, but even that wouldn’t be enough. Tomorrow, we’d have to shape it. To hold magic, the stone must be cut so that it was solid adamas. We had all day tomorrow to turn the raw stones into the weapons of the Blessed.
Ember pried loose chunks of stone and put them in her cross-body bag. When she finished, the bagwas filled to bursting. I hoped she’d retrieved enough. Now that she understood Charon was the distraction, I didn’t think she’d allow a return trip to the mines.
