“Hold on.”
It was the only warning we received before Charon’s wings snapped again. Each beat lifted us from the ground. The trees grew smaller as we rose into the air.
Now, a future with Hart was the dream I dared reach for. Every inch of me wanted to lean back into his warmth. To take advantage of our flight, where I could feel safe and secure—if only for a moment. But even if Charon said he could wait, I knew we shouldn’t. There was no telling what weapons the miners had used against him. The sooner we healed him, the better I’d feel.
I couldn’t take Hart’s lust to heal Charon, but all the same, I leaned back into Hart’s warmth as we flew farther into the Pinnacle Mountains. Lakes looked like puddles, and the trees were as small as bushes. Everything looked different from this perspective.
Hart slung his arm around my waist, pulling me into him while anticipating my thoughts. “You had better heal him fast before he feels the change and yells at you.”
My lip curved into a smile at the fact that Hart knew precisely what I’d do. Encircled by Hart’s strength, I drew on the stored lust in the adamas ring. Even if it wasn’t Hart’s lust I used to heal, I couldn’t help but wonder about his thoughts as the familiar smoky flavor filled my mouth.
I’m working, love.The too-casual use of a word I could barely think sent heat straight to my core. It didn’t take much to surface the scene in the woods. Had it only been this morning?
This thing between Hart and me felt new and old all at once. It was a first kiss in the woods, a partner I’d fought beside for what felt like years. I didn’t know what to make of it, but I wanted it. Hart’s arm tightened around my waist like a band as I remembered the heat of his mouth against my center. Fire built within me at just the thought. My toes curled of their own volition.
“Careful, Chaos.” His breath was a whisper against my neck, and I knew he must taste the same flavor I did.
A flush heated my cheeks at how quickly I’d been lost in my own lust. We didn’t even need mine. I sat up straight, and Hart chuckled as I attempted to put myself to rights. I pressed my hands onto Charon’s scales, channeling the magic through the adamas to heal him. Though I couldn’t reach his leg from here, I focused entirely on the wound, pictured it stitching closed as I had done with Hart’s past injuries. The ring on my finger glowed orange.
Charon’s growl was quick.“Champion.”
I sensed his wound knitting itself back together. He must as well. I knew I’d finished even before the second rumble was loosed from his chest.
“Calm down, Charon. I’m already done.”
Hart huffed out a laugh behind me.
“We will have words about this.”
I was happy to. “Then we can discuss what else Alysa has asked of you, and how long you’ve been chatting with the leader of the Storm.”
Charon chuffed, and his wings beat a little harder as he flew us farther from the mines.
Charon landed at the cavern where I’d previously visited him. I hadn’t explored it much, but in the quiet of the night, the sound of a stream gurgled beside the entrance.
I slid off his back and walked to his previously injured leg to check the healing. Although I knew the magic had sealed the wound, it was impossible to see through the black sludge that still remained. “Can I clean this?”
He nodded, and I bent to tear a piece of my skirt to use as a cloth.
“Do all dragons have black blood?”
“Yes,”Charon said.“We are made in our goddess’s image.”
I paused my progress. He’d said something like this before, but for some reason, it nagged at a thread in my mind. I wanted to pull hard and unspool whatever thoughts evaded me. My gut said they were important. “What do you mean, in the goddess’s image?”
“I told you, my kind are made from pure chaos. It’s why our magic is drawn to each other.”
“And pure chaos is…” I couldn’t quite finish the thought as Hart knelt before me to rip the strip I’d stalled on. I put my hand on his shoulder as recognition lit up every part of me. “Pure chaos is black.”
Eris’s human form flashed through my mind. When she’d appeared in the throne room, she was draped in a slinky blackdress. It had moved with her like a second skin. Themis, her opposite, had been cloaked in white.
Hart waited for me to finish my thought. “The last stone, it’ll be black. What’s most important to Eris…”
I felt on the verge of something big. These trials were meant to free us, and if I believed Eris as I wanted to, they’d free us from more than just our curse.
The difference between the sisters was stark in my mind. Chaos and Order. Black and White. Polar opposites in so much. Darkness clouded my vision as I called forth what we’d read in the Library of Linia. The one similarity between Delphine and me was the way we’d made our choice. In the Oldwood, the night I’d chosen to be Eris’s Champion, I’d felt like I was lost in the deepest, darkest night. The darkness had grown so heavy, so overpowering, that it was blinding.
“‘It is the most important aspect of all of this—at least to Eris.’ That’s what Scarlett said. It has to be choice.”
