Hart stood, studying me carefully as he handed me the strip of cloth. He spoke hesitantly as if knowing something simmered beneath the surface. “It makes sense that to break free of whatever this is, you would make a choice to mirror your first one—the one all Eris’s Champions make.”
I shook my head. That wasn’t it. Well, it was and it wasn’t. “But it’s not like I want to undo my choice. I stand by it.”
He nodded slowly, but I could see his hesitation in the movement. The conclusion we’d both arrived at was one he struggled to voice. “You think you can give me that choice? Even though it’s Eris’s plan? And you’re her Champion?”
My heart swelled that he put such hope into words. It made sense, but this whole idea felt fragile. “Maybe. I mean, if I have to speak it, then so be it, but I hope you know I’d happily choose to free you from the goddesses’ game.”
“Think of everything this path hinged on,”Charon said.“Therequirements to receive the papers, the ability to be vulnerable with each other … everything about this path required a connection between you. If you are correct that the final trial is a choice, I think the choice will require both of you as well.”
I considered it further as I took the strip of cloth to the stream and knelt to wet it. Returning, I swiped along Charon’s scales. “Eris told me I wasn’t thinking big enough. Breaking the curse doesn’t free Hart from Themis, and it leaves us open to her interference should her path with your father and the book they found come to fruition.”
I swiped the material over Charon’s leg again, then returned to the stream for another rinse. “I know our path leads us there anyway, but it occurred to me that the location associated with our change must be the throne room. No matter what our choice, to challenge what is known, we need to challenge the power that currently holds Kavios.”
Hart’s gaze seared my cheek as I worked. His silence told me that he agreed, but he’d probably been hoping to keep me out of that particular part of our plan. I knew that as long as we could fill the adamas with fear, I wouldn’t be a liability.
Still, I had to complete my emotional trials. Alaric’s instructions were clear: those six had to be complete before we could attempt the seventh.
I considered the balance between Chaos and Order again. The game, even the loophole to free ourselves, seemed structured around the goddesses. Alaric had said everything we needed to know came from my studies. I just couldn’t find the missing piece right now.
“I’m exhausted,” I whispered as I leaned my head against Charon’s scales.
“It’s late, Champion. You don’t have to solve it tonight.”
“We’ll divide and conquer,” Hart said. “I’ll reread Alaric’spapers tomorrow while you work the gems. For now, we should sleep. We can’t keep pushing ourselves like this.”
Charon grunted in agreement, and I couldn’t help but smile. In Kavios, I’d been surrounded by so many but felt seen by so few. That had been my intent, a choice born from fear of my condition, but still, it was isolating. I hadn’t even shared my whole self with my friends. Jasmine and Serena had only seen parts of me, and as my conversation with Serena had illustrated at Forest’s Edge, I’d only seen parts of them as well.
I couldn’t fault my choices then, but I focused on the ones I made now. Hart and Charon were the new choices I’d made for myself. My initial honesty with them both might have been coerced through magic, but I didn’t regret it. It felt good to be known.
It was so easy to curl up in the cave with Hart’s arm draped over my waist for warmth. Charon placed himself between us and the entrance, and his breath was a furnace—heating the coldest hours of the night and thawing the most isolated parts of my heart.
34
You have so many choices, and yet only one will work for you and the kingdom.
— ALARIC SARE’S PAPERS FOR EMBERLINE ARKOVA
Ihated leaving Charon and the peace of his cave, but if I wanted a future filled with nights just like the last, I still had work to do. Today, I needed to shape the gems we’d stolen from the mines. We needed the magic of the adamas to offer the Feared when we met with them tonight.
Though things with my father were far from fixed, he had brought some of his gem-cutting supplies with him when he and Mother fled to the Storm. I was thankful that Alysa insisted everyone have a way to contribute. Upon his arrival, gem work was all he’d known. Since the skill set had littleuse in the Storm’s camp, he’d soon learned to help in other ways, but at least he still had the tools with him.
Our conversation at the fire proved that I hadn’t spent nearly enough time with my parents since my return. I knew it was a problem for another day. We were so close to completing our trials, if only I could find my own source of joy. After last night, I knew we were closer than ever to understanding the final gemstone on our pendant. But none of that stopped me from wishing things were different with my parents.
As we returned to camp and approached my parents’ tent, Hart placed a steadying hand at my lower back. He knew—he always knew what I tried to hide. After Father’s words last night, I didn’t know what toll this conversation would take on me.
“Emberline.” Father sat by one of the cook fires, stirring something that looked like porridge. “You’re back.”
I told myself there was some enthusiasm in the statement. That he’d been worried about me, and to see me now was reassurance that breaking into the mines had gone as expected. But maybe that asked a lot of a barely three-word greeting.
I nodded. “It was a success, and now I need to borrow your gem-cutting equipment if I can.”
Father nodded. “It’s in the tent. Take whatever you need. Your mother is in there, resting.”
Part of me wanted to say more, but mostly I wanted to retreat from the stiffness of the conversation. I wanted to fall into work that I knew. I wanted Hart to have time to sit with Alaric’s notes and sort through the missing pieces of this puzzle. Yet as I turned to collect the gem saw and clasp, Father mumbled something.
“What was that, Father?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Are you really going to overthrow the king?”
