Page 136 of Jeweler to the Blessed
As if she knew my thoughts, Eris winked at me. “Oh, but he is, Champion.”
Was she talking to me?
“Why didn’t you just kill him?” Themis hissed. “I could have summoned another.”
I wondered the same thing. A man summoned by one goddess, cursed by another—but a man determined to write his own destiny. It would have been easier to start fresh.
Then I remembered the end of the firstborn’s story. I thought of what Hart had told me in the hallway of my parents’ building—the guilt he carried for his mother. I realized the cost of his choice. He had confronted a goddess. His life was forfeit, but it wasn’t his life that had paid the debt.
For the first time, Eris looked a little sad. “His mother paid it for him.”
“So, his summons still stands,” Themis said.
Eris pointed to me. “The summons didn’t stand a chance once he met her.”
Hart’s gaze was finally drawn to mine as the goddesspointed. He looked resigned to his fate. Something the hero ofChampions of Kaviosshould never be.
“What did you do?” Themis asked.
“I didn’t do anything. He did.” Eris twirled, the silk of her dress flowing with the movement of her body as she all but danced at the chaos unfolding around her. “My curse made him find her, should he wish to use his magic.”
“You didn’t even need your magic to take the throne,” Themis raged at Hart.
Eris ignored her sister’s outburst. “He fell for her all on his own.”
This time, I definitely wasn’t breathing.
Hart’s gaze held mine. His lack of denial, his unwillingness to even look at Themis while Eris made these revelations, was too much.
Themis erupted. Alaric’s shout was in my ears, and then something snapped. His body was flung across the room, cracking against the opposite wall.
I screamed and lunged for Alaric. Hart grabbed my arm and held me in place. I scratched, I clawed, I kicked with everything I had in me as I tried to reach Alaric’s unmoving body.
Eris’s smile faded. Oblivious to my struggle, she turned to her sister. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“I don’t care.” Themis held her sister’s gaze. “Your champion needs the curse too. There is Order in an even playing field.”
Her words didn’t register. Alaric wasn’t Blessed. No mortal could survive the snap and crash I’d just heard. I screamed again, and with tooth and nail, I fought to get free of Hart. His hold was unrelenting. He was impervious to my pain and my attempts to break free.
Eris gave me a hard stare as I fought Hart’s hold to get to Alaric. Her gaze flicked to him behind me, holdingme in place.
“Done,” Eris said.
With a final wink at me, Eris disappeared.
Themis folded her arms across her chest. “I won’t wait forever.”
Then, giving Hart a hard stare, she disappeared like her sister.
Hart stooped to lift me. He must have found a slip of skin because the flame of our connection raged through my body. I recognized the heat for what it was. It must be himtaking.
He threw me over his shoulder, his arm wrapping over my legs at the front of his chest. “We have to go, Chaos.”
I wiggled around him enough to see the ring turn purple again—the room fell again to nightmares. With me thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, he carried me down the aisle. His hand encircled my ankle. The sizzle of our connection didn’t drain me, though, like when I’d saved him.
It made me feel alive.
“What are you doing?” I scratched and clawed at the parts of his uniform I could reach.
