Page 142 of Jeweler to the Blessed
When Hart touched me, there was heat, yes, but it was consuming, not comforting. And it was different with Hart when we’d left the throne room, different than what I’d felt last night.
Hart didn’t spare me a glance as we hiked up to the entrance. My mind returned to the words ofChampions of Kavios—another line that seemed so straightforward:Her Champion will take until the point of breaking.As I considered it now, I wondered if Mother meant it for him or me.
42
Tell Ember I love her. I don’t think I told her enough.
— ALARIC SARE’S LETTERS TO ISABELLE ARKOVA
Charon’s wings snapped open as we reached the surface. I knew I should have tried to take more from Hart to continue to heal him as we climbed, but I couldn’t summon the energy to ask. I wondered what else Alaric had tried to sustain Charon—another item on the list of things kept from me.
My heart clenched just thinking of Alaric. He couldn’t be gone. There was too much left to say—too much left to unravel.
Instead of telling me who waited in the mines, he’dtried to solve the problem himself. A problem that inherently only I—with Chaos’s magic—could solve.
So much would have been simpler if Alaric had told me what he knew. Like Mother, I guessed he’d been trying to preserve my choice. It felt like no matter his intentions, he’d done the opposite.
“We have to keep moving.” Hart pushed through the trees guarding the mine’s entrance.
He turned to face me, and I knew I wouldn’t like what he would say.
“I’ll help heal him once more, then you two should go.”
Anger flooded me, and I was too tired to hide it. “What?” I balled my hands into fists at my side. “Where are you going?”
He shrugged. “Does it matter?”
This was what I’d planned myself as I’d stormed through the Oldwood, but for some reason, I hated hearing him say it.
“I can’t leave my parents,” I said.
Finally, some rational thought was returning. They would be targets for the Glanmores. New leverage to control me now that Alaric was gone.
“Ava is getting them to The Storm. They’ll be fine with Alysa.”
My shoulders sagged. That must have been his stop at Forest’s Edge before we left. Even as my anger pulsed, I didn’t want to slot this kindness into place. I didn’t want to examine why he would do something like that. Maybe he just wanted control over where they were.
He didn’t control The Storm, though. That much was clear. I shook my head.
I probably should let him leave. Whatever was between us was broken. He’d kept so much from me. While some day I might understand the secrets Alaric and Mother kept, Icouldn’t understand it from him. We were supposed to be partners. I swallowed thickly, even as I thought it.
We were supposed to be more.
A consuming heat flared inside me as I considered us parting ways. Something else shifted uncomfortably within me, demanding his touch.
“You can’t, Cursed,” Charon said. “I don’t know what happened, but she’s like you now—she’ll weaken if you’re separated.”
Hart glared at Charon. I closed my eyes and let my head tip back, wondering why the goddess hated me so much. “What do you mean, like him?—”
“We don’t know if that’s true. It might not be the same; Themis didn’t know all the impacts of Chaos’s curse,” Hart said.
I didn’t need to look at him to know he was lying. Words from the first time I saw Hart fell into place. His one moment of vulnerability with Alaric.You know what this means to me. I’m running out of time.That’s what he’d said to Uncle.
Anger roared again at more information withheld. “There was more to the curse than being unable to use your magic without me?”
He rubbed his forehead, exhausted. “Chaos ensured I’d have to find you. Not just for magic. She was clever enough to know that might not be a motivating factor for me.”
I wanted to scream. There was a lot he wasn’t saying again, but it was clear from what both he and Charon had said that he’d be in physical pain at separation. I rubbed at my chest, at the unfamiliar ache the thought of him leaving brought. Maybe I would be, too, now that my curse mirrored his.
