Page 75 of Jeweler to the Blessed
I was at a loss for words. This alcove was different than the one Ava and I had spoken in earlier. The plush seat was more of a daybed. Large enough for two, maybe three people, but didn’t provide the luxury of distance. Scooting back on the seat, my shoulders hit the cushion, and my legs curled beneath me.
Hart tracked my movements. His eyes finally met mine. “Ready?”
Ready as I was going to be. I dipped my chin.
He crawled the length of the daybed. My heartbeat spiked with each movement. As he rolled to a seated position, his arm sprawled across the cushion behind me.
“This alright?”
Words escaped me. No matter what we discussed, this felt like a choice of its own. Had I ever let a Blessed so casually close to me? I swallowed.
“You know you’ll have to speak for this to work, right?” His smirk was back.
The deep desire to wipe it from his face helped balance my nerves. In practice, I knew he was correct. I’d obviously need to say something, but I could feel the heat of his hand behind my neck. These alcoves didn’t seem like they were meant for talking.
I sat up straighter, desperate to maintain some control.
“Do you know the Cursed King?” I asked.
He knew the Feared, even if his opinion on them seemed to be shifting. How long had the famed figure been with them? What were his goals? The story of Themis’s Champion was hundreds of years old. He hadn’t shown himself in the city in all that time. What could he want now?
He chuckled. “Why do you ask?”
At that moment, the curtain parted, and Ava walked in. She had a tray full of drinks balanced atop her hand. “I saw you two sneak back here and figured I’d better be your server.”
She set down two glasses with heavy pours of warm brown liquid.
“Thanks, Ava,” Hart said.
“I was already covering the alcoves tonight, so no one elseshould stop in.” She held Hart’s gaze like she was trying to tell him something else. Something I wasn’t privy to.
He waved away her concern. “It’ll be fine.”
She shook her head and closed the sheer curtains behind her as she left.
Hart’s intense focus returned to me. “Now, what was your question?”
“Do you know what he wants?”
Hart sipped his drink before setting it on the table beside the daybed. “What any man summoned by a goddess and cursed by another wants—freedom to choose.”
I clutched the glass of my own drink for reassurance. “Does he lead the Feared?”
“More or less.” He picked up his drink as if the words caused his need for another sip. “The Feared are a rebel group united around an idea. They follow his lead, so long as they see the mission they believe in accomplished.”
“But they’re magicless … He’s not. How can they have the same mission?”
Hart raised his brow. “Surely, you don’t have to experience a wrongdoing to know the behavior is wrong?”
I hummed softly, considering. He was correct, but wasn’t that a little too convenient for Themis’s Champion? Shouldn’t he simply take the throne and be done with it?
“So, Themis’s Champion is interested in taking power from the Blessed?”
He nodded.
I set aside the complexities of that for a moment, needing to be a little selfish. Mother’s words had me on edge. “Then I’m a problem to him, just like I’m a problem for the Feared.”
He shook his head. “The fastest way to stop the Blessed’s number from growing may be to remove you. But to take thecity from them? No. To hold power in this city, it must be taken from King Rodric.”
