There are years when all three Candidates survive the Crucible, Gigi had told them, but she’d also told them that the Candidates were made to believe that only one of them would survive.
What would Eve do, Jameson thought,to survive?
“Tell me anyway,” Grayson suggested silkily.
“As Candidates, you need each other,” Emily said. “To survive the most difficult trials, you need each other. I’ve never needed anyone—or been needed—like that.”
It was you and Calla and Zella, Jameson thought.And Calla did not survive.Jameson wondered if Emily and Zella had learned Calla’s true nameafterher death, or if Calla Thorp had flouted the rules that forbade its use.
He wondered how Calla had failed.
“What name did you choose?” Grayson made his next move.
“Would you believe me if I saidLyra?”
Grayson met Emily’s eyes. “Have I believed anything you’ve said?”
He knows, Jameson realized,that she knows.
“It’s good to see you, Gray.” Emily smiled.
“What did you do to Jameson?” Grayson’s tone was anything but controlled.
“Among other things, I’m quite adept at… natural remedies, shall we say? Arcane ones.”
Grayson was quiet for a moment—but only a moment. “I always did see what I wanted to see when I looked at you.” Grayson nodded, hard-jawed, to one of the four stone walls. “Believe me when I say that you want to trigger that to open.”
“What good would that do you?” Emily asked. “You won’t leave your brother, and you won’t get anywhere with him weighing you down. And before you come at me, Grayson, keep in mind that my training has not been limited to poisons.”
The Kyrie.Jameson couldn’t make out a single scar on Emily’s exposed skin, but he couldn’t help but think of Nora andhertraining, of what it meant that Emily had trained for four years in anticipation of taking up the mantle of the Hand of the Gilded Blade.
“Are you a true believer, Emily?” Grayson said, his tone cutting.
“I can act the part,” Emily said. “But I wasn’t chosen as a Candidate because of my belief in the cause. The Judge prior to Alice chose me to get in your grandmother’s head. I was chosen because I had a Hawthorne connection, an ambitious streak, and a knack for getting my own way. I like to think I was part of a grand cascade to make sure Alice Hawthorne did not stay the Judge for all that long.”
Four years, Jameson thought.Not fifteen or twenty.
“You forced Alice to call the Crucible.” Grayson did not so much as raise his voice. “You used us to do it.”
“It’s nothing personal, Gray.” Emily smiled coyly. “There’s only so muchtraininga girl can take, and I’m ready to do far more than watch.” She reached up to touch Grayson’s face. “I did love you, you know. More or less.”
“What do you want?” Grayson demanded.
“What don’t I want?” Emily said. “But for now, I’d settle for a kiss.”
Ignore her, Gray. Stonewall her. You know she hates being ignored.
“Never,” Grayson told her.
“Kiss me like you mean it,” Emily said, leaning toward him, dropping her hand from his face and putting it on his chest, “and I’ll trigger oneof the two hidden doors in this room to swing open and let you and your brother go.”
No, Jameson thought.She won’t.
“I always meant it, Emily.” Grayson’s expression went smooth as glass. “You’re the one who played games, not me.”
Emily’s hand traveled from his chest back to his face. “It was always you, Gray. You know that, don’t you? It was never Jameson. It was always you.” Her other hand made its way to the other side of Grayson’s jaw.“Kiss me.”
Never, Jameson thought, echoing his brother’s earlier statement—just as Grayson brought his lips to hers. And when it was done, when he pulled back, Emily stared at Grayson likehewas the ghost.
