“So you’ll still need me, and I will trade this knowledge for the ark of Aphelion, but if you’d like my help, I’ll still require the ark of Heart as payment.”

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. My mother said I had to bond to destroy the ark, but will I be strong enough to get it from Rion without it?

“Why did my father want the ark?” Nadir asks. “You never explained that. Is that what you promised him?”

Cloris considers the question. “It was not the ark I dangled before him.”

“What then?” I ask.

“It was you,” she says. “The territory of Heart had resisted conquering over two long, bloody wars, and I simply suggested that with the Primary and her magic in his possession, he might finally be able to take it.”

“Would that have worked?” Nadir asks.

Cloris shrugs. “Maybe.”

Nadir looks at me and I shake my head. She lied to Atlas and Rion to get at me. She could be lying to us right now. She’s obviously a master.

“That’s why he was so angry when I refused to show him my magic,” I ask as my stomach knots with this knowledge that I’ve craved for so long.

She nods. “He was convinced I’d lied, and the Primary was gone.”

I think about what Nadir said and how Rion’s interest in me shifted after Gabriel stole me from the Hollow. So why did he start searching for the ark of Heart?

“What’s the second thing we need to do?” Nadir asks a moment later.

“Oh, that,” she replies, and that’s when her face stretches into a wicked grin.

“For the bonding to work, one of you will have to give up your role as the Primary.”

Nadir and I both grind into stillness at those words, and Cloris laughs in delight.

“Oh? Did you think it would be so easy?” she sneers. “If you want that kind of power, it requires a sacrifice. Can your love stand the test?”

I narrow my eyes. “You’re telling us the truth?”

She laughs again, tipping her head back with glee.

“It’s the truth, Heart Queen.” She studies me. “Or perhaps not a queen anymore.” Her gaze slides to Nadir. “I haven’t met many men who’d give up their power for a woman.”

I cannot pass the role of Primary on to anyone else. Coral said it had to be me. If I don’t ascend, then Heart loses everything.

But his answer is a derisive scoff. “Then you underestimate what I’d do for her, High Priestess.”

I exchange a look with him, reading the sincerity in his eyes, my heart twisting in my chest. There’s a flicker of something in Cloris’s expression before it morphs into a scowl.