they could get for Char, Rook, and Lynx, even if Ignitus could be watching. He wouldn’t take this from them too.
Taro took Lynx’s candle. Tor had Rook’s. Ash lifted her mother’s candle.
Ash’s whole body felt filled with the stones of Deimos. She was exhausted to her bones and she could still feel Rook’s blood on her skin, though she had bathed twice. But her grief was . . . softer, thanks to Madoc. Like leather worked from new and stiff to used and supple.
So when she looked at Tor and saw the raw anguish on his tear-soaked face, she felt a tight pull of guilt in her belly. She hadn’t told him what had happened in the tunnel, and her excuse to Taro had been that Madoc had shown her the way out of the arena, that was all. Ash should just tell Ignitus, let him call out his god-brother for the unforgivable act of using another god’s gladiator in a war. Ignitus would be pleased at the chance to shame his brother, and he’d adore Ash for giving him that ammunition.
But what would Geoxus do to Madoc—and could Ash live with being responsible for it? She was already responsible for Rook’s death.
A violent sob tried to claw its way out of her throat. She fought it down, fist to her mouth.
If she hadn’t tried to save Char, if she hadn’t interfered in that fight and caused this war, then Rook would have been in Igna when Lynx died. He would still have been grief-stricken, but he wouldn’t have gotten himself killed trying to murder Ignitus.
Guilt was an even darker abyss than loneliness, one Ash wasn’t sure she would survive falling into.
“He was right, you know,” Tor said suddenly.
Ash stiffened. It was Taro who prodded, “Rook?”
Tor nodded and jutted his chin at the flames, a reminder that Ignitus could be watching.
“About what we owe to Char,” Tor said. The look he gave Ash was full of such intent that the sob she had been holding down broke free. “We owe it to him now too.”
What they owed to Char—pursuing the lead that could bring down Ignitus.
Ash’s brows pinched. Tor had wanted her to be cautious, to focus on immediate survival, not on long-term goals. But Rook’s death was a bitter reminder that they had no control over their lives. At any moment, Ignitus could snap his fingers and break them apart.
“You want to—” She had to speak carefully until they had finished this ceremony for Char, Rook, and Lynx. “You want to keep pursuing our lead? But Stavos is missing.” Ash had told Tor already, but she said it again.
“Everyone seems to think he’s fallen ill,” Taro offered, “and is too ashamed to make it public. Half a dozen Deiman gladiators have died of a similar plague over the past few years. People are already starting to call it the champions’ pox.”
“What are the symptoms?” Spark asked. “How does it only affect gladiators?”
“Geoxus’s gossiping servants didn’t say,” said Taro. “If you ask me, it doesn’t sound like a disease at all—it sounds like a convenient way to cover up the fact that Geoxus got fed up with some of his top gladiators and just killed them.”
Ash chewed her lip. She couldn’t deny that she was glad Stavos was gone, for however long. She hoped Geoxus truly had killed him.
But the facts they had were: Stavos and other top fighters were gone. Ignitus’s weakness was no closer to revealing itself. A squabble among Ignitus, Geoxus, Aera, and Biotus was still undetermined.
And now Madoc. He had clearly been planted in this war by a different god—it was impossible that he wasn’t involved in the brewing conflict between Ignitus, Geoxus, Aera, and Biotus, the one Hydra had refused to get involved with. What energeia did he have? Aereia, maybe? Ash’s chest had felt lighter, thanks to him. Whatever it was, Madoc could even be responsible for the disappearing Deiman gladiators, offing them to make room for spies like himself.
That sort of ruthlessness didn’t fit with the man who had lightened Ash’s grief. She barely remembered anything after Rook died except a resurgence of the agony she’d felt when Char had died in front of her. Then, a bright spot in the darkness: Madoc.
“We’ll figure it out.” Tor put his hand on Ash’s knee. “I see your mind working, Ash. We will figure it out, together. No more losses.” His lips curled in on themselves, fresh tears welling.
Ash put her hand over Tor’s. The