“You’re hurt. I felt it.”
He rubbed her back and squeezed her a little tighter. “Just a couple of broken ribs, I think.”
“Me too,” she mumbled into his neck.
There were so many things Teddy wanted to ask her.
A slow clap broke the silence.
At the top of the maze wall, Endros stood in front of a throne-like chair on the gamemaker’s dais, beside the royal booth. “Excellent work, both of you. I’m very impressed with your strategy and viciousness.”
The crowd cheered in approval. Teddy could feel the weight of his father’s gaze, but he didn’t want to take his eyes off Endros until he had his favor in hand.
The god lifted his hands and the noise of the crowd died again.
“It pains me to say this, but unfortunately, there can be only one champion and only one favor.”
The crowd voiced their dissent immediately and loudly, but the moment Endros lifted a hand, they quieted again.
“I didn’t make the rules, but I must enforce them. There can be only one. That is what was written into the rules of the Games.”
Teddy set Stella back on her feet and took a step forward. “Stella can have it. She beat me by just a second.”
It was a quick lie. They’d run in from opposite sides at the same time, but Teddy couldn’t bear to look Stella in the eye while he took something from her.
Endros clicked his tongue. “Gallant of you, Your Grace. But you did indeed enter at the same time and the Gauntlet Games rules must be honored. It’s how we keep the peace.”
The crowd voiced their displeasure with a chorus of outraged shouts.
The god pressed a hand to his chest in the perfect imitation of sincerity. “Would that I could change it, but as you all know, this contest is bound by godly bargain, and I am as much a prisoner of the rules as the contestants. I didn’t write the covenant of these Games. I only signed it.”
The crowd settled.
“I have no choice but to use the tiebreaker,” Endros continued, turning to face the kings. “King Xander, did I not give you a sealed envelope at the beginning of the Games and ask you to hold on to it, but not open it?”
Xander stood and walked to the front of the box. Reaching a hand inside his vest, he removed a letter with a red wax seal and held it up.
Endros grinned menacingly. “Would you mind reading it?”
Xander broke the wax seal, read it, and frowned. He glanced to Stella and Teddy and then to Cecilia and Rainer, who sat beside Queen Jessamin in the royal booth.
Teddy tried not to fidget, but beside him Stella picked at dry blood crusted on her hands.
“Ready the challenge,” Endros said, waving a hand at the priestess beside him. He turned to the king. “Are you going to read the tiebreaker aloud to our contestants and the crowd?”
Xander stood tall. “‘The final challenge is simple. Few moments in the history between our two kingdoms are as memorable and ingrained in the hearts and minds of our people as the great exchange. It’s the swipe of a dagger between two mortals that eventually sent Cato from this realm.’”
Stella froze. “Teddy, does he mean?—”
A door opened beneath the dais. A priestess in crimson robes strode into the center of the maze and paused in front of Teddy and Stella. She held an ornate golden box in her hands. She set the box on the ground and reached for Teddy’s hand.
“Your cuff, please. They don’t want you restricted for the final challenge,” the priestess said.
Dread clenched in Teddy’s chest. He didn’t want the full force of his magic if he would need to use it on Stella.
The priestess whispered something, and the band slipped free of his wrist. Stella held out her hand, and the priestess removed hers as well, then tucked the glowing bands into a pocket in her robes and stooped to pick up the gold box again.
Teddy studied her face for any hint of the chaos she was about to unleash on them. The priestess just smiled serenely and opened the box.
