“Sons of Endros attack,” Stella said, lifting her hands in surrender.
Katerina looked back and forth between them. “Who won the Games?”
“Teddy did,” Stella said without meeting his eye. “Or else the rebellion broke the covenant of the Games and we have much bigger problems to solve. Now, are you satisfied? Can I pass to find my family?”
“Can we leave?” Katerina asked.
Teddy’s blood was no longer burning. “Stands to reason that an active rebellion attack on the Games would effectively end the peace.”
Stella nodded. “The burning is gone. I don’t know what else would stop it.”
Jeneva turned her fierce gaze on the smoking remnants of the royal booth. “How do we find the quickest way out?”
Teddy turned in a slow circle. There were four entrances off the center of the maze. “Does anyone remember the exact route they took to get in here?”
Jeneva frowned at him like the question was insulting, which it probably was for the Olney huntmaster’s daughter. All hunters were trained to have an impeccable sense of direction. “Of course.” Her gaze wandered toward one of the maze openings. “Which competitors are still standing?”
“Dixon is alive but unconscious,” Teddy said.
“Fionn and the Roach,” Stella said.
Katerina wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Drew was, but if he didn’t realize that my blades were poisoned, then he probably won’t be for long.”
“He’s dead,” Stella said flatly.
Their bond was as steady as her affect, but Teddy still searched her face for any sign of apprehension. He found none.
“I need to get to my father. He’ll be a target in this,” Jeneva said.
“So will you,” Stella said, nodding to Jeneva’s fiery red hair.
Jeneva tapped her short swords together. “They’ll have to catch me first.” She nodded toward the opening from which she’d come. “I’m going to find my father. I’m guessing he’ll be on the castle walls.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Stella said.
“She won’t,” Katerina said, stepping up beside her warrior friend. She smiled sheepishly at Stella. “Sorry we tried to kill you at the Muddled Mind. It wasn’t personal. I just really needed that favor and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Stella shrugged. “I don’t blame you.”
Teddy felt far less inclined to forgive than Stella was, but when she turned and gave him an irritated look, he sighed and said, “Yes,we understand. Just be careful who you trust. Security was tight around this event especially.”
Jeneva frowned. “It was supposed to be, but two unscheduled ships landed at the pier right before the start of the challenge. My father was called away from saying goodbye to me because of it. The harbormaster was beside himself, afraid they were under attack, but it seems he just misplaced a page from his ledger. My father had to pull some of the security detail to investigate what was happening at the pier.”
Stella paled and something like dread hit Teddy through their connection.
“What is it?” Teddy asked.
Stella’s gaze darted around the room. “Before the event, Fionn called in his favor. He brought me to the pier and asked me to erase the last twenty-four hours from the harbor log and to remove the page of arriving and departing ships from the ledger and give it to him.”
Jeneva stared at her. “You think it’s a diversion?”
Stella shook her head. “If it is, it’s a good one. It draws guards away from the event but?—”
Another loud explosion erupted into the night. The four of them braced against the ground-rattling aftershocks. Smoke poured into the sky, the night turned momentarily orange by a fireball.
“The docks,” Katerina rasped. “My father’s shop is near there.”
“Wait!” Stella said. “About Fionn—when I ran into him in the maze, he was headed the wrong way. He wasn’t going toward the center room. He was running away from it.”
