“Of course I do. She is a pain in the ass, but she is still my sister. I won’t always be able to protect her. But I can save her from this.”
“What do you want me to do?” Stella asked.
“You said you were good with memory magic, right?”
Stella licked her lips and nodded.
“I’m not as precise with memory. When I’ve tried to practice on people before, they always know something is missing,” Teddy said. “Will you remove the memory of wanting to add her name to the competition? Give her the idea to just go seek out that priestess, maybe in a more discreet location. She is such a magnet for scandal.”
Stella pressed her hand to the back of Alexandra’s neck. She hesitated. “I can’t promise she won’t remember. I’m uncomfortable doing this to someone I know without their permission. If you take this choice now, she might make a worse one later. I understand the impulse to protect, but you have to let her make her own mistakes.”
“Just not this particular mistake.”
Stella only hesitated briefly. She closed her eyes, and the air prickled with her magic. Her brow creased in concentration as she went to work, carefully removing the memory from Alexandra’s mind.
A moment later, when Stella blinked her eyes open and nodded that it was done, relief washed over Teddy. It was bad enough to compete while bonded to Stella and her moodiness. Worrying about Alexandra would have been way too much to manage. As annoyed as Teddy was with their father at the moment, he knew that losing Isla had taken its toll. Something happening to Alexandra at the same time could break the king. Teddy didn’t wish him more pain.
Outside the tent, the crowd began to cheer.
Stella stood a little straighter and smoothed her dress. “We have to go. You certain you want to leave her here defenseless?”
Teddy nodded. “I didn’t use the full spell, just a temporary version. She should wake up in twenty minutes. Once the binding ceremony is over and she’s barred from the tournament. Even if she remembers, she won’t be able to enter herself.”
He cast a nervous glance toward the opening in the tent that led to the commitment room. A priestess in golden robes stood waiting for them at the entryway.
“Having second thoughts,Your Grace?” Stella taunted.
Teddy glared at her. “Of course not. I was just wondering if it was worth taking one last try at convincing you not to enter.”
She smiled broadly. “Sorry, you’re not getting off that easily. Let’s go.”
Stella bumped his shoulder as she walked by, her dress swishing around her as she walked into the binding room. Teddy trailed behind her, pausing in the doorway.
The gold-clad priestess spoke to Stella in a hushed tone. Stella nodded and closed her eyes in silent concentration. Then she extended her hand over the bowl. The priestess pulled out a golden ceremonial dagger and Teddy fought the instinct to knock it out of her hands and yank Stella away.
Instead, he watched as the priestess slid the blade across Stella’s palm. Stella didn’t even flinch, but her pain hit Teddy in the chest. She squeezed her hand into a fist and allowed her blood to dribble into the bowl.
“I commit myself to the Gauntlet Games’ challenges of wisdom, memory, and magic. I bind myself to the outcome of this tournament and promise to compete until I am eliminated by challenge failure, injury, or death,” Stella said.
The conviction in her words sent a chill through Teddy’s blood. Death had always been a possibility. Logically, he knew that, but was Stella really willing to die for someone who hadn’t even stopped in to see her off?
A jolt went through Stella’s body and Teddy felt the binding snap into place as the magic hit him like a blast of wind.
“It is done. Welcome to the competition, Stella Selene McKay,” the priestess said. She flipped Stella’s hand over and healed the cut on her palm.
Stella nodded and left the tent.
Teddy took her place in front of the priestess.
“The Gauntlet Games were designed to keep the peace in Olney and Argaria. So long as peace is kept, they will endure as this binding will endure until this year’s tournament is over. Theodore Davide Savero, do you understand that, once made, this binding promise tothe tournament cannot be broken? You may only exit by failure to complete a challenge, debilitating injury, or death. If you don’t show up for an event, or if you try to leave early without attempting a challenge, you will experience intense burning in your blood that won’t let up until you complete the required task. Do you understand?”
The weight of the words pressed in on Teddy from all sides, but this was the only way. He thought of Grace and hesitated only a moment before holding out his palm for the priestess and surrendering to the outcome of the Gauntlet Games.
8
STELLA
Stella squinted into the blinding daylight at the end of the tunnel as she followed the line of competitors toward the arena.
