Stella fisted a hand over her heart. “Sayla’s bow! What is happening? There’s all this pressure. It feels like my heart is going to arrest.”
Cecilia crossed the room and sat next to Stella, placing her fingers on her pulse. “Your heart rate is fine. Send me the memory of it.”
Stella closed her eyes for a moment and passed the memory to her mother. When she blinked her eyes open, her mother’s expression turned from concern to soft understanding and she looked at Teddy. “That’s just anxiety. It seems His Grace is quite worried.”
“How do you know?” Stella asked.
Cecilia nodded at Rainer. “Years of experience connected to your father.”
“That is what Papa feels like? Gods, that must be exhausting.”
Her mother laughed and it broke all the tension in the room. “You’ll get used to it. Imagine it like a funnel. You can learn how to narrow it down, so just a little comes through. If it’s that intense, he’s probably feeling a lot.”
Teddy cleared his throat. “Not to interrupt a family spat because it’s entertaining, but can we not speak about me as if I’m not here?” He glared at Stella and rubbed his sternum. “And for the record, you’re not a dream either. It’s like a swirling river of emotions that shifts current every other minute.”
“Apologies,” Cecilia said. “I didn’t mean to do that. I’m just at my wit’s end with what to do with my daughter who seems to have temporarily lost her mind.”
Stella cocked her head to the side. “I’m twenty-three years old. What are you going to do? Ground me? Tell me I can’t compete in a magic-bound tournament?”
Her mother’s face went red with fury.
King Xander covered his mouth, his eyes full of mirth. “Love, she could not be any more your daughter.”
Cecilia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I know. It’s so frustrating and so deserved.”
Stella held up her hands. “I know I made a rash decision—several. But I’m capable of taking care of myself.” She looked at her father. “Have you not trained me since I was a child to be able to handle myself? Am I not both of you? Your talent with a blade and Mama’s magic?”
Rainer flexed his hands. “Yes. You’re our daughter and that has clearly bequeathed you with your mother’s recklessness and ahealthy dose of overconfidence, but this is not training, Stella. This is a fight to the death and there are plenty of men who would love to make a point of besting you.” He paled and shook his head like he was trying to rid himself of a bad memory. “I have every confidence in you, but these are tense times and you have a target on your back.”
“Why don’t you understand that I need to do this?” Stella asked.
“For that boy?” Rainer asked.
“He’s not a boy, he’s?—”
“Engaged to someone else?” her mother interjected. It was just like Cecilia to pipe up when she could be the most cutting.
“Yes,” Stella said tightly. “Which is precisely why I need to win this contest.”
Her mother frowned and crossed her arms, then laughed. “Oh, you mean to ask for Arden’s hand?”
The way her mother said it made Stella feel like an idiot for thinking it was possible. But itwaspossible. It was the only path forward now. The winner of the Gauntlet Games could ask for a favor from the gods and it had to be granted. There were limits to what could be requested. She couldn’t ask to be made a goddess or ruler of either kingdom, but she could ask to marry someone she loved and they wouldn’t be able to refuse her. Really, it would be a favor to herandArden, who clearly didn’t want to marry Eleria.
“You wouldn’t be the first one in the family to make bad decisions because of sweet words from a prince,” Cecilia said. “But a couple pillow promises should not be enough for you to risk your life. Do you have any idea?—”
“About how you killed Endros and now he’s back for revenge?” Stella asked. “Yes, Mother. I’m painfully aware that I walk in the shadow of greatness every moment of every day. I’m sure that the ascended god of war has a score to settle and you want to tell me how idiotic it was that I allowed myself to be baited into a trap. I know. But as you’ve all said, I’m bound to the competition and I can’t change that now. So instead of berating me for my streak of bad decision-making, why don’t we talk about how Teddy and I are going to survive?”
Xander stepped forward. “I’m going to choose not to be offended by that exchange.”
“Look at you making good choices,” Cecilia said.
The king smiled at her indulgently. “I’m also going to agree with your daughter. There’s nothing we can do to get them out of the competition now. If I interfere, it will look like I’m giving preferential treatment and the Sons of Endros will have a field day with that. It will just add fuel to their fire about how they want equity.”
Cecilia threw her hands up. “But they don’t want equity. They want to set us back twenty years and erase all the progress we have made. If they have it their way, women will go back to being property of their fathers to be passed on to their husbands. We have worked too hard to go back. They don’t want a seat at the table. They want to set the table on fire.”
Stella slumped further into her seat. She hadn’t even been thinking about the tense politics of the kingdom when she entered herself into the Games. Obviously, she had noticed the rise of revolutionary activities, but she’d thought the Gauntlet Games would be insulated from the influence of the Sons of Endros.
Her mother was right. Any of her fellow competitors could secretly be a member of their organization. And Stella had given them all the perfect opportunity to make an example of her. Not only was she a woman, but she was the daughter of the woman who had slain Endros—the harbinger of all the changes in women’s rights that had come after.
