In short, Stella had made herself the perfect target.
She glanced up and caught Teddy staring at her. His expression mirrored her own and his anxiety tangled around hers through the bond. He had probably realized that he also made a great target.
“They are both well-trained, but we have to assume that Endros will make it as hard on them as possible,” Xander said, turning his attention to Rainer and Cecilia. “Fortunately, he has to make it just as hard on everyone else. The most important thing is that you teach Stella and Teddy how to manage this bond and that we keep theknowledge of it to just us. If any of the other competitors find out, they can use you against each other.”
Rainer crossed the room and sat down next to Stella. He squeezed her knee. “All will be well.” He sounded more like he was telling himself than her. “Your mom and I will teach you some basics to control the bond this afternoon, and then you’ll come out and spar with me.”
Stella’s relief was profound, and for the first time, she realized just how exhausted she was from the anxiety of the day.
Queen Jessamin crossed the room and kissed Teddy’s cheek. “You and I will speak later. For now, listen to everything Rainer and Cece tell you and then come back to Olney Castle ready to train with your brother.”
Teddy nodded and watched his parents leave. He sat rigidly beside Stella as Cecilia dragged a chair in front of the couch so she could face them.
“You can’t let anyone know about the bond. It will be a liability,” Rainer said. “You’re both so unpracticed. It will be distracting if either of you are scared or injured. You have to cultivate tremendous focus.” He brought a hand to his heart. “Cece and I had years of practice before we were ever in real combat together, but the two of you don’t have that luxury. I don’t mean to be patronizing, but I don’t think you understand yet just how distracting it can be.”
Teddy shifted and chewed his lower lip.
“I’ve seen you fight, Teddy,” Rainer continued. “You have excellent focus and you’ve learned from the best, but you’ve looked at my daughter thirty-six times since we brought you both into this room.”
Stella remembered the bolt of pain she’d felt when Teddy made his binding vow to the tournament—and that had only been a cut on his palm. What might it be like if he was seriously wounded?
“How do I block him out?” she asked.
Rainer shrugged a shoulder. “Your bond is different than the one your mother and I have, so at least you have that going for you. Truthfully, I don’t know the ins and outs of a heart bond, but you could probably ask your Aunt Desiree. She’s been refusing to answerwhen your mother tries to summon her, but maybe she wouldn’t ignore a request from you, Stell-bell.”
Stella arched a brow.
Her father laughed. “Fair enough. Now let’s focus on this bond. I’m guessing that it’s only the strongest emotions that will come through, so it’s important that both of you try to stay as steady as possible even when you’re surprised in the tournament.” Rainer reached over and pinched Stella’s arm.
She hissed in pain and wrenched her arm away at the same time Teddy’s hand flew to his chest.
“That pain could hit you at any time and you have to ignore it,” Rainer said. “Ideally, we’d have time to teach you the scope of pain and shock you might feel, but we have hours, not years.”
Cecilia placed her palm over her heart. “Close your eyes. First, focus on just feeling the bond.”
“How?” Teddy asked.
“You should have some awareness of what doesn’t belong in your chest. What feels foreign, or like it just doesn’t quite belong. To me, Rainer always feels a bit off of my own natural rhythm of emotions.”
Once Stella closed her eyes and paid attention, it was actually remarkably easy to sense the bond and start to feel what was her and what was Teddy. The bond was tucked in the space just beneath her heart, pulsing with a subtle rhythm.
“For me,” Rainer said, “Cece feels more extremes. There’s more variability to her rhythms and mine tend to be naturally a little more subtle.”
Teddy shifted beside Stella, his thigh brushing hers. “I feel it, but I’m not sure if I know what part of it is her.”
“That’s okay,” Cecilia said. “I want you to both think of the bond as a funnel. Something is always going to be coming through. It’s not likely that you two will get to a place of being able to shut each other out completely. We need to work with a baseline expectation that you’ll always feel something.”
Stella clenched her hands in her dress. The thought of not having her heart to herself for the next few weeks was exhausting. Shewanted to slam the door closed on Teddy—to keep him from finding out that every assumption he’d ever made about her was true. She was too soft, too angry, too petty, just too much, and now she wouldn’t be able to hide it from this smug prince.
“Our goal,” her mother continued, “is to help you limit what passes through the bond. Now that you feel the bond, I want you to take turns noticing each other’s particular signature. Stella, think about something that makes you very angry.”
Stella blew out a breath and thought of Desiree joining Grace and Arden’s hands. She waited for the rage she’d felt—or at least the confusion and dread.
Neither came. All of her anger must have been spent in that moment and the moments after when she’d been attached to Teddy.
Instead, she was hit with an immense wave of sadness. It hurt to think about losing the thing she was so certain about. The grief that the relationship that had always been so effortless for her to slip into was slipping away with that same ease.
Teddy’s rough palm slid into hers. Stella’s eyes snapped open, and she looked at him, expecting a taunt. Instead, Teddy’s eyes were full of disarming gentleness.
