“I know how to fight,” she snapped. “It’s patronizing to explain how this competition works as if we both haven’t been watching it since we were children.”
“We should pair up,” Teddy forced himself to say.
Stella scoffed.
“Fine, then, what about—” He nodded to the tall redhead on the far side of the group. “Jeneva Lampry over there. She’d be a good partner for you.”
Stella scowled at him. “Because we’re both women?”
Teddy groaned. “No, because I watched her in training earlier this week. She worked well with a partner and she doesn’t have magic.”
Stella cast a glance at the red-haired warrior, who was checking the throwing knives stuck into her chest plate. Jeneva was tall, with a muscular warrior’s build. She wore a leather armored vest. Colorful tattoos peeked out from the gap between her shirt and armguards.
“I wonder if her father is losing it over her being in the competition or if he’s proud,” Stella said. “It could go either way with the huntmaster. I know when my mother entered herself in the Huntgames they used to have before solstice, my grandfather wasn’t very pleased, but he was proud. Of course, the Huntgames had way less murder than this tournament.”
“Did you imagine your parents would feel the same?” Teddy asked.
Stella laughed. “No. I knew they would be horrified.” She glanced at the dark-haired woman next to Jeneva.
“Do you know her? She’s awfully small to be rumbling with these warriors,” Teddy said.
Stella nodded. “That’s Katerina Shank. Her father is one of the best smiths in Olney. Don’t let her build fool you. There is not a weapon she doesn’t know how to wield, and she’s also a witch. Her strongest affinity is water, but she has another talent I’m guessing most people here don’t know about.”
“Care to share?”
“Of course,Your Grace, at your royal command.” She pressed onto her toes and leaned in so her lips nearly brushed his ear. “She’s good with poisons. I would take care not to even get scratched by any of her weapons.”
Teddy shouldn’t have been surprised that Stella had done herhomework. She was Rainer McKay’s daughter, and he would have taught her to know her adversaries well.
“And what have you learned about me as an opponent?” he asked.
Stella smirked. “You’ll just have to find out.”
He hadn’t really thought about the fact that he was at a disadvantage against her. He’d seen her shoot a bow, but he’d never seen her fight with any other weapon, yet she’d watched him train plenty.
Teddy eyed the competition. “We really should pair up.”
She laughed incredulously. “No.”
Teddy spun on her. “What do you mean no?”
“I mean, I don’t want to tie my fortunes to a spoiled prince who has never had to fight for anything until now.”
“What happened to me being the only person you were worried about beating?”
She cocked her head and looked at him like he was the dumbest man she’d ever met. “You are. That’s why I’m not helping you.”
“But you need a partner.”
Stella nodded to a man in elaborately decorated leather armor. His dark hair was neatly gathered in a bun at the nape of his neck. He caught Teddy staring and flashed a wide, annoyingly perfect smile. The prick winked.
Teddy whipped his gaze back to Stella. “Fionn Silver is amercenary.”
“Which means he’s one of the few people in the field whom I know for certain can be bought.”
“Loyalty purchased can always be purchased again by a higher bidder,” Teddy said, parroting the words his father had drilled into him since youth.
“I’m giving him something he wants—something he can’t get from someone else,” Stella said. “It’s the proper motivation to guarantee he will help me through this challenge. He needs me alive and well to help him.”
