Something like respect hit her in the chest.Teddy’srespect. It was thrilling.
They continued down the street and it took every bit of Stella’s will not to turn back and make sure the Roach wasn’t following them. Her adrenaline was so high that she couldn’t hear anything but the wild beat of her heart in her ears as her skin cooled.
After walking a few blocks in silence, Teddy leaned in close. “We’re alone. Wouldn’t want to run into you on a dark street corner.”
Stella laughed. “Thank you, Your Grace. Wouldn’t want to try to go shot for shot with you at a bar.”
He laughed, and it softened his whole face. She couldn’t ever remember seeing him laugh so genuinely at something, and the effect was mesmerizing. He looked so handsome when he smiled like that.
Stella cleared her throat, searching her mind for anything to distract from unwelcome thoughts about how good-looking her nemesis was. “So tomorrow afternoon? The Temple of Desiree?” she said. “I know Desiree is usually only in residence in the evenings other than on moon ritual nights, so it’s probably best that we plan to get there after dark. We can have her break the bond. We’ll stay the night in the guest suites, and it will give us time to get back before the next challenge.”
They approached the castle gates and the hunters outside the courtyard straightened from where they leaned against the wall, talking to each other.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” Stella said. “I hope you don’t mind, but I insisted Prince Teddy celebrate our victories today, and being the honorable man that he is, he drank both our servings of bubble wine to keep me from being hungover tomorrow. That said, he’s a bit in his cups right now, so if one of you would be so kind as to see him to his room.”
She savored Teddy’s glare, thrilled for their relationship to return to its baseline of mild contempt.
The guards dropped into panicked, exaggerated bows.
“Your Grace,” they said in solemn chorus.
“Up you go,” Stella said, patting Teddy’s ass as he took the first step.
He scowled at her over his shoulder. “Enjoy your vigil.”
It took her a moment to realize what he meant, but when she did, all her previous loathing returned. She spun, ready to stalk away, praying that Arden would be waiting for her when she got home so she could shove that satisfaction in Teddy’s face when she saw him in the morning.
A shrill scream sliced through the night. Stella froze. Another scream rang out.
Stella didn’t think; she just ran toward the sound.
“Stella, don’t run toward the fucking danger!” Teddy shouted, lumbering after her with an unsteady gait.
Stella had assumed the death whispers had faded because she’d put Rett and his friends in their place, but now she wondered if she’d been hearing them for a different reason entirely.
She sprinted toward the frenzied screaming, keeping the castle courtyard walls to her right, her injured side protesting the exertion the whole way. She finally reached the end of the wall, turned, and saw a crowd gathered near the western courtyard gates. The screaming had stopped, transformed into muffled sobbing.
Stella slowed her pace as several hunters shepherded the crowd away from someone slumped against the outer courtyard wall. She pushed her way to the front of the group. A panting Teddy came to a stop next to her.
“Are you out of your mind? You could have—” Teddy stopped talking when he saw the reason for the commotion.
One of their fellow competitors, Victor Schwoebleman, was propped against the castle wall, his throat slit from ear to ear. His elegantly embroidered yellow tunic was drenched in blood that looked almost black in the dim light. Little rivers of red flowed between the cobblestones. It had happened right there outside the palace walls.
Several hunters circled the body, looking at the bloody mess. Several more were searching nearby alleyways and one stood holding a weeping woman. The rest were gathered around a hunter holding a torch, staring up at a still-dripping bloody painting above the body. A ring of fire around the open jaws of a viper—the symbol of the Sons of Endros.
Beneath it were the words “Strength Above All.”Their nonsensical motto was sprinkled in propaganda all over town, but it was different to see the words in blood.
Stella shoved the hunter aside and stepped closer, squatting so she could see better.
A dagger was jammed into Victor’s chest. It had been used to pin a piece of parchment there, but the shadow of the hunter’s body made it too dark to read it.
Stella snapped her fingers and summoned fire. The hunters halted their movements as if expecting her to light the body, but they stilled when they saw the note.
Recognize the Sons of Endros as a part of the ruling body of Olney and Argaria immediately. Give us a seat at the royal table of advisory. Our demands will no longer be ignored. You have until sundown the night before the next challenge to meet our demands or we’ll kill the Gauntlet Games competitors one by one, until there’s no one left to play in your petty war games.
– SOE
The words chilled Stella. Victor Schwoebleman was a talented Olney hunter. He’d survived the brutal first challenge only to be made a macabre centerpiece in a threat from the Sons of Endros.
