Manny let out a little scoff. “Need I remind you that I outrank you in this little arrangement?” he asked, wagging his finger back and forth between them.
Killian glared at Manny, but after a beat, he rose from his seat and moved into the aisle. “I’ll be back in three minutes with food,” he told Elyse before he set off down the stairs.
Manny plopped into the open space beside Elyse. “You’re welcome to go, too, you know,” he offered.
“I’d rather be hungry,” she responded without looking at him. It wasn’t only Maelor she was avoiding. She had no interest in meeting the other kings and queens and pretending to be interested in their lives. Plus, she preferred her vantage point from higher up in the stands. She couldn’t help feeling like the second she let her guard down, Lazarus would pounce.
Manny shrugged. “Very well.”
They sat in silence as Elyse watched the archery contest, but it didn’t hold her attention for long. She respected archers and their talent, but it lacked the captivating allure of fighting hand to hand. She preferred to see the anger in her enemy’s eyes, and smell the fear in their sweat.
“You know,” Manny began awkwardly, “we haven’t really spoken much the past few days.”
“You were planning a secret wedding,” Elyse answered.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Manny smile. “Yes, I was. But I wanted to talk to you about something else.”
“I’m listening,” she replied, keeping her voice neutral. Internally, she was afraid of whatever it was he was going to say. Her mouth felt dry as she recalled her conversation with Sera from the night before.
“Those two over there…” he said, gesturing to where Killian and Sera stood in the pagoda. “They don’t know the first thing about shitty fathers. I love Sera, but she was absolutely spoiledby Kal. And Killian’s father, he was very supportive of him. Of both of us, really.”
There was sadness in his tone at the mention of Captain Southwick, and Elyse dropped her gaze to her lap. “I would have liked to meet him,” she said sincerely.
“Oh, he would have loved you.” Manny let out a laugh tinged with nostalgia for a time that had never happened. “And he would have demanded to train with you. Probably would have put me and Killian to shame.”
“That’s not so hard,” Elyse teased, earning an elbow in the ribs from Manny.
“My point is,” he continued, “Killian and Sera have been there for you as much as they can, but they’ll never understand what you’re going through. And I’ll never know what it’s like to have a demon daddy, but I do know how it feels to hate your own father.”
He’d lowered his voice, but his candor still prevailed. She could hear the longing and confusion in his tone as he spoke of a father he’d never known, a man who had used his mother for physical pleasure then abandoned her and their child. “And I know, perhaps better than most,” he went on, “that just because someone sired you, it does not make them your father. You get to decide who you are, regardless of whose blood is in your veins.”
“Thank you,” Elyse uttered. It was all she could manage to say. Killian and Sera had told her that a million times over the last few days, but Manny was right; it resonated differently coming from someone who had a better understanding.
She squeezed his hand and said nothing more. Guilt over her secret bargain with Sera had stolen her voice.
Killian saved her from speaking by returning with a small assortment of cheeses and breads along with water for her. He had a bit more zip in his step, the brief encounter with shade having done him some good. He didn’t even glare at Manny as the two men swapped places.
Manny nodded in farewell and returned to his place in the pagoda. Elyse tried not to dwell on the shame curdling in her stomach at Manny’s kindness. She didn’t deserve his encouragement, not after the promise she’d made to Sera. Instead, she nibbled absentmindedly at the cheese Killian had brought her.
Soon, the archery contest concluded, and the tournament of swords began. Halfway into the first fight, Killian went rigid enough to set off Elyse’s hackles. She abandoned her cheese to peer around, desperate to spot whatever had set Killian on edge.
A man with arms like tree limbs and legs like boulders was ambling up the stairway toward them. His beard, a rusty shade of red, reached halfway down his broad chest, and his face was as hard as the sword sheathed behind his back. The spectators around them all gasped and whispered, some outright pointing and others calling out to the man.
Killian was the only person in the vicinity who wasn’t looking at the redheaded behemoth. In fact, he was making a very exaggerated pointnotto look at the man—so much so that it was comical. Elyse had to stifle her laugh.
“They told me you were up here,” the man called. His voice was a growl, all gravel and war. He stood less than ten feet away from them now, and Elyse was surprised to see a smile on his face. His grin was a taunt, half sneer and half delight.
“Oh. Hello, Remek,” Killian drawled. “I didn’t see you there.”
It was an obvious lie. If the spectators hadn’t given away his presence with their outright gawking, Remek’s sheer size was attention-commanding enough.
Elyse glanced around, noticing that the others in their section weren’t just pointing at Remek, but at Killian as well. “I was at that fight,” she heard one of them say. “That was one of the best finales I’ve seen.”
It clicked into place for her then. Killian had said he’d played in the Games before, and that he had lost in the final round. This must have been one of his opponents, if nottheopponent—the one that had defeated him.
“You haven’t been back to the Games since I snapped your arm like a piece of straw,” Remek jeered, confirming Elyse’s suspicions. “You ran home with your tail tucked under your ass and never came back.”
Killian gave the subtlest roll of his eyes, the only sign that he was bothered. “No, I decided to use my skills for my kingdom rather than flaunting them around in this pageantry. But it looks like you’re still inflating your muscles purely to inflate your ego.”
