My team cheered.
Our opponents started to complain, saying we only scored because I cheated. But my team didn't listen. Evidently, it had been the winning move or whatever. And we hadn't just scored. We had won the entire game.
Xaedren rushed me and tossed me up into the air. The rest of our team surged around us to help Xae hold me aloft. Then, with me holding the ball triumphantly, they carried me off the field. The parade continued all the way back to the citadel, with the opposing team picking up the rear. They'd given up on whining and decided to celebrate with us. Because we all knew what waited at the citadel—lunch.
We cheered and shouted as we crossed the bridge over the chasm, and I used the handball to wave at Wraith Lords in the courtyard as we passed through. All of them grinned and waved back. Then into the keep we went and, at last, I was lowered to the floor. As we headed into the dining hall, both teams congratulated me.
“That was well done for your first time.” Nex slapped my back. “Even if you had to cheat a little.”
“Drop it,” Xae growled. “He didn't know.”
“And as soon as you told him, he stopped using magic,” Pavis added.
“Yeah, yeah,” Nex said. “Maybe he deserved a little advantage too. You know, since he was going up against me.”
“How do you manage to find a way to compliment yourself in every conversation?” I asked.
“It's a talent.” He lurched ahead. “As is getting in line first.”
I just laughed and shook my head as the other players vied for position in the line for the buffet. They were acting like a bunch of kids and it was adorable. And necessary. They needed to let off some of the pent-up frustration I was sure they were carrying. Because I carried it as well.
The Corrupter still hadn't shown his face, and the Emperor hadn't come up with a counterspell for the risen dead or shared whatever brilliant idea he had that day we'd gone to see him. So it was a case of going on missions, incinerating the dead, then coming home. There wasn't even the satisfaction of freeing the Corrupted. It felt like a step backward.
Which meant we needed days like this to alleviate some of that stress.
Rath, who hadn't joined the game, was sitting at our usual table, already halfway through his meal. “How'd it go?” he asked when we came abreast of him.
“We won,” Xae said. “Thanks to our boy. He made the winning goal.”
Ah, goal. That's what it was called. The goal was the goal.
“Congratulations. Did you have fun?”
“I did. And now I'm starving!” I rushed over to Rath, kneeling on the bench across from him and leaning across the table to snatch a piece of half-eaten bread from his plate. “Thank you!” I kissed his cheek, then hurried back to Xae, who was getting in line. “I'll get you another piece.”
Rath only chuckled and shook his head.
A few minutes later, we were all settled at the table with Rath, stuffing our faces. I had my back to the center aisle and was hunched over my plate, groaning over every bite. So I didn't see whoever caught Rath's attention.
“Is there something you need, Jathalion?” Rath asked.
My head swung on my neck, twisting to look over my shoulder at the Wraith Lord. Out stares locked, then his shot away.
Drawing his magnificent wings in tight to his back, he said, “Food.” And continued past us to the buffet.
“What happened?” I asked as I looked back at Rath.
“He was staring at you oddly,” Rath said, his stare still on Jath. “I didn't like it.”
“What's this now?” Xae, sitting beside me, turned to look at Jath. “What kind of oddly?”
“The unsettling kind.”
My belly clenched. I hadn't told them about my interludes with Jath. If you could call them that. “Uh, I need to tell—”
“Hey!” Keltyr plopped down on my open side. “I heard you won your first game of handball. Congratulations!”
“Thank you.”
