He shakes his head.
‘Kyor won’t have done.’ There’s not a shadow of adoubt in my mind. ‘It’s a matter of pride for him. He’s all abouthonour,’ I sneer. ‘He won’t think he deserves to win unless he competes in all the trials.’
The minute the words leave my lips, I watch Benny’s expression shift into panic.
‘Do you think that’s true?’ he says. ‘Do you think I can’t win if I miss a trial?’
I shake my head and rush to reassure him. ‘No. If that was the case, it would never have been offered.’
‘Unless it was a test?’ he counters, gnawing on his lip.
I exhale. This prize is seriously doing a number on him, that’s for sure. Maybe he’s right, but Etta’s never struck me as a Goddess who plays games, unlike some of the others. But who can know the mind of a God?
Llinos places a hand on Benny’s shoulder. ‘At the end of the day, it’s about finishing this together, right? As long as one of us gets through, we’re all winners.’
‘Yeah. You’re right. Of course you’re right.’ Still, an uneasy silence settles over our table, broken only by Loch’s constant muttering. His fingers are now pressed against his ears. I’d never say it aloud, but I can’t help feeling that Loch getting to the Ofur is getting less and less likely with each passing day.
‘Incoming,’ Llinos whispers. I glance down to the end of the hall and immediately see who she’s talking about.
Zara is heading straight towards us, eyes flashing with fury.
‘How the fuck did you survive that?’ she spits as she looms over me. There’s no doubt who she’s aiming her question at.
‘Glad to see you made it through the trial too, Zara,’ I say.
I’m not sure why I think injecting a bit of humour into the situation might help. This is Zara we’re talking about. I doubt she even has a sense of humour at the best of times, and even less so now that her brother’s just died. Yeah, that probably wasn’t my best move. With her jaw twitching, she moves her gaze from me to Benny and Llinos.
‘How the hell did you help keep this fuckingruntalive?’ she sneers.
I’m sure she thinks that name will have got to me by now, but I find myself growing more and more impervious to it. Though I can’t say the same for my friends. Llinos pushes back her chair, stands up, and faces Zara.
‘Thatrunt,’ she snarls, ‘scaled the tallest jötunn there so that she could take a dagger to his throat. She deserves to be here.’
‘My brother deserves to be here,’ Zara snaps. ‘It’s not right. Why would the Goddess save her and let him die?’
A current of unease swirls through me. I meet her eyes, hoping she’ll see my sincerity. ‘I’m sorry for your loss, Zara. Truly, I am.’
‘Fuck you.’
Everyone in the dining hall is looking at us, but I don’t care.
‘I mean it. I know you two were close?—’
‘You’re fucking dead,’ she promises in a low growl. She raises her hands and I brace myself for the pain of my cracked ribs returning, but there’s barely a twinge. She must have nearly drained her magic today.
On the other side of the table, Benny pushes back his shoulders and stands.
‘Your brother chose the trials. He knew the risk, just like the rest of us.’ He moves in between Zara and me. ‘Go back to your table, Duarte. We’ve all got losses to mourn.’
Her top lip curls in a snarl and my throat dries as I think she’s about to turn this thing into a proper fistfight, but instead, she simply looks at me with venom.
‘Your days are numbered,’ she fires at me before swivelling around and marching back to her table.
I don’t know why Etta chose who she chose, and I don’t feel even a modicum of grief over Shim’s death, but I do know the pain of losing a brother. Shim and Zara were twins, and for that reason alone, I feel for her.
‘Well, good to know some things never change,’ Llinos offers with a weak chuckle.
Benny squeezes my shoulder and pointedly sits next to me.
