Elias pulled sharply on the breastplate belt, and Madoc’s breath exhaled in a huff. He turned away from the window as Ash raised her hands in victory.
He had bigger things to worry about than Ignitus’s gladiators.
“Jann’s got it in for you,” Elias said, returning his focus to the match. “He, Stavos, and Raclin were close. They’ve trained together for ten years.”
Ten years ago, Elias and Madoc were eight. While they’d been nothing more than skinny boys catching lizards and playing pranks on Cassia using Elias’s geoeia, Jann had been learning to kill.
“He thinks you had something to do with Stavos’s death,” Elias said.
Madoc’s jaw flexed. It didn’t matter if he shouted from the top of the palace that he was innocent, the other gladiators believed what they wanted—that Madoc, untrained and unheard of before this war, had rigged the fight to advance.
“All this helpful information wouldn’t be coming from Narris’s attendant, would it?” Madoc snorted.“Remi.”
Madoc had seen the two of them together around the barracks and in the dining hall during meals. Maybe others hadn’t noticed the way Elias perked up when Remi entered a room, but Madoc had.
Pink blossomed on Elias’s cheeks. “All I do, I do for our cause.”
“I’m sure.”
But the tilt of Elias’s head revealed the edge of a bruise along his temple, previously hidden by his hair. When he saw Madoc looking, he combed it down over the mark.
“Who did that?” Madoc asked quietly, grateful for the anger sliding over his queasy stomach.
“No one,” Elias muttered. “Doesn’t matter.”
It didn’t. That was the problem. Madoc might have taken his blows during the day, but at night the champions had their own roomsat the barracks. The attendants slept in a community room near the kitchen, and Madoc’s lack of popularity had bled through to his brother.
“You’ll stay in my room tonight,” Madoc said.
Elias glared at him. “Why don’t you focus on Cassia instead of on me?”
“I am,” Madoc said, throwing a glare Elias’s direction. “It’sallI’m focused on.” Cassia. Elias. Ava. Danon. Ilena. All of them.
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“What is...”
Madoc bit back his retort as two Deiman arena workers raced down the hall, their arms filled with blackened torches. Outside, the arena was being cleared and prepared for the next fight.
It was almost time.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Madoc muttered once the workers were gone.
Elias spun away from the window and kicked a wave of sand against the far wall. “It means this was supposed to be about getting the money and getting out. The past two days you’ve been different. Waking up before dawn to practice. Studying records in Lucius’s library. The way you gave that speech to those donors Lucius brought you to see yesterday—about your ‘humble beginnings in the stonemasons’ quarter’... I almost bought it myself.”
“Because it’s true.” Maybe he embellished a little, but it had earned Lucius five hundred gold coins and Madoc a break from his sponsor’s irritation.
“That’s what I’m worried about,” Elias said. “This is a job, nothingmore. Keep your eyes on the prize: as soon as we have the money we need for Cassia, we get out. Or you’re either going to end up in the finals or with an arrow in your back like Stavos.”
Madoc hushed him. They couldn’t be talking about that here. Too many people suspected Madoc’s involvement, and they didn’t know who was listening.
He tried to brush off Elias’s words, but they clung to his skin. It didn’t matter if he didn’t want the attention. He couldn’t slow down or give in. Each day his father’s promise carved a wider divide between him and Elias, but as much as Madoc wanted to, he couldn’t tell his brother what Petros had threatened.
“I don’t have much of a choice,” he said, avoiding the truth. “Lucius already despises me because of Petros’s games and Stavos’s death. I need him on our side to get the money for Cassia.”
“Weneed him, you mean,” Elias muttered.
Madoc could feel his brother’s desperation, a cloak of lightning, clinging to every jerky movement. He felt the sudden urge to touch Elias’s shoulder. To calm him, the way he’d calmed Ash after Ignitus had killed her opponent.
