“Doesn’t bode well for the challenge,” Jalen said as he stepped up beside Juliana.
The Savero twins’ movements were an eerie echo, like they always understood where the other would be next.
“Jay, don’t say that,” Juliana chided. She smiled sheepishly at Stella. “Sorry, he’s such a man sometimes. I don’t know why he even bothers to speak when he has nothing intelligent to say.”
Jalen threw an arm around Juliana’s shoulder.
Stella sipped her lemonade. “It’s fine. I’m just a little jumpy.”
Jalen looked around the tent. “Where’s your competition?”
Stella shrugged. “I don’t know. He’ll probably show up any minute to tell me how I should be outfitting myself differently, and that I shouldn’t be having lemonade, and calling meMinyha.”
Juliana froze with her glass halfway to her mouth. “He called youMinyha?” She locked eyes with Jalen.
The prince burst out laughing.
Stella glared at the twins. “Yes. Do you know what it means?”
Juliana pursed her lips. “Well, yes. It’s just—” She looked away. “It’s just not really a nice nickname.”
Stella huffed a laugh. “Just tell me.”
“It meanspain in my ass,” Jalen said with a grin.
Juliana rolled her eyes and sipped her lemonade. “It does not. It means ‘one’s greatest trial or test.’”
It was Stella’s turn to laugh. The tension that had been coiled tight in her chest all day finally unraveled. She sounded half-hysterical.
She’d madeMinyhaout to be some romantic nickname in her head when Teddy was just referring to how she tested him. The laughter shook through her, but when it died, she was left with the empty ache of wishing it had meant something more.
“I suppose that’s an appropriate nickname,” she said.
“You’re both wrong.”
Juliana cursed as they all turned to find Alexandra standing at the tent entrance. She cut an imposing figure, tall and statuesque in her leather armor and gilded by sunlight.
Alexandra sauntered into the tent, snatched a lemon cake off the table, and took a bite. “I expect that kind of idiocy from Jay. He’s been coasting on looks for years. But you’re usually better at languages, Jules, though I suppose you focus more on the contemporaries than the old languages. In modern Novumi it means one’s greatest trial or test, but I don’t think that’s what Teddy means. He’s using the Old Novumi translation.”
Juliana put her hands on her hips. “Well, what does it mean if you’re such a scholar, Alex?”
Stella had been alone with the two princesses of Argaria so infrequently, but those few occasions had left her feeling like she was navigating some strange emotional weather. Sibling dynamics were often complicated, and she supposed being royal only made things more complex, but Juliana and Alexandra had always felt like they vacillated between being best friends one moment and adversaries the next. No one else could say something bad about Juliana, but Alexandra had free rein and vice versa.
Alexandra turned her intense golden eyes on Stella. “There are no direct translations from the old language.” She smiled sadly. “It’s a sacred word of claiming. The closest translation would be ‘my heart’ or simply ‘mine.’”
Stella didn’t realize she’d stopped breathing until her chest started to burn.A sacred word of claiming. My heart. Her magic involuntarily drew up the memories of the moments he’d used the nickname.Mine. They were all linked together in her mind by a little golden thread.
The first time, Teddy had said it in that taunting tone, full of playful exasperation. Surely he meant “my trial” that time.
But later—when he’d said it in the cabin, when he made her come so hard she’d cried. When he’d looked at her with that wild, possessive intensity that she found so intoxicating. When he knew she couldn’t give him the answer he wanted, and still he’d looked at her with so much tenderness.
He’d meant “Mine” when he whispered it against her pounding pulse.
Gods. She hadn’t realized she’d said it aloud until Alexandra laughed.
“I’ll say. If there ever was a time to pray, it’s when Teddy is mooning over you.” She made an exaggerated gagging motion.
Stella’s eyes pricked with tears. This was a distraction she did not need. Why not at least tell her what the nickname meant? How could he keep something so monumental private?
