Teddy sighed in exasperation. “Stella.”
He felt Stella’s eyes on him as if she sensed that they were talking about her.
Alexandra ran her finger over the rim of her glass. “Stella is good. She stays extremely calm even when she’s hurt. She knows how to follow through, even when her plan doesn’t go as expected. She’s adaptable. She and Fionn actually made a great team. They had a natural sense of each other as if they’d been fighting together for a long time.”
Teddy sneered. “I don’t like him.”
“Why? Because he’s handsome and talented and Stella picked him over you? How’d you manage to fuck that up?”
Teddy gestured to Stella. “She’s willfully defiant. I suggested we work together, and she turned me down. She’d already made a deal with him. Foolish of her. Gods know what a man like that wants from her.”
Alexandra waggled her brows. “I can think of a thing or two he might want.”
Teddy’s stomach plummeted. “What about Fionn?”
“He didn’t shoot his bow, so I didn’t get a good look at that, but he’s fast, talented, smart—though I guess you don’t become such an infamous Novumi mercenary without being smart. He understood how to rally her, never lost his head in the fight even though they were both badly wounded. He’s excellent with short swords. No notable weaknesses that I could read in that fight except maybe overconfidence. But they did both choose a luck advantage, so it’s hard to tell if he was just counting on that to save him.”
“And the rest of the field?” Teddy sipped his whiskey, listening intently as Alexandra fed him a report on the surviving competitors.
When she finished, he leaned forward. “So three down in the first challenge.”
Alexandra nodded. “Thirteen of you left. I suppose that eliminates any risk of needing to pair up again.”
“Not sure it does. It was very distracting and I think?—”
“Grace, lovely to see you,” Alexandra said loudly, talking over him.
Teddy whipped his head around to find Grace standing behind him. “Gracie, what are you doing here?”
He looked past her. Evan was not in the bar as far as Teddy could see, but he knew enough about the man who’d trained him to be vigilant to know that his Uncle Evan would never let one of his daughters out this late without some sort of backup. Not that she didn’t know how to handle herself, but with the Sons of Endros being so bold, she couldn’t be too careful. There had to at least be a guard waiting for her outside, if not Evan himself.
“I was hoping we could speak.” Grace smiled tentatively at Alexandra. “Privately, if that’s okay. I’m sorry to interrupt.”
Alexandra waved a hand and swiped the bottle off the table a moment before Teddy could beat her to it. “Of course. I wouldn’t want to get in the way.”
Grace gently pulled the bottle from her hand and poured a bit into a glass. “Just need to borrow this for a moment.” She knocked back a shot and shuddered. “Gods, that’s dreadful.”
Teddy stared at her, slack-jawed. Grace had never been much of a drinker; when she did drink, she preferred sweeter cocktails or bubble wine. She poured more into her glass.
Alexandra arched a brow and snatched the bottle back. “Well then. Have fun.”
Teddy watched her retreat to the bar, where she threw herself onto the stool next to Nathan.
Grace settled into the seat beside Teddy. “She seems in good spirits.”
“Of course she is. There are lots of pretty foreign men and women here who are easily held in the thrall of Princess Alexandra.”
“Royal attention can be very compelling. I should know,” Gracesaid. She was trying to sound casual, but her posture was too rigid, her hands clasped and white-knuckled.
A group of men on the far side of the room broke into raucous laughter, and Grace jumped.
“Gracie? What’s wrong?” Teddy asked.
She touched her hair, a nervous habit that came out on the rare occasions when she didn’t know how to approach a subject. “I’ve been thinking about what happened at the temple. Arden invited me to spend some time with him and I’d like to do that.”
Teddy didn’t want to have this conversation in a crowded bar, but perhaps that was exactly why Grace had picked this place. She knew him well enough to know he’d need to stay calm and listen, even when he didn’t want to.
“I’m competing in the Gauntlet Games for you.”
