“I wish I’d never gone to the temple that night,” Stella said. “Regardless of what happens with them. We need this heart bond severed before the next challenge.”
Teddy nodded. “Finally, we agree on something. I know this preliminary bond will wear off in a few weeks if we don’t fortify it, but I don’t think I can handle another challenge with it. It almost cost me the match.”
“And you almost cost me the same,” she said. “It’s settled. The second challenge is in four days, and we need to go see Desiree and get her to stop messing with us.” She nodded toward Olney Castle in the distance. “Shall we?”
“I can see myself home,” he said.
“I’m sure you can, but I’ll feel better if I see you get there safely myself.” She glanced down a nearby alley. She’d been ignoring the creeping feeling of being watched, but now the small hairs on the back of her neck lifted.
Teddy gave a petulant roll of his eyes, but he held out his arm, and she threaded her hand through.
She pushed the pace as they walked in silence, the eerie feeling chasing her even as they approached the main street leading down to Olney Castle’s courtyard. A soft rush of spirit whispers filled the air.
It took Stella a moment to realize what they were. She’d only heard them a few times when helping in the healing clinic with patients who were close to passing.
“Death whispers.” She met Teddy’s wide eyes. “Teddy, I?—”
A voice like a knife scraped across a whetstone came from the dark alley several paces ahead of them. “Well, if it isn’t the goddess-blessed children of our fearless king and the great Rainer McKay. You really struggled today,Your Grace.”
Rett Roachelle stepped from the shadows into the torchlight with a smug grin on his face. This was the man Teddy had called “The Roach,” and with the way he skittered from a dark alley, the nickname felt appropriate. His lackeys, Dixon, Christophe, and Drew, appeared in formation behind him.
Stella felt a strange protectiveness. She was the only one who could use Teddy’s title as a barb. Their history dictated that. The Roach using it felt wrong and entirely unearned.
Teddy straightened and leveled a glare at Rett. “Looking to go a round on even footing instead of when you have high ground and a long-range weapon?”
The Roach scoffed. “I imagine it wouldn’t go so well for you right now.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think I’d put my money on His Grace even a few drinks in,” Stella said.
“Your father may be a legend, Savero, but you are not him. Not by a long shot,” Rett said.
Stella watched Teddy’s jaw twitch out of the corner of her eye. She’d always noticed how he looked up to his father. Much as he hated her, Stella imagined she was the only person who could understand what it felt like to try to follow in some very large footsteps. King Xander was as charming and at ease in public as Teddy was stiff and broody. If anyone knew what it was like to fall short of their family’s folklore, it was Stella.
“And you, Lady McKay? Going to defend his honor?” Rett taunted. “Wouldn’t mind getting down and dirty with you. It would be an honor. Or is that a privilege only reserved for princes? I hear you aim high.”
Stella was not an especially violent person—she’d never even seriously injured someone—but the entitled, menacing look in Rett Roachelle’s eyes made her feel violent. She imagined grabbing the dagger on her thigh and jamming it into his groin. She imagined how easy it would be to rip the air from his lungs and leave him gasping on the ground. She wouldn’t do it because it would disqualify her from the competition, but it was satisfying to think about what kind of sound he would make.
It wasn’t a good sign that he knew about her involvement with Arden. Only her mother, her siblings, Kate, and she supposed Teddy and Grace knew. But if people realized that they could hurt her to get to Arden, he’d be in danger.
The death whispers swelled louder and more threatening. The sound of them set Stella’s teeth on edge. She’d never heard them like this. Despite the fear that was slowly turning her insides cold, she forced herself to focus on one specific spirit.
Stella couldn’t see them the way her mother could, but she could hear them and sometimes she caught flickers of them out of the corner of her eye. She narrowed her gaze on one and smiled.
“What are you smirking at?” Christophe asked.
“Just a ghost over your right shoulder,” Stella said, winking at him.
Teddy went rigid beside her, but Christophe and the other men all twisted as if they’d be able to see it.
“Can she even see them?” Rett asked, a hint of panic in his previously confident gaze.
Dixon shrugged. “Kingdom lore says that her mother could. I don’t know.”
Stella gave them her fakest smile. “Can we pass now, gentlemen? Teddy and I have a few more bars to hit before closing time.”
Rett wrinkled his nose. “A lady should be home at this hour.”
“The lady would be if you would get out of her way,” Stella countered.
