“Yes, Papa?” she asked sweetly, not bothering to meet his eye.
“Be kind to your brother. He’s had a rough day and the next few will be worse,” Xander said. He closed the door and left his children alone.
“Hard challenge, brother? Finally meet your match?” Alexandra taunted.
“In more ways than one. This time two nights ago, I had an assassin’s garrote around my neck.”
She froze with her glass halfway to her lips. “How?”
“Caught me while I was bathing,” Teddy said.
Alexandra was quiet for a long moment as she sipped her whiskey. “I’ve always said you were a little too vain.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Well, it hasn’t gotten me yet.” He shifted in his chair. “How did the competition look when they got back?”
Alexandra blew out a weary sigh as if it was a huge imposition, but she relented immediately. “Jeneva and Katerina looked a littleweary, but no worse for the wear. Fionn Silver had some bumps and bruises—friend of yours, isn’t he?”
Teddy glared at her. “Hardly.”
Alexandra smiled. “Well, he had a pretty good wound on his side and his fancy armor was shredded.” She paused. “Dixon looked fine, but Christophe was half-fried. I could tell that was your handiwork from the lightning burn and the fact that he had a tremor in his hands. Drew had burns all over his left arm. I assume that was Stella. And the Roach had a limp from a wound in his leg that hadn’t fully healed.”
Teddy nodded.
“You should have seen our parents when that group wandered in.” Alexandra whistled. “I thought Cece was going to climb out of the booth and throttle them. Would have liked to see it, honestly. The waiting was awful for everyone.”
Teddy swallowed his guilt. He counted off the competitors in his head. “So Tristas Dahlien and Remington Patrico died out there. Do they know how?”
Alexandra sighed. “Rett and his cronies were bragging about taking them out. But?—”
Teddy leaned in. “But?”
“But Cato’s network said that both men were found behind the stables at the Muddled Mind. They said they had been poisoned.”
Teddy leaned back in his chair. “You think it was Jeneva and Katerina.”
She nodded, giving him a moment to absorb the information. She took another long sip. “Now, if you’re satisfied with my report, I just want to know one thing.” She set her glass down on the table and leaned toward him. “Why did you have Stella make me forget I was going to enter the tournament?”
Teddy froze with his glass halfway to his mouth. He’d almost forgotten that her remembering was a possibility, but now her anger made sense.
“Because I couldn’t worry about youandher.”
Alexandra looked ready to lunge at him. “You wouldn’t have needed to worry about me.”
“Of course I would have.”
She glared at him as he continued.
“It’s not a marker of your skill. You’d be an easy way to get to me and I am an easy way to get to Stella.” Teddy ran a hand through his hair. “I could not abide that kind of chain reaction in the middle of the dumbest decision I’ve made in my life. If it makes you feel any better, even if I win the third challenge, it will be the most miserable win of my life.”
Alexandra rolled her eyes. “Why?”
“Because even the heir can’t have it all, Alex.”
His sister appraised him warily, and when she seemed to assess that he was indeed as pathetic as he seemed, she slumped back in her chair.
“I wanted the chance to prove myself, and you robbed me of it. I can’t believe you would do that when you know how hard I’ve been trying.” Her voice was tight in a way that unnerved him. As far as he knew, Alexandra hadn’t cried since she was a child. “I don’t see why Jalen should get to lead the Argarian military when I have trained under Isla almost as long.”
Teddy sighed.This again. “You know why.”
