“I know,” he whispered.
Her eyes burned and she could barely swallow around the lump in her throat.
This wasn’t the real Teddy Savero. It was just because she had helped him in a bad moment. This was just a transaction—a way for him to ease the inequity between them.
Stella looked down at her pale hand in Teddy’s. “That wasn’t anger. I thought it would be.”
“That’s okay. I could tell what it was,” he said.
Cecilia cleared her throat. “Teddy, why don’t you try to think of something that makes you angry?”
Stella closed her eyes and tried to make sense of the strange pulsing feeling in her chest. Heated rage sparked through the bond. It was so much more intense than Stella expected, even when it faded from the bond a moment later. It had bled into her body.
“I feel it like an echo,” Stella said.
“That’s good. Does it feel like yours?” Rainer asked.
It didn’t. It felt like Teddy had invaded her chest and left his fury behind. Though it was fierce and bright like hers, there was a pattern to it that felt like a dance move one beat out of step.
Stella’s eyes shot open. “I hate that. It feels like it’s everywhere.”
Her father just smiled. “It will fade in a moment. Take a deep breath.”
It was too private. Too intimate. She wanted to scratch out the incessant itch of Teddy. She was so angry she couldn’t rip him out of her chest like a weed pulled up from a flower bed.
The candles on the table beside them sparked and the flames burst upward.
“Steady, Stella,” her mother scolded.
“I hate it,” Stella panted. “I hate him.”
Cecilia sighed and held up her hands. “Whatever is between you two that has had you at each other’s throats in the past needs to be left behind now. I don’t want to know what it is, but you need to be done with it, because some petty childhood grudge is not going to be the thing that takes one of you out in the tournament.”
Stella crossed her arms. It was ridiculous to pout when she knew her mother was right, but the bond was already disorienting. Removing the comfortable disdain between them would make everything even more chaotic.
“Figure it out and call us back in once you do,” Cecilia said, rising to her feet.
She and Rainer left the room.
Teddy cleared his throat. “Let’s go back to the beginning and get it all out at once.”
“I told you back at the temple,” Stella said. “I’m sorry that I made Juliana cry by saying she would never be prettier than Alexandra. I apologized to her back then, but I didn’t apologize to you and I’m sorry.”
Teddy pursed his lips. “I’m sorry I put mud on your seat at the Solstice Festival family dinner four years ago.”
“It looked like I shit myself, Teddy. I loved that dress and you ruined it.”
He smiled smugly. “I know.”
“I cried.”
The smile fell away from his face. “I’m sorry. It was unkind and I’m sorry I ruined the dress. You look pretty in lavender.”
They both froze. The compliment was new territory. As far as she could remember, he had never seriously complimented anything she’d worn. Usually he just said he liked her dress sarcastically and then she’d spend the night second-guessing what she’d worn and wondering if Rosie and her mother were lying when they said she looked good.
His strategy was perfect in its wretchedness.
“I’m sorry that I slipped a laxative into your drink at the winter solstice three years ago. I was trying to get you back for the dress,” Stella said.
