Page 55 of Thief of Hearts

Chapter Seventeen

Blood ran down my left side and I shoved the Lemnian away from me. I hadn’t been injured like this in so long. I was usually able to move faster, hit harder than nearly everyone around me. No one ever got close enough to harm me.

But I had been thinking about Zain. This was why I had initially decided to stay away from him. He was turning out to be the distraction I had feared him to be.

I had just been stabbed. I was still in shock that it had happened. I was only vaguely aware of the crowd booing the Lemnian, of him being dragged off by guards for having broken the pankration rules.

The Lemnian yelled at me, “That’s for Cleomenedes!”

Who? My mind was swimming and I felt dizzy. He must have meant his friend who’d run into my sword.

Zain’s voice sounded far away as he helped me lie down on the ground. “Basileia, are you all right? Look at me.”

I did what he said and looked into his beautiful and angry dark eyes. “He stabbed me.”

“I’m going to kill him.” He made the announcement matter-of-factly, as if discussing the weather with me.

“Isn’t that against your code?”

“Not unless I steal from him first. Which might be a problem because right now I am very tempted to steal his entrails out of his body.”

I became aware of other people around us, reaching out to touch me. I tensed up.

“They are healers,” Zain said, voice soothing. “Loving such a violent sport means Sagaris has the best healers imaginable.”

Someone moved my hand away from my side. I hadn’t even realized it had been there, as if I were trying to keep the blood inside my body by myself. I lifted my left hand up and it was coated in blood.

The healers poured liquids down my throat and I didn’t resist. I could feel my side being cleaned and a warm ointment being applied. It tingled and soothed my skin. The stitches were next but the ointment they’d used lessened the sting.

They wrapped bandages around me and I became aware of men arguing behind me. One of the voices was Zain’s.

“She got stabbed. It isn’t fair,” he said. “She shouldn’t lose her position because someone else cheated.”

“The rules are clear—if a competitor is too injured to continue, then they forfeit.”

“She should be given time to heal and then do the final match.”

Forfeiting sounded nice. This would be over and I could go back to my room and sleep and heal and get ready for the next two events. The points I would earn for coming in second at pankration should be good enough.

But then I heard feminine voices chanting my name.

“Basileia!”

Over and over again.

“Basileia!”

Women who weren’t even supposed to be at the tournament, who had changed something significant through the sheer force of their will.

I wasn’t going to let myself down, nor was I going to let down the women who had come to cheer me on.

They deserved this win as much as I did.

And I would make sure the first tournament they ever attended was won by a woman.

“I’m not forfeiting,” I said as I staggered to my feet. I still felt shaky but my head had started to clear.

“You just got stabbed,” Zain said as he walked over to me.