Page 76 of Thief of Hearts

I could practically see his mind absorbing this information and reading the subtext of the things I didn’t say. He caught what I’d admitted to.

That I had missed him and was upset he hadn’t said anything to me beforehand.

“Wait, did I liberate that pig because I was trying to hunt a boar for you?”

I nodded.

“It’s starting to come back to me in bits and pieces.” He flopped onto his back. He turned his head to me. “Did I win your favor?”

“I suppose the pig will suffice.”

He smiled. “I do recall the pig being particularly hard to catch and that I fell into the mud several times.”

I hadn’t noticed that last night. Had he stopped somewhere to clean up before bringing the pig to me? “Remember that for the next time you want to behave like a man and do something foolish.”

Another groan. “I need to go to the healers to see if they have something that can help this hangover.”

I could smell the wine fumes coming off him as he stood and headed for the door. He seemed surprised to find it locked, but he undid the bolt and let himself out.

Stretching, I allowed myself to smile.

So many things were going to happen today—the final event, the winner being selected, getting the diviner stone, receiving the answer I needed, having to watch my back to make sure someone didn’t kill me . . .

But mostly all I could think about was that Zain had brought me a pig.

Both Zain and I had put on our armor for the last event. The Sagari called it “Last Man Standing.”

I wondered if they’d change the name after it was a woman left standing.

It was to be a free-for-all. There were only about twenty-five competitors left, and so we would all be battling one another.

The announcer said that we would be permitted to bring a single weapon in with us for combat. We were to stay within the marked boundaries. We would engage in hand-to-hand combat and were to avoid drawing blood and especially fatal strikes. Failure to do so would disqualify us.

There were two ways to eliminate the competitors—if they were knocked to the ground, they were out. If they were disarmed, then they were out. The person left standing, weapon intact, at the end would win the event.

When the announcer began to list off the various sponsors by name, I stopped listening and looked over the other competitors. There wasn’t anyone currently on the field that I worried about.

This event would be mine.

I felt the vile chill of the Epirian approaching before he came to stand next to me. “Still thinking you’re going to win this?” he asked.

I was about to tell him how very uninterested I was in speaking to him when I noticed that he had a new thick black line that crossed diagonally over his face.

“Are you actually foolish enough that you would risk stealing something from Sagaris?” I couldn’t help but ask. I hadn’t thought Levern very clever before and this was just reinforcing that judgment.

“It wasn’t anything important. I just stole a woman’s virginity.”

I didn’t immediately understand what he was saying. When it finally fell into place, I wished the event had already started so that I could distribute some fitting retribution to him. Because there was only one way to “steal” someone’s virginity. “You raped a woman.”

He had forced her.

“Semantics,” the Epirian said.

This was not semantics. How could anyone be so foul? “As soon as this is over, and they crown me the victor, the first thing I’m going to do is kill you.”

“Good luck,” he said to me sarcastically and walked away.

“What did he say?” Zain asked me. I quickly filled him in and watched as his eyes darkened with fury.