Page 59 of This Shattered Star

Kodhan threw his arms up. “Unbelievable, the way you two disregardedanysense of danger.”

Theia waved them both away, unbothered by their glares.Men,she mouthed to me with a roll of her eyes before pushing through them to get to her room. “We simply wanted to put some distance between ourselves and your thunderous snoring.”

Brannon’s jaw slackened. He plowed on. “This isn’t a joke, Theia. Where were you? We thought other competitors might’ve gotten to you—”

“Or the king summoned you for gods-know what reason,” Kodhan interjected.

Theia partially turned to look at me in question. Making sure I still wanted to keep the location of our outing a secret.

I shook my head, palms slickening. She could ruin everything, right here. Could throw her promises to the wind and rob me of the only thing I had for myself.

To my relief, she nodded, hand resting on the doorknob. “There is no need for all this fussing. As you can see, we’re fine. Not even a scratch to be seen. Nowdrop it.”

Brannon’s mouth opened, then closed. Carefully sorting through his list of questions, clearly struggling to discern which one of them was the most important. Or which one of them he thought Theia would actually answer.

“Are you being serious?” By the pained look on his face, that question was neither option.

“Quite,” Theia chirped back.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing in resignation. He’d already lost. Barely stood a chance to begin with. The determined lines of Theia’s face said it all.

“Don’t do it again. Please.”

Theia winked at me. “No promises.”

“We should never have separated.” Kodhan, on the other hand, still looked very much primed for a fight.We,and yet he directed the statement my way. Goosebumps raised along my arms as his eyes panned the entire length of my body in accusation.

There was a roughness to his tone. He was irritated, yes, but that wasn’t it. Not quite. He swallowed hard. Like the statement was somehow difficult for him to part with.

Brushing off the ghost of curiosity that had me narrowing my eyes onhimin turn,I frowned. “Neither one of us needs babysitting.”

His hair was slightly tousled. And several of his vest’s buttons were left open, exposing part of his chest. It looked like he’d been sleeping. Or trying to.

He swallowed again, throat bobbing with the movement. “Theia doesn’t. You, on the other hand…”

“I managed just fine without you before the trials. Now is no different.”

“Now isentirelydifferent,” he growled, towering over me in that insufferable way of his. The heat of his magic instantly seeped into my skin.

“Allies or not, I don’t answer to you.” I purposefully ignored his wrath, fixing my attention on a stray divot in the wall. “And get a handle on yourself. Your magic is stifling.”

“Look at me.”

“No.”

His fingers tangled in the still-damp strands of hair at the nape of my neck, and pulled, forcing my head back. Though his grip was firm, it was far from painful. I could barely hear his words over the rush of blood in my ears, the sudden racing of my heart. “Do you want to live, little viper?”

A gold coin spun in my periphery, around and around until my vision swam in a similar fashion. Heads, I lived. Tails, Kodhan slaughtered me here, in this corridor. I was at his mercy.

“Answer me.”

His fingers curled further, sending pinpricks of static down my nerves. Heat like no other washed over my shoulders, dripping down my limbs until I bathed in it. Throbbed with it.

The coin slowed.

Through parted lips, I whispered, “Yes.”

Ringing metal filled my head as it clattered, face down.