Page 157 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

And that was why I’d been adamant with Max that she had to leave.

No good would ever come from the complete helplessness I felt around her.

But, of course, my king thought he knew better, thought he understood an ounce of the history Enora and I shared, sunken into our hearts like thorns that were impossible to remove.

And now, he was going to marry her.

My best friend was going to marry the woman I’d once thought I would marry, if the cards had fallen right. But I did not regret a second of the moments I’d spent with her, acquainting myself with every inch of her body. Would I be damned for that? Probably. My soul was already destined to slave away for Mina when the time came anyway.

“Here she comes.” The first words Maksym had uttered in an eternity, and they were so void of emotion, I looked at him before I considered setting my attention on the now-silent arena.

He was finally standing, knuckles pale again as he gripped the thin metal cap of the railing, and I took a cautious post a few feet from him. When I finally braved a glance out at the pits below, all the air in my lungs stalled.

Enora was in no condition to fight.

Her path out from the gate was a slow hobble, supported heavily by the tip of the short sword she dragged through the earth beside her. Even her shield was limp in her other arm—both her weapon and protection too large for her half-Odessan frame. Bruises already bloomed across her face and her bare arms; slashes of skin and crusted-over cuts decorated her legs.

When Gallan had said her first two matches were draws, and that he’d thought they were unfair, I’d foolishly thought that meant fate had taken kindly to her. But if this was the pulp she’d been beaten into, I was terrified to see the conditions of her partners.

Still, it was inexcusable that anyone sent her into another round in that state, and my fear only compounded when her challenger emerged from the other gate—Soteris. Suspect number one in the damage to Enora’s room and one of the longest tenured Elixia in service, he was vicious to an unacceptable degree. He was the type who got off on fear and violence—a once crucial quality in the king’s most elite guard in days that had long since died. While he had a few wounds of his own, there was no limp or falter to his step, no weapon too heavy for him to wield.

And he was going to kill her.

“Max,” I snapped, “you cannot let her fight like this.”

He let out a huff and shook his head, not lifting his attention from Enora as she and Soteris took their stances in the pit. “She had a chance to forfeit, and she refused.”

Of course she fucking didn’t.

Would Maksym have, if his fate was tied to seeing these trials through to their completion? It wasn’t like a disqualification meant she’d just be eliminated from the Agōn Ferr—her success was mandated by the council as her only path from execution. I could not fathom the political nightmare we’d have if she did not see it through.

“Then you need to intervene, my liege. Veto this round.” There was no stopping the way I bit the words out one by one to him.

Maksym turned, and tension snapped back through him. “I. Can’t.”

Oh, we weren’t going to play this passive game anymore.

“You can’t? Or you won’t?”

His eyes flared, the amber fully ignited, and he stormed at me, pinning my body against a stone pillar with my collar fisted in his hand. “If you think so low of me that I would willfully endanger a completely innocent woman, my bride⁠—”

A distinctly feminine cry of pain echoed off the arena, and Maksym released me with a curse. I rubbed at where his knuckles had ground into my chest and let out a shaky breath. Whatever had the arena deathly silent was not something I wanted to see, but my feet forced me over.

Enora was staggering up from her knees as blood poured from a wound to her head. Soteris circled her, like the predator he was, and I had to look away, like the coward I was.

“Malakai has my veto.”

I almost didn’t hear Maksym—or was positive I didn’t hear him correctly, at least. “What?”

“He owes me. Owes her. Embervale would’ve been a mess that day.” Maksym would not lift his eyes from the arena. “I cannot be seen vetoing her. I can’t give her favor like that.”

But Malakai could.

Two vetoes from within the king and his council were what was deemed fair.

If the arrogant lord held both his and Maksym’s, then he could see her bout declared over in a way that would not be a mark against her. And with the drunken debauchery sprawling over the patio, no one would be the wiser as to who or where the veto flares came from.

I just couldn’t understand why the shifter bastard hadn’t fucking done it yet.