Page 90 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

“Oh, and Maksym?” I called out, because I couldn’t help myself. “Maybe do an extra loop on your way back and see where the fuck you left your balls this morning.”

Maksym fixed me with a lethal stare, pointing at his blazing amber eyes, and then at me before he turned and stalked out of the arena.

20

A DEVASTATING MIRROR IMAGE

Maksym

Three-quarters of the way to Enora’s room, I realized just how in over my head I was. Comfort was not my area of expertise. It was Jasper’s. Sort of. Or Kieran’s, I guess. Fuck, that alone was going to be a mess.

I’d known his true name for years—Kieran Morana, teen deserter of Odessa—but I didn’t think I’d uttered it once. He never wanted to hear it, and I had no reason to say it. I understood more than most about wanting to leave a part of your past buried somewhere miserably deep.

Clearly, I’d been a fool for believing every bit of his past without question.

It had come in pieces over the years—little bits when he’d get these sporadic urges to unload something on me. So, of course, I’d learned of his original home in a small village of the Wastes and how he left it as a young child. How he was a ward of Odessa’s king, studying under the tutelage of revered high mages to hone his unusually potent magic. How he left Odessa—both versions of his sudden departure from everything he’d known.

I’d heard stories of his closest friends interspersed with all of that too, of their ragtag group that didn’t fit in anywhere.

Often mentioned was the king’s bastard daughter, who Jasper had the fortune of growing up alongside and forming an inseparable friendship with. Glued at the hip whenever they were together, planning their next activity when they couldn’t be.

But there was no way Enora had been just his closest friend.

In hindsight, it had been so damn obvious—the state of utter panic my usually unflappable mage was in when he dumped Enora on our war room table. I’d written it off as the unexpected emotion of seeing such an old friend in such a dire way.

But then, I saw the way she looked at him, beneath her own devastating shock. That was how you looked at someone you used to love but had learned to hate.

She’d given him a sliver of her big, foolish heart, as she’d put it to me just last night, only to have it annihilated and left festering for fifteen years.

And now, I’d found myself speared right in between it all.

Fucking wonderful.

The bargain mark on my palm started itching the moment I set foot back inside the damned Keep, settling into a burning sensation that could only be interpreted as an omen for how things were about to go.

Eilir wasn’t faring much better.

When I’d finally turned to the wing I wasn’t confident Enora knew we shared, it was impossible to miss the sprite as they darted up and down the princess’ end of the hall. They were squabbling to themselves in high-pitched sprite-speak, which I’d never recognized a word of in my entire life, and, at some point, they’d shed a damned head leaf.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I gave it a nudge with my foot. “She did a number on you, I take it?”

“Oh, Max,” came Eilir’s drawn-out whine as they zipped over, hands clutched to their chest. “It’s bad. Really, really bad. I-I came back, t-to apologize and take her those nice things you asked me to get before, but-but…she-she⁠—”

“Breathe, Eilir.”

The sprite sucked in a gulp of air.

“She was so mad, Max! So mad. And Gallan showed up, and she was mad at him too! Yelling at him. Yelling at me! Yelling about you and Jasper! She threw a lot of things at poor Gallan, and then she kicked me out! Me, Maksym. What have I done to her?”

Narrowing my eyes at the sprite, I asked, “Gallan? Why was he here?”

Eilir threw their hands up. “I don’t know, Max! I didn’t get a chance to ask, between the flying objects and the door being slammed in my face!”

I sank back against the wall and sighed, “We fucked up, okay?”

“WE?” Eilir squealed. “You, Max! You made this mess all on your own! Always with your lies and your secrets! It’s too much!” The sprite had barely finished doling out those incredibly spiteful words when they reached into the plane threads between us and vanished.

If there’d ever been a day to not get out of bed, this would’ve been it.