Page 105 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

“Maybe you should…?” Eilir was speaking to me but had their eyes fixed below with a grimace baring all their jagged teeth.

“Yeah, yeah,” I droned, heaving myself out of my seat. “King. Peacekeeper. What the fuck else am I?”

Eilir didn’t have long enough to muster up a snarky answer to that before I was vaulting myself over the rows of seating as fast as I could reasonably manage. The last thing any of us needed was for me to go ass over tits down the steep incline of stone, and I was not ready to have the wings demonstration or conversation with Enora yet.

When I finally reached the last row and stared down the ten-foot drop to the arena, I cursed and hauled myself over, landing with a groan I failed to stifle.

Mina, my knees were not what they once were. I recovered quickly, though, and in time for Enora’s attention to snap over.

“Max?” she breathed in disbelief, and the utterance warmed the fuck out of my chest.

Being back to preferred names was a win I’d gladly take, though I had an abundance of other, more immediate concerns as I approached her and my poorly mage. Namely, how Enora was still wearing the dress she’d worn to the pyres, and not only did white paint still streak her face, but jarring dark circles framed her eyes.

I’d seen soldiers in better shape after being trampled.

None of which were things I had a feeling she would appreciate me pointing out at that precise moment, especially if I didn’t want to end up a mirror image of Jasper.

“The one and only.” I flashed her a quick smile before I glanced at the mage, kneeling, cupping his nose and his balls as blood rolled off his face and spattered onto the earth. “I don’t mean to interrupt…”

Enora opened her mouth, but Jasper croaked out, “Oh, please do.”

“Right. Well, I had a bit of a fraught morning, trying to get things organized between the council and the elders and getting notice out to Embervale, but everything is now well underway for the first official Agōn Ferr event in a couple of weeks.”

“Oh. A…a couple of weeks?” Enora was still fighting to catch her breath, her hands braced on her thighs and her messy blonde hair hanging in a curtain around her face. “Fuck. Okay.”

Now that was a remarkable change in tune if I’d ever heard it.

Nowhere in sight was the woman who’d told me quite proudly that she, a well-tenured cavalry soldier, did not need any training for the Agōn Ferr. Certainly seemed like a thread of doubt had worked its way through the stone wall that encased her resolve.

“The first event is usually…straightforward,” I tried to reassure her. “I’m just not at liberty to discuss any specifics about that.”

Enora cast me a withering glance, and, for a moment, she looked downright formidable, sheened in sweat and dirt and spattered with Jasper’s blood. “Of course you aren’t.”

“It’s nothing personal, I promise.” Her displeasure did not ease at the smile I flashed her. “I am bound by oath, unfortunately, to not share any of the details of the Agōn Ferr with those who are participating, including yourself. It would be seen in bad faith to even give the illusion someone may have the advantage of my favor.”

“Well, count me just thrilled to be included among your honored participants,” she huffed. “Betrothed or not.”

Mina help us; she was in a right mood.

I hadn’t known what to expect, not after seeing her in such an elated state when I’d interrupted their sparring the day before, and certainly not after the revelation she was dealt shortly after that. But this only confirmed that whatever transpired between when I left her at the pyre last night and when Jasper brought her to the stadium wasn’t good.

I tried to glean a bit of non-verbal communication with a glance in his direction, but he was on his back, his hand draped over his eyes, chest heaving away.

“Don’t they say distance makes the heart grow fonder, or something like that?” I tried to quip, but Enora looked like she was having none of it. “Just think of how overjoyed you’ll be to spend unrestrained time with me once our nuptials come around.”

“Oh, I’ll be fucking thrilled.” She wiped at her dirty face and sighed. “I need something to eat. And, ugh, a bath.”

“You both look like you could use those and some rest in ample measure.” I earned another scathing look from Enora. “Might I recommend we call it here for today, and the two of you can pick back up bright and early tomorrow?”

Jasper was making his way upright with no shortage of miserable noises. “Just give me a few minutes, Nor, and I’ll take you back to the Keep.”

“Oh, I am not going back with you and spending the rest of the day with my head in a bucket.” Enora barked the words at Jasper with such distaste, I stiffened. “I’ll walk barefoot back to fucking Odessa before I let you do that to my body ever again.”

How interesting.

One could easily deduce what Enora had meant by ‘that’, and it left me with some significant questions. Jasper was an uncommonly skilled Plane Stepper, so much so that I had a hard time fathoming his abilities sometimes, with the nonchalant way he carried himself. Any Stepper was an incredible asset to have in an army, but someone like Jasper was fucking gold. The sheer volume of bodies he could move from one place to the next was remarkable, made even more so by how little it taxed him or his living cargo.

Something clearly had not gone to plan.