Page 38 of A Legacy of Stars (The Lost God Legacies)

38

TEDDY

A s Teddy stepped into the center room, a loud grinding sound cut through the air, a stone door closing behind him. The door behind Stella did the same, as did the doors on the other two walls of the room.

They were finally safe. All their adversaries were barred on the other side of the heavy stone. This victory was theirs alone.

For a moment, Teddy could only stare at Stella, scanning her for injury. The roar of the cheering crowd and the bell signaling the end of the challenge muted out, and his entire focus narrowed to her.

The hair at her left temple was matted with blood. The first hint of swelling had set in around one of her eyes and bright purple bruising circled the pale skin of her neck. Blood stained the left side of her waist beneath a cut in her leather breastplate. It had turned the brown leather a deep red, but it was a horizontal slice and not a puncture, so it had probably already healed.

He blew out a shaky breath of relief. Stella’s shoulders relaxed at the same time and he realized she must have been doing the same assessment of him.

Teddy hesitated. He wanted to drag her body to his and kiss her, but he wouldn’t ruin her reputation with so many spectators watching.

Stella took the choice out of his hands. She took a running leap into his arms and hugged him tightly.

Teddy tucked his face into her neck and breathed in her wildflower scent. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” he whispered.

“You’re hurt. I felt it.”

He rubbed her back and squeezed her a little tighter. “Just a couple of broken ribs, I think.”

“Me too,” she mumbled into his neck.

There were so many things Teddy wanted to ask her.

A slow clap broke the silence.

At the top of the maze wall, Endros stood in front of a throne-like chair on the gamemaker’s dais, beside the royal booth. “Excellent work, both of you. I’m very impressed with your strategy and viciousness.”

The crowd cheered in approval. Teddy could feel the weight of his father’s gaze, but he didn’t want to take his eyes off Endros until he had his favor in hand.

The god lifted his hands and the noise of the crowd died again.

“It pains me to say this, but unfortunately, there can be only one champion and only one favor.”

The crowd voiced their dissent immediately and loudly, but the moment Endros lifted a hand, they quieted again.

“I didn’t make the rules, but I must enforce them. There can be only one. That is what was written into the rules of the Games.”

Teddy set Stella back on her feet and took a step forward. “Stella can have it. She beat me by just a second.”

It was a quick lie. They’d run in from opposite sides at the same time, but Teddy couldn’t bear to look Stella in the eye while he took something from her.

Endros clicked his tongue. “Gallant of you, Your Grace. But you did indeed enter at the same time and the Gauntlet Games rules must be honored. It’s how we keep the peace. ”

The crowd voiced their displeasure with a chorus of outraged shouts.

The god pressed a hand to his chest in the perfect imitation of sincerity. “Would that I could change it, but as you all know, this contest is bound by godly bargain, and I am as much a prisoner of the rules as the contestants. I didn’t write the covenant of these Games. I only signed it.”

The crowd settled.

“I have no choice but to use the tiebreaker,” Endros continued, turning to face the kings. “King Xander, did I not give you a sealed envelope at the beginning of the Games and ask you to hold on to it, but not open it?”

Xander stood and walked to the front of the box. Reaching a hand inside his vest, he removed a letter with a red wax seal and held it up.

Endros grinned menacingly. “Would you mind reading it?”

Xander broke the wax seal, read it, and frowned. He glanced to Stella and Teddy and then to Cecilia and Rainer, who sat beside Queen Jessamin in the royal booth.

Teddy tried not to fidget, but beside him Stella picked at dry blood crusted on her hands.

“Ready the challenge,” Endros said, waving a hand at the priestess beside him. He turned to the king. “Are you going to read the tiebreaker aloud to our contestants and the crowd?”

Xander stood tall. “‘The final challenge is simple. Few moments in the history between our two kingdoms are as memorable and ingrained in the hearts and minds of our people as the great exchange. It’s the swipe of a dagger between two mortals that eventually sent Cato from this realm.’”

Stella froze. “Teddy, does he mean?—”

A door opened beneath the dais. A priestess in crimson robes strode into the center of the maze and paused in front of Teddy and Stella. She held an ornate golden box in her hands. She set the box on the ground and reached for Teddy’s hand.

“Your cuff, please. They don’t want you restricted for the final challenge,” the priestess said .

Dread clenched in Teddy’s chest. He didn’t want the full force of his magic if he would need to use it on Stella.

The priestess whispered something, and the band slipped free of his wrist. Stella held out her hand, and the priestess removed hers as well, then tucked the glowing bands into a pocket in her robes and stooped to pick up the gold box again.

Teddy studied her face for any hint of the chaos she was about to unleash on them. The priestess just smiled serenely and opened the box.

Teddy braced himself as if it might explode, but the box only held a dagger with ornate silver leaves on the hilt.

Stella stepped up beside him, her jaw slack. “That’s my mother’s Godkiller dagger.”

Teddy had seen it only in a memory his father had once shown him so that he’d recognize the signature magical feeling that a Godkiller weapon gave off in case he ever came across one. He’d been led to believe that those few weapons that were powerful enough to kill a living god had all been lost to time, but clearly that was not the case.

The blade seemed to hum and pulse in the same way all powerful magical objects did.

Xander cleared his throat and continued. “‘In the case of a tie, this dagger will be placed on the centermost stone in the centermost room of the maze. The competitors will stand with their backs to opposite walls, equidistant from the blade. When the bell rings to start the match, the first person to plunge the blade into their challenger’s heart will win the Games.’”

The world was suddenly airless.

The crowd went deathly silent.

Teddy couldn’t help it. He looked up at the royal box.

His father’s characteristically calm expression was gone, and in its place was one of horror. Cecilia was on her feet next to his chair, the first hints of a gathering storm roiling in the sky above her.

“I object!” she shouted. “He conceded. It’s over. I will not stand by while you take your vengeance and pretend it’s part of the Games. ”

Endros clicked his tongue. “Surely you won’t ask for special treatment for your daughter, Little Goddess. Not when she has the advantage of your blood.” The god smirked. “Shame that she also has your heart to cancel that out.”

Cecilia looked ready to launch herself into the arena. Rainer’s arm around her waist seemed to be the only thing stopping her.

“Careful, Cecilia. We are all bound to the covenant of these Games,” Endros warned.

Stella looked at her parents, her face pained. The recognition crashed over Teddy. Endros was recreating a scene from Rainer and Cecilia’s history and projecting it onto the next generation. They had already survived the horror of reliving their parents’ worst memories, but that still wasn’t enough.

Endros wasn’t just out for blood. He was trying to shred their souls.

Teddy searched his mind for any other solution, but they’d talked about it back in the McKay Estate sitting room on the day he and Stella had done the tournament binding. As long as the peace held, so would the binding magic of the Games. There was no way out.

The priestess took Stella’s arm and ushered her away from Teddy to the far side of the room.

Teddy walked to the opposite wall, trying desperately to find a loophole in the challenge. Could there be another definition for a heart? Could he plunge it into his own?

No. The rules said he must plunge it into his challenger’s heart.

As Teddy finally turned and pressed his back against the wall, the futility of it all settled into his bones.

He couldn’t do it. He could not kill Stella. Not when he loved her. Not when he knew how badly she deserved to be loved. Not when she hadn’t had the chance to find someone worthy of her.

But she wouldn’t do it either. Stella had killed for him. Teddy had been the dividing line between her conscience and action. She wouldn’t be able to turn the blade on him now. They’d be stuck in a stalemate.

“One last thing,” Endros said. “If you don’t attempt this last piece of the final challenge, you’ll begin to feel that burning in your blood again until you show an effort. And in three minutes, those doors will open and any competitors still standing will have a chance to steal the blade and beat you to it. Good luck.”

Teddy’s heart pounded, dread flooding his bloodstream as the god lifted the bell and began to ring it.

The high-pitched sound was loud and clear because the crowd wasn’t cheering. They were watching in mute horror, their nervous glances bouncing from the arena to each other to the god who had orchestrated this.

Teddy didn’t run toward the dagger. Neither did Stella. They slowly walked toward each other until they stood just an arm’s length apart.

Stella swiped the dagger up, but Teddy’s relief was short-lived, because instead of plunging it into his chest, she handed it to him hilt-first.

Her eyes shone, face awash with agony. “You know I could never.”

Teddy shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

“If we don’t do it, someone else will run in here in a minute and do it for us. I’d rather it be you,” she whispered.

She was so calm. Teddy was furious at her for being so rational now when she was so unreasonable the rest of the time.

It was like they’d switched roles. He could not master himself.

His chest was tight with panic, the same breathless vise-like fear descending on him as it had in the tent before he’d entered himself into the contest.

Stella pressed her hand to his heart. “Breathe with me.”

He couldn’t. It was like his body had forgotten how.

Teddy knew how to kill. He’d practiced enough that it was easy now—reflexive. But he didn’t know how to kill someone he loved.

“You won’t be able to come back,” he whispered.

Stella touched his cheek. “You aren’t replaceable.”

“Neither are you. I have three siblings that could rule.”

“But can both our kingdoms survive the upheaval?” she rasped. “We could stand here all night and debate it. We could kill anyone who comes in to face us until it’s just the two of us again. But that will just leave us with more blood on our hands as we face down the same exact decision.” She unbuckled her breastplate. It fell to the marble floor with a hollow thud. Stella unbuttoned the top three buttons on her shirt and pressed the tip of the dagger’s blade to the flushed skin over her heart.

Just last night, he’d brushed his lips to that spot, murmuring how much he loved her in Old Novumi.

Teddy looked around wildly for any other option. He wanted to scream—to charge at Endros and fist-fight the god. But it was pointless. There was no escaping this decision.

“If you don’t do it, the magic of the competition might kill both of us,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the murmuring of the crowd. “If we slay all our foes, and it is you and me again, we will be forced to finish this until the binding magic decides the game is over.”

Teddy glanced up at the faces of the spectators. Some looked angrily at Endros; others looked sympathetically toward Teddy’s plight. If there was one thing the people of the two kingdoms respected, it was the fairy-tale story Endros was trying to recreate in an eerie next-generation echo. They didn’t like it.

It wasn’t fair. Teddy and Stella had played the game. They passed every challenge. If anything, they should have both received a favor.

But Teddy wasn’t a child, and he’d learned long ago that life was not fair. He’d followed every rule, and he’d been impeccable his whole life—until a few weeks ago, when he went to the Temple of Desiree. He couldn’t even call it a mistake anymore because the more he’d gotten to know Stella, the more he’d let go of their history as adversaries, and the more the bond seemed like the hands of fate moving them around a board.

Why had all of that happened if only to end in tragedy weeks later?

Stella looked at him with such conviction, squeezing her hand around his on the hilt of the blade, her eyes glassy. “Teddy, we have minutes before someone else gets here and wins instead. I don’t know how much time has passed. Our competition won’t hesitate. Just do it.”

He shook his head. “I can’t.”

A broken sob rattled out of Stella, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You should have told me what Minyha meant,” she rasped.

“How could I when you didn’t want me?” Teddy asked. The question was wrenched up from beneath his heart—from the very place where the bond connected him to Stella.

“I do want you. I just don’t want to lose myself to have you.”

“How is this not losing yourself?” Teddy snapped. He was so angry at her for putting him in this position.

“Because it’s my choice,” she sobbed. “I used to think I wanted exactly what my parents have.”

“And now?” He could hardly breathe around the fear.

She looked up at the booth where their families looked on. “And now I’m afraid I do. Now I wish I didn’t care about you because I’m not strong enough to kill you, and I’m terrified that we have the same weakness.”

Stella flinched at the same time Teddy started to feel a low-grade warmth spreading through his blood.

It was already starting. They had hesitated too long.

Teddy shook his head. No . He could not do this. The burning came in a wave, and he gasped, squeezing his hand tighter around the dagger hilt.

“Come on, Stella. You fight me on everything else. Fight me now.”

She blinked away tears. “I’ve already fought you and lost. I have no fight left. Not for you, Minyha .”

The term of endearment took the wind out of him. He rested his forehead against her shoulder, trying to compose himself.

“I cannot destroy my heart. I will protect what is mine,” she murmured into his hair.

“You have to,” Teddy rasped. The burning was becoming unbearable, the pain so bright he could barely keep his grip on the blade.

“Do you understand what I’m saying? I am my mother’s daughter. I’ll repeat history because that is what it takes to save the man I love.” Stella winced. “My blood burns. It’s the magic of the contest because I’m not trying to kill you like I’m supposed to. One of us has to do this, and it needs to be you.”

“Why?” It was more a question to the fates and gods than one he expected an answer to.

She smiled weakly. “Because I love you too much to hurt you more than I did yesterday. Because you are kind and smart and you will be an amazing king.”

The dagger pressed against her skin, just enough to draw blood. Teddy looked her in the eyes, his hand trembling and slicked with sweat.

Stella gripped his hand tighter on the hilt, but Teddy couldn’t do it.

She groaned in agony from the burning and bent toward him, the blade sinking into her chest. The burning in Teddy’s blood lessened ever so slightly, but he yanked the dagger back in horror.

A loud explosion split the night and sent them both stumbling.

The dagger fell from Teddy’s hand and clattered to the ground. Stella snatched it up and slipped it awkwardly into an empty slot on her vest.

He turned toward the sound. “What the?—”

“Is it a magic trap in the maze or?—”

Another explosion rent the air—much closer this time. Teddy dragged Stella to the ground, covering her body with his as shards of wood and ash rained down on them.

After a few moments, Teddy rolled off of Stella and looked around, but the explosions hadn’t come from inside the maze.

Smoke snaked up from somewhere behind the bleachers and royal booths. An entire section of the crowd was missing.

The stands where the spectators had been watching were in total chaos.

“Mama!” Stella’s shout was breathless.

Screaming and pained groans broke out in the crowd. Bloodied spectators rose from the remnants of the bleachers and frantically made their way toward the stairs .

A loud grinding sound filled the air as the doors to the center of the maze slid open.

Roaring voices rose in a chorus through the night. “For the old ways!”

Stella’s wide green eyes met Teddy’s. “It’s the Sons of Endros.”

Teddy glanced up at the gamemaker’s booth just in time to see flames rise around Endros. He smirked as he faded into them.

Teddy felt the burning in his blood lift.

“I guess that concludes the Gauntlet Games,” Stella said. “My blood stopped burning.”

Teddy felt suddenly guilty for wishing for a solution to the tiebreaker—this wasn’t at all what he had in mind. The tiebreaker was personally devastating, but a full rebellion would bring massive loss of life for the people of Olney and Argaria. If whatever was happening outside of the arena was bad enough that it broke the covenant of the Gauntlet Games, things were about to get so much worse.

He glanced at the royal booths. The left side of the makeshift wood platform had splintered, and the railing dangled at an odd angle. Terror shot through him. There was no sign of his parents or siblings, or Stella’s family.

Stella took off running toward the carnage, but before she could get to them, Jeneva and Katerina sprinted into the center of the maze.

Jeneva immediately lifted her blade, preparing for a fight. “What’s happening?”

“Sons of Endros attack,” Stella said, lifting her hands in surrender.

Katerina looked back and forth between them. “Who won the Games?”

“Teddy did,” Stella said without meeting his eye. “Or else the rebellion broke the covenant of the Games and we have much bigger problems to solve. Now, are you satisfied? Can I pass to find my family?”

“Can we leave?” Katerina asked .

Teddy’s blood was no longer burning. “Stands to reason that an active rebellion attack on the Games would effectively end the peace.”

Stella nodded. “The burning is gone. I don’t know what else would stop it.”

Jeneva turned her fierce gaze on the smoking remnants of the royal booth. “How do we find the quickest way out?”

Teddy turned in a slow circle. There were four entrances off the center of the maze. “Does anyone remember the exact route they took to get in here?”

Jeneva frowned at him like the question was insulting, which it probably was for the Olney huntmaster’s daughter. All hunters were trained to have an impeccable sense of direction. “Of course.” Her gaze wandered toward one of the maze openings. “Which competitors are still standing?”

“Dixon is alive but unconscious,” Teddy said.

“Fionn and the Roach,” Stella said.

Katerina wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Drew was, but if he didn’t realize that my blades were poisoned, then he probably won’t be for long.”

“He’s dead,” Stella said flatly.

Their bond was as steady as her affect, but Teddy still searched her face for any sign of apprehension. He found none.

“I need to get to my father. He’ll be a target in this,” Jeneva said.

“So will you,” Stella said, nodding to Jeneva’s fiery red hair.

Jeneva tapped her short swords together. “They’ll have to catch me first.” She nodded toward the opening from which she’d come. “I’m going to find my father. I’m guessing he’ll be on the castle walls.”

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Stella said.

“She won’t,” Katerina said, stepping up beside her warrior friend. She smiled sheepishly at Stella. “Sorry we tried to kill you at the Muddled Mind. It wasn’t personal. I just really needed that favor and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Stella shrugged. “I don’t blame you.”

Teddy felt far less inclined to forgive than Stella was, but when she turned and gave him an irritated look, he sighed and said, “Yes, we understand. Just be careful who you trust. Security was tight around this event especially.”

Jeneva frowned. “It was supposed to be, but two unscheduled ships landed at the pier right before the start of the challenge. My father was called away from saying goodbye to me because of it. The harbormaster was beside himself, afraid they were under attack, but it seems he just misplaced a page from his ledger. My father had to pull some of the security detail to investigate what was happening at the pier.”

Stella paled and something like dread hit Teddy through their connection.

“What is it?” Teddy asked.

Stella’s gaze darted around the room. “Before the event, Fionn called in his favor. He brought me to the pier and asked me to erase the last twenty-four hours from the harbor log and to remove the page of arriving and departing ships from the ledger and give it to him.”

Jeneva stared at her. “You think it’s a diversion?”

Stella shook her head. “If it is, it’s a good one. It draws guards away from the event but?—”

Another loud explosion erupted into the night. The four of them braced against the ground-rattling aftershocks. Smoke poured into the sky, the night turned momentarily orange by a fireball.

“The docks,” Katerina rasped. “My father’s shop is near there.”

“Wait!” Stella said. “About Fionn—when I ran into him in the maze, he was headed the wrong way. He wasn’t going toward the center room. He was running away from it.”

Teddy had never trusted that fucker, and not just because he flirted so freely with Stella. There was something oily about him. He was too perfect, too smooth, just too much to be believed. He didn’t like the way Fionn latched on to Stella and, in context now, the attack on the street where Stella had nearly been killed felt like a test—either of her skill or Teddy’s attachment to her.

“Which way was he going when you saw him?” Teddy asked.

Stella looked up at the castle and Teddy’s blood went cold. “That way. I’m sorry. I should have known. I’m not stupid enough to actually trust a mercenary, but mercenaries tend to not care for revolutions.”

“Unless he’s not really a mercenary,” Katerina said.

“Regardless, we have to get moving,” Teddy said. “Jeneva, head toward the docks to find your father. Light the barracks torches along the way if they’re not already lit. We need to get this whole place on high alert. Stella and I will go to the castle to try to find our families and get the spectators to shelter.” He paused. “And be careful with the other competitors. Rett and his friends have never been proven to be actively involved with the rebels, but that doesn’t mean they’re not.”

Jeneva and Katerina nodded, then ran off back the way they’d come from.

Stella was already halfway to the door when Teddy caught up with her.

“I’m sure everyone is fine.” He was trying to be reassuring, but he only sounded doubtful.

Stella led him back along the path she’d taken through the maze—past Drew’s crumpled body and ivy splattered with blood, twisting and turning through the narrow maze until they heard the sound of footsteps coming from around a corner.

Adrenaline coursed through Teddy’s blood. He would fight his way out of this maze if he had to. He was going to protect Stella and get them both back to their families.

A lump formed in his throat when he thought of the remnants of the royal booth, but he shoved the thought from his mind. He needed a clear head and he would not default to despair in a moment like this. Not when Stella needed him.

She was frozen beside him. Her hands rested on the hilts of the short swords at her hips. They both stood waiting, muscles coiled for action.

A familiar whistle sounded above them. Teddy’s gaze snapped up. Alexandra smirked down at him from her perch atop the maze wall beside them. The fear in his chest unknotted as she held a finger to her lips, gestured to the corner he was approaching, and held up three fingers.

Stella shifted beside him, drawing her short swords as quietly as possible.

Together they advanced, pausing at the corner to look at Alexandra. She held up three fingers, silently counting down. Teddy stepped around the corner with Stella on his heels at the same time Alexandra jumped down onto the back of one of the men.

Alexandra drew a dagger across the throat of the man in front of her as Teddy took on the man to the right. He easily deflected a swipe from the rebel, plunging his sword through the embroidered Sons of Endros sigil at the center of his leather breastplate.

Steel met steel beside Teddy as Stella took on the third attacker. She spun away and Teddy took over, shoving the man against the wall and cutting his throat with a dagger.

Before the rebel’s body hit the ground, Teddy had swept Alexandra into a hug.

She patted his back. “I know I’m your favorite and all, but we have to go. Our father sent me to get you both and we need to get beyond the castle walls now.”

“He has a plan?” Teddy asked.

Alexandra nodded. “He said to find you and Stella and that Stella would know the way through the queen’s garden.” She looked at Stella. “Apparently both royal families are aware that you had a way to sneak in to see Arden.”

Stella blushed. “What about my family?”

Alexandra nodded. “They’re safe for now, but we have to move.”

Stella’s shoulders relaxed, and she started forward, leading the way back through the maze. They didn’t encounter any other bodies along the way, but when they finally broke free from the arena, they could see the full carnage of the attack. Several of the bleachers lay in crumpled piles of wood; no bodies, but there were distinct blood spatters on the wood.

Alexandra urged him forward. “We don’t have time to investigate now. We have to fight to see another day,” she said .

A faint flicker in Teddy’s peripheral drew his attention. He turned to watch a flaming arrow arc through the night, striking a shadowed figure to their left.

A scream rent the air as the arrow’s flame caught the shirt of the figure. He turned to run, seemingly to escape the range of the archer, but the wind fanned the flames so his whole shirt caught and he fell to his knees and howled in pain.

Teddy finally recognized him. It was Dixon.

Stella gasped. Reaching out her magic, she yanked the flames away from his shirt and caught them in her palm, realizing as soon as she did it that she’d drawn attention to them.

They watched in mute horror as an arrow hit Dixon’s throat. He let out a horrible gasping sound that they could somehow hear even over the chaos.

But it wasn’t just one archer watching the field—it was a whole host of them. A horde of flaming arrows rained down on them. Stella had left her breastplate in the maze, leaving her unguarded. Teddy searched helplessly for any cover.

Stella threw her hands up and her magic surged into the arrows, burning them to ash that rained down on Teddy and Alexandra like remnants of a bonfire.

“Move,” Alexandra said, grabbing both of their collars and dragging them forward.

They sprinted across the field to the cover of the castle wall. They needed to get inside before they were mistaken for rebels.

Stella led them along the outer courtyard wall until finally the dense shrubbery that surrounded the queen’s garden came into view. She walked up to the hedges and sent out a surge of magic. The bushes bent apart, leaving a gap just wide enough for the three of them to squeeze through.

Once they were inside, Stella let the tall hedges fall back into place.

“What I’m about to show you is a secret you must immediately forget,” she whispered .

“You sure you wouldn’t rather just steal the memory from us when you’re done?” Alexandra taunted.

“That was one time and only because your brother begged me,” Stella said.

Teddy and Alexandra followed her down a path bracketed by roses. She moved soundlessly, falling back into her training as if she’d been as involved in combat as Teddy and Alexandra.

As they crossed into a water garden, Stella stopped suddenly, her hand clamping over her mouth.

At the far end of the pond, a large group of fifty rebels stood in formation. A tall man stood in front of them, speaking animatedly.

Fionn Silver.

He paced back and forth down the line, a subtle limp in his step. Although they couldn’t make out what he was saying through the sound of running water in the pond, it was clear that he was a leader. His men listened with rapt attention.

“We can find another way around,” Alexandra whispered.

Stella shook her head. “You don’t understand. They’re standing on top of the way in. I’m trying to figure out if they know that or not. If they do, we have a much bigger problem.”

Teddy waited, peering over Stella’s shoulder, holding his breath. To his horror, the men parted, and Fionn bent down and tipped up the grate in the ground below them, ushering his rebels into the secret passageway to the castle.

Stella gasped. There were too many rebels for the three of them to take on. There had to be at least fifty men, outfitted in high-end leather armor and beautiful weapons, not to mention the strong pulse of magic emanating from the group. At least some of them were witches. It would have been stupid to attack without knowing which ones had magic and what their strongest affinities were.

One of the rebels lifted his arm and Teddy spotted a glowing cuff on his wrist.

“It’s our magic they’re planning to use. That’s why the priestesses had us make so many. It wasn’t for the Games. It was for the rebellion,” Stella whispered .

Teddy swallowed down his fury. Much as he wanted to charge across the garden and rip those cuffs off of the men, he needed to be strategic. Even Alexandra, always eager for a fight, was holding completely still so as to not attract attention.

“Our father is expecting us to come through that passageway,” Alexandra whispered, peering at the men through the hedges. “What elements do those cuffs hold?”

“I gave fire and I’m assuming that Dixon would have given fire also?—”

“Did we not just watch him panic over fire on his shirt?” she interrupted.

“Yes, but I hit his head pretty hard. If he just woke up, he was probably disoriented, and he still had the cuff restricting his magic…” Teddy let his voice trail off, trying to get the image of Dixon out of his head.

Alexandra shifted, her gaze still fixed on the men who were now beginning to descend into the tunnel. “Once they’re all in, we need to follow them. We can pick them off one by one if we can do it quietly.”

The wait for the men to descend into the passageway was excruciating, and then they waited a full minute after the grate slipped back into place with a metallic clang before they darted across the garden. They rounded the large pool full of lily pads and lotus flowers.

A scrape of boots on gravel behind them drew Teddy up short. He spun and came face to face with two men in rebel regalia. Both had bows drawn and aimed at Stella and Alexandra.