Page 49 of Thief of Hearts

The gymnasium and stadium would be available today for the competitors to train, but I didn’t actually need to do so. I would spend the day doing things I enjoyed, letting myself rest before the next event tomorrow.

A shadow fell across my page, and I said, “Pardon me, but you’re in my light.”

The shadow didn’t move. I looked up and saw an older man with silver strands in his dark hair.

“Was yesterday a mistake?” he asked.

Who was he to question me? “I don’t even know who you are.”

“Was it a fluke that you won the race?”

“No.”

This didn’t seem to please him. He had the sun at his back so I stood to see him more clearly. Something was off and I wanted to make sure that I could recognize him again if I needed to. His face was weathered, lined, and he had dark eyes. Small suns decorated the neckline of his tunic.

He was much shorter than me, something that made him scowl once I’d stood.

“What is it you want?” I asked.

“I have bet a great deal of money against you.”

“That was foolish.”

He scowled again. “Name your price.”

“My price? For what?”

“To throw the tournament. Name your price to lose every event from here on out.”

“A diviner stone,” I said. That would be the only thing that could make me walk away.

“I cannot get that for you.”

“It’s the only thing that I want.”

Desperation crept into his expression. “I will send you home with a mountain of gold. More than you could ever spend in a lifetime.”

“I’m not interested.”

The man spoke to me in a foreign tongue, and from the sound of it, he was cursing at me. He switched back to common long enough to say, “Remember this moment. You are going to be very sorry.”

He stormed off and I sat back down in my spot. I wasn’t too concerned—I wasn’t easy to kill. I finished up the picture of Dagger and moved on to drawing some of the flowers in the courtyard.

After that was done, my fingers seemed to move of their own volition on the parchment. I was sketching an image of Zain lying in his bed, the way that I had seen him last night. The piece of lead flew across the papyrus as I softened lines and defined the light and shadows.

It wasn’t a real likeness—it was meant to convey the way that I’d felt when I saw him.

I glanced up and realized that I had been out here for a while and hadn’t eaten yet today. Keeping up my strength was important for the tournament.

When I got to my room, only Dagger waited inside. He made a whining noise and I scratched his head, which seemed to mollify him. I was about to leave the picture I’d drawn of him on Zain’s bed when the door opened.

Zain strode into the room, sweaty from his training session, at the same exact moment that I was walking to his bed.

We collided.

He apologized and bent down to help me pick up my drawings. I froze for a moment, something that was so unlike me. He gathered them all, and thankfully the Dagger one was on top.

“That’s for you. As a thank-you for the parchment and lead.”