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I had never seen her do that before.

It changed her entire face and somehow made her look more dangerous.

High in the north gallery, Ronan Ashgrave was standing as well. His little leather notebook hung forgotten at his side, and his pen was lying on the floor near his boots.

Delphine's father had entered the ring by then. He crossed to his daughter without saying anything, removed his own coat, and wrapped it around her shoulders. When he helped her toward the ladder, she turned her head as she passed me.

Her face was blotched from crying, and she looked exhausted and humiliated, but she met my eyes and did not look away.

There was no hatred there.

I could not tell what had replaced it.

Then her father guided her on.

Beside me, Silas had picked up the broken half of the staff. He turned it slowly in his hands until he found the waxed ring around the cut.

His expression changed.

It was subtle, but I saw it, and the warmth seemed to leave his face all at once.

He looked toward Varga.

Varga was already heading for the exit with his injured arm held in its sling. He was walking quickly and did not look back.

My head was spinning, and the wound near my collarbone throbbed with every heartbeat. My senses had returned mostly to normal, but not completely. The wolf had left something behind. Every sound still reached me with unnatural clarity: boots scraping against stone, a gull calling somewhere outside, Tamsin's hoarse voice, Silas breathing beside me.

Then I heard another voice from the rail above.

It was quiet enough that no ordinary person in the Pit could have heard it.

Aldric Vance had left the envoys' box and walked along the upper tier until he reached his son. Kaelen had not moved. His hands were still locked around the iron rail, and he was still staring down at me.

Aldric stopped beside him.

He did not look at Kaelen. He looked into the Pit, toward where I sat wrapped in Silas's coat on the bloodstained sand.

Then he smiled.

It was the same warm, easy smile he wore in public, the one that made everyone feel as though they had his complete attention.

Three months earlier, in the courtyard, Kaelen Vance had looked toward the windows of the east wing before speaking to me.

I had thought about that glance ever since.

I had decided he was checking who was watching before he rejected me. Tamsin had called it a matter of reputation, and I had accepted that explanation because it matched everything I already believed about myself.

Looking up at Kaelen and his father now, I understood that I had been wrong.

Kaelen had not been checking to see who would witness him pushing me away.

He had been checking to see who had witnessed him wanting me.

Nobody else could have heard Aldric over the noise of the Pit.

My hearing had not quite returned to normal.

I heard every word.