Page 198 of On Wings of Blood

He looked amused. “No, ‘thank you?’” He shrugged. “I suppose I should stop expecting to ever get one.”

“You’re right,” I snapped. “You should. Stop getting your hopes up.”

His lips curled. Then he gestured to a stone bench that lay over in the grove of trees behind the dragons. “You might want to sit down for this.”

“I prefer to stand,” I said coldly.

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

He walked over to the grove of trees. Reluctantly, I followed.

He sat down on the bench, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “I want you to do something for me.”

I tensed up. “Of course you do. Of course there are strings attached. I should have known.” I turned to leave.

“I'm a highblood, Pendragon,” he called. “There are always strings attached.”

When I kept moving, he shot in front of me. “It’s about Aenia.”

There was a strange undercurrent to his voice.

“What about her?” I asked cautiously.

“If you want to know something that could hurt me, then you have to promise me something in return first,” Blake said.

I narrowed my eyes. “What exactly am I agreeing to?”

“I’ve learned the Consort Games will begin in less than two days,” he said, watching my stunned reaction. “Let me protect you so that you survive the Games.”

“Protect me?” I said scornfully. “You won’t even be there. I’ll be going in alone.” I pulled my cloak more tightly around me. “Besides, most of the consorts survive.”

After my alarming meeting with Rodriguez, I’d begged Florence to come to the library with me and together we’d read up on the murky history of the Consort Games. There wasn’t a lot to go on but ultimately, it was clear that the Games weren’t supposed to eliminate all of the consorts. They were supposed to be atest. Yes, consorts died sometimes but that wasn’t the point of the Games. These were noble highblood youths, after all. The kingdom needed to preserve them.

“Yes, but those are consorts who work together,” Blake pointed out, to my annoyance. “They aren’t alone.”

“Regan will be alone, too,” I said, tossing my head.

“No,” he said. “She won’t be. You’ll see. You really think you have a chance as a blightborn? If you think you can go in with no preparation and no advantages, you’re stupider than I thought, Pendragon.”

This was much too close to what Rodriguez had said for my liking.

“Fuck you, Blake,” I said. “I took on Visha Vaidya on my very first day, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember her winning and shoving your face into the dirt. And she’ll be there, you know. She’s a potential consort, too.”

That wasn’t the best news.

“She won because she cheated,” I snapped. “I won the first round, fair and square.”

“And what? You don’t think they’ll cheat in the Games?” He ran his hands over his face, as if he was actually worried about me.

“Are you making a similar offer to Regan?” I demanded.

He laughed but I sensed tension there. “Regan doesn’t need it.”

“I have rider blood,” I pointed out. “I might not be a highblood, but I’m not exactly a regular blightborn either.”

I also had one secret weapon I wasn’t about to tell him about.

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