Eli charged at Ned. The young Tognir, eyes round with fright, shifted his weight.

“Now, Ned!” someone shouted from the ground. Ned gave a start just as Eli reached him and made to dodge him. Eli threw out his arm, caught Ned across the shoulders and knocked him hard onto the stone platform.

“It’s not fair.” Ned heaved in breaths. Eli leapt up, and Ned glared at him. “How did I get paired with you?”

Eli shrugged. “Gotta toughen up, kid.”

“Don’t let him bully you, Ned,” called Cor. “Just ‘cause he did it to the king doesn’t mean he oughtta do it to you.”

“Oh, shut up,” Eli rolled his eyes.

Cor lifted his head and challenged Eli with a venomous gaze.

“You want to try me?” Eli spread his arms wide and beckoned with his fingers. “Come on.”

Cor glanced between Eli and Ned. He dipped his chin and shook his head, his eyes hard.

Eli raised his brows. “I didn’t think so.”

Eli turned back to Ned and helped the kid off the floor. He was sick of hearing it from the likes of Cor, Ian, Ron, and everyone else who’d turned their backs on him. If anybody was a bully, it was Dom. Dom the prince, who’d never had a mother and had been left free to do exactly as he pleased. Dom the prince, who threatened the nobles with glimpses of his terrible power. Dom the prince, who’d won the hearts of the people and scorned his father’s wishes in the process.

Yet Dom was the one sitting pretty, with all the women in the palace boo-hooing over his nose, while Eli had to put up with the slander of the masses.

Not even Dad would defend Eli, a slight Eli didn’t take lightly. He’d avoided morning meals with Dad for the past several days, and had instead retreated alone to his apartments each morning after training.

It helped, though, to take out his rage during training. It wore him out and dulled the painful edge of his shame, as he could outmatch Ned and all the other trainees with his eyes closed. Most often he trained alone, building his strength with rigorous stone-lifting exercises and improving his stamina with the many turning devices designed to train the fastest swimmers in the kingdom.

Eli turned his gaze back to Ned, who stood glaring at the other end of the platform. Training was dull, but it was better than hearing the sneers and whispers of the nobles. They came to watch him as he passed through the kingdom’s paths and tunnels and made his fall from grace their entertainment.

He hated it. He hated them.

But most of all, he hated Dom.

* * *

Eli couldn’t avoid Dad for long. On another lonely morning traipse back to his apartments from the training grounds, Dad appeared from the shadows between the glowing purple stones lining the tunnel. He beckoned Eli, his aura frantic.

Guess there was no escaping this one.

Eli followed Dad to his apartment, larger and lavisher than his own, but not by a wide margin. Dad led him to the ornately-carved kitchen table and fell into a seat. Eli followed suit.

Dad held his head in his hands for a long moment. There were dark colors making slow circles in his aura, colors Eli knew could explode to bright fury in a heartbeat. What had him so worked up?

“Son, as you well know, our king is a complete idiot.”

Eli snorted.

“However, of all the idiotic things he’s managed to accomplish in his short lifetime, this has got to be the one that tops them all.” Dad let his hands slide down his worn face and drop onto the table. He peered at Eli, all vestiges of calm and control gone. His aura pulsed, spiking here to violet-red, there to bright oranges of vengeful irritation.

Eli shuddered. “Dad, what’s going on?”

“Our king,” he said, emphasizing each syllable, “has gone off and Taken a Kar-Tog.”

Eli stared at him. “What?”

“He’s fallen in love,” Dad continued with a sneer. “He had the nerve to tell me all about it and about what an easy task it was to lure her down here. What he doesn’t realize, of course, is what a hard task it will be to encourage the nobles to support him in this endeavor, no matter how much they like him. Not to mention that I won’t stand for it. I can’t let him do this, Eli. His father…” Dad dropped his head back into his hands and heaved a sigh.

Eli sat stunned for a moment, but his shock gave way to cold sense. It was just like Dom to go do something incredibly stupid like this. “It doesn’t surprise me.”

“This sort of thing hasn’t happened for decades, almost a century,” Dad said.

Eli nodded. Tognir history had recorded the only other instance where a human had willingly become Tognir rather than be sacrificed. She had fallen in love with the King at the time, and no one faulted the King for marrying her—after her transformation had been complete.

Still, that circumstance had also resulted in one of only two recorded Wreakings in Tognir history, when the King’s new bride had put a stop to the sacrifices.

They were not made to court the Kar-Togs. They were made to kill them.

Dad stood. “Eli, I’ve got to protect the Tognir people. I can’t just let him carry on with this. You know what I promised your mother. I can’t let what happened to her happen again.”

Eli nodded, though he watched Dad with more than a little doubt. The way Dad’s colors continued to swirl and flash, now with flashes of blue-white, meant he had a plan.

“You won’t fault me for doing what I need to do.” The frantic look returned to Dad’s eyes.

“Of course not.”

Dad wouldn’t meet his gaze.

What was he going to do? Murder the brat? Eli knew he couldn’t—he wouldn’t. As much as he might want to sometimes.

He moved so that Dad was forced to look at him. “Just keep your promise to Nic.”

“That I’ll do, son.” Dad looked him in the eye now, as if daring him to voice the suspicion lurking in his mind. “That I’ll do.” Dad turned to go into the pantry, but paused and glanced over his shoulder. “And I’ll need you to keep out of it.”

Eli scowled.

“You’ve caused enough trouble already with your lack of self-control.”

“Give it a rest already. I’m doing what I’m supposed to.”

Dad turned to face him. “And you’d better continue to do so. I’m warning you now. Just stay out of it.”

“I can’t get within 20 feet of Dom anyway,” Eli shot back. “If you didn’t want me involved, why’d you tell me?”

“Because you’re the only other person in this hellhole that can see Dom’s utter stupidity,” Dad said. He looked at the ground. “I needed to know I wasn’t crazy.” He came back to the table and sat down. “You don’t realize how much I’ve missed you, son.”

Eli had been picking his fingernails. He paused and looked up.

Dad seemed vulnerable, worn, ragged. His aura painted Eli’s mind with calm, gray melancholy and navy hopelessness.

A sharp pang of guilt cut through Eli. He shouldn’t have avoided Dad like that.

“I’m sorry.” Eli crossed his arms and heaved a sigh. “I was mad at you. I still am. I wanted you to defend me. It was the honorable thing and you know it.”

“Oh, I know it, Eli. You were fighting for me, and don’t think I don’t appreciate that. Don’t think that for one minute.” Dad pulled Eli’s chin up so he was forced to look at him. “But you’ve got to learn that you don’t pick fights with Dom in public. No matter how much more of a man you are than he is, he still outranks you. You’ve got to live up to your own rank even if he’s not living up to his. We’ve seen what happens when you don’t do that. You get yours taken away.”

Dad released him, and Eli looked away.

Dom always outranked him. Always. No matter how good he was, at the end of the day, Dom got the final say. It wasn’t fair.

“I’ve been talking to Dom for you to try and get your Guardianship back,” Dad continued.

Eli’s heart leapt.

“It’s not going too well.”

Eli frowned.

“But just keep doing what you’re doing and don’t get in any more fights. If I pester him long enough, he’ll give it back in no time.” Dad reached across the table and grasped Eli’s arm. “See, I’m fighting back for you.”

Eli looked at Dad, saw his beaming smile, that familiar smile of pride, and smiled back, unable to stop golden satisfaction from welling up in his aura.

Dad hadn’t given up on him. He’d been defending him all along.