Once we arrived, Chloe went straight to find Alaric. I was left behind, drifting through the crowd with no direction.
From somewhere nearby came voices, low and sharp, pressed down to keep from carrying.
"Have you lost your mind? You tampered with the brakes just to stay near Chloe? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
The name stopped me mid-step.
I knew the speaker too. Dorian Thornmere, Alaric's closest confidant. The last time, it had been their conversation I'd overheard by accident, the one that cracked the world open and handed me the secret that changed everything.
And now, somehow, I had stumbled into another.
"I don't know how to race. If I don't rig something, this identity will collapse sooner or later."
Dorian's fury was barely leashed. I could almost feel the heat of his anger through the wall between us.
"Even if you can fool them now, you can't fool them forever. Alaric, I know you love Chloe, but she is your brother's mate. You have your own life. Do you even know what Hazel has been going through for your sake? I just saw her. She's being worn to nothing. She's a good woman. Five years of mating, and you feel nothing at all? A wolf should cherish the one standing beside him. You need to let this go."
Silence filled the gap between them.
A long time passed before he spoke again, voice low and stubborn as iron driven into stone.
"Give me three more years. Just three. Let me finish this dream. After that, I'll go back to Hazel."
I couldn't help it. I laughed.
Alaric, you don't need to come back.
I'll leave on my own.
From now on, however long you want to play at being Caelan Nightfang, it has nothing to do with me.
I turned, still smiling, and walked toward the stands. I didn't look back.
I had barely settled into my seat when the roar of the crowd swelled through the arena. Racers entered one by one, and among them was Alaric. When his turn came, the cheering surged higher, wave after wave crashing over the stands.
Chloe sat down beside me. Her gaze was fixed on the track, but her words drifted toward me as though they'd slipped out by accident.
"Big sister, you shouldn't keep sinking into grief over Alaric's death. You really should get out more." Her voice was light, almost weightless. "Some things are just fate. Think about it. Your mate and my mate were on the same ship during the storm-tide, and yet yours is the one who died. Mine survived."