Winning the Legend
you
want, just make sure you don’t run out of blood.” Arianna walked
over to the buffet. That was all she needed to say, and it was
better turn her back to the men in order to avoid their stares and
eventual questions.
    “That’s not fair,” Nik complained from his
spot across the room. “That favors the day human.”
    “No one said I have to be fair,” Arianna
responded, turning back around to answer him. He was actually
pouting. What self-respecting nineteen-year-old pouted?
“Remember—head of the family here making decisions.” Arianna
pointed at herself. She couldn’t help talking to him like he was in
grade school, particularly if he was going to act like it. Arianna
turned back to the food to keep from laughing in his face. No one
said she had to make any of the competition fair.
    “What numbers make it through this part of
the competition?” Jan asked, standing close by as he was already
going through the buffet as well. His night human strength came
from blood as much as calories. The draugur night human form
depended on blood to do things such as walk through walls, but the
increase in size and strength come from calories.
    “To be number ten or under,” Arianna
replied, moving down the line right after Andrew.
    Jan was soft spoken,
despite being such a large man. He was already in competition mode.
Being the oldest of the group, Arianna expected him to be the most
focused, but it just made everything more real. Arianna snuck a few
glances at the large, blond-haired man next to her. Jan was older
than her by over a decade, but he didn’t look his age. In fact, he
didn’t look much older than even the younger competitors. He didn’t
openly gawk at her like most of the men, but was focused on filling
his plate with food. When they reached for a spoon at the same
time, Jan motioned for her to take it and avoided what other men
would have used as a good opportunity to touch her accidentally. Surprisingly, Jan wasn’t as detestable as she first assumed
due to his age; not that she wanted to be with anyone but Andrew,
of course.
    Arianna walked over to an empty table to sit
down to eat. Rhys’ retainer immediately stood and pulled her chair
out for her since her hands were full. The retainer bowed his head
and waited for her to be seated before moving away. Arianna was a
bit surprised by such gentlemanly ways for a night human, even if
she had heard that the sidhe night humans valued honor above all
else. Andrew sat beside her, and warily watched as Rhys and his
retainer joined the line of people getting food.
    ‘I don’t trust him,’ Andrew complained. In reality Andrew didn’t trust
anyone in the room beyond her team.
    ‘We don’t need to trust
them,’ Arianna replied, biting into the
heap of pancakes before her. ‘We just need
to follow the plan.’
    ‘I know,’ Andrew replied. The plan included letting things
proceed until they got rid of all the retainers. ‘I just hate sitting around here while everyone
gawks over you. You are mine and always will be. I will never hand
you over to one of these gawking idiots, especially not the
vrykolakas brat. He needs to learn a few lessons.’
    Arianna smiled up at him as
she grabbed a strawberry off his plate. ‘Three weeks is all you have to put up with it,’ Arianna replied. Andrew offered her another one
rather than having her go back up to the line and stand near the
vultures waiting to get close to her. ‘Thomas has everything worked out to three weeks. Can you do
that?’
    ‘Without stabbing
someone?’ Andrew was serious, but Arianna
laughed. Several of the men turned to watch her. She was even more
captivating when she was around Andrew. A bit of anger slipped
through Devin’s mask.
    ‘What?’ Arianna asked, without looking across the room but focusing
on her food. Devin didn’t reply. Arianna already knew what was
making him mad. The men who were all at odds were drifting closer
to her at the center of the room. She was like a

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