Except she didn’t land, her body stopping a foot or so off the ground, her body frozen in midfall. All at once, the eagles disappeared, Jereb’s eyes flashing open.

And Perfidy threw her last stone.

Jereb’s eyes widened just before it hit him square in the forehead, glancing away. He blinked, going slightly cross-eyed as he watched the stream of blood flowing between his brows and then onto the bridge of his nose. He made a noise like “uh?” and then fell back.

“Turkey’s gizzard!” Perfidy said, losing her own concentration as her body slumped to the ground. She righted herself and reached Jereb’s side a moment later. He looked up at her, a goofy smile on his lips.

“You did it,” he said. “I’m happy for you.”

His eyes closed and he lost consciousness.

“Julio!” Perfidy shouted, just as she felt a third gold leaf appear on her face, right smack in the middle of her forehead, about where she’d hit Jereb with the stone.

“Will he be alright?” Perfidy asked, feeling slightly queasy knowing she’d been the one to put Jereb in this state. It didn’t matter that he’d told her to throw rocks at him, nor that his black eagles had been attacking her while she’d done it. Because in the end, the battle had already been over when she’d thrown that final stone, her relentless need to win the only thing that had mattered in that moment.

Seeing him like this, helpless and pitiful, lying in bed with his head bandaged, made her want to throw a blanket over her own head.

“Of course,” Julio said. “A wound like that isn’t much for those who partake of godsblood each day.”

“He might be even better than before,” Aliza intoned. When Perfidy gave her a questioning look, she said, “If you jarred his brains enough, perhaps he won’t be such a stick-in-the-mud all the time.”

Perfidy might’ve found that funny if she didn’t feel so awful about what she’d done.

Nearby, someone stirred, but it wasn’t Jereb, just Clemmy finally shaking off the ill effects from Aliza’s poisoned quill. “What’d I miss?” she asked, digging the sleep from her eyes.

“The usual,” Aliza said. “Perfidy got her third gold leaf and tried to kill Jereb. She failed. Probably.”

“I didn’t try to—” She stopped herself, taking a deep breath. “It was an accident. We were trainin’ an’…”

“Congratulations on the leaf, honey,” Clemmy said, though her words didn’t match her expression, which looked downright despondent. “And don’t worry about Mister Jereb. If someone doesn’t get knocked unconscious during training, then we’re doing something wrong. Just look at me!” If she was bothered by the fact that Aliza had put her to sleep…again…she showed no signs of it. Would Jereb be as forgiving when he awoke? Perfidy didn’t much care, so long as he did wake up. She’d take all his anger and unforgiveness if it meant he was alright.