I frowned but he merely smiled and pointed to the front. Byron was studiously avoiding looking in my direction; his focus was fixed on the Carnegie official who’d just appeared from the tunnel.

‘Clan competitors!’ the official called.

It was difficult to hear him over the hubbub and he wasn’t throwing his voice. Byron held up a hand and everyone fell silent. I bit down the temptation to start chattering loudly to Angus, not because I wanted to annoy Byron but because the naughty child inside me would do almost anything to get his attention. What was wrong with me? I wasn’t a lovesick teenager; hell, I’d never been like this even when I was a teenager. I hated myself ‒ but I still wished he’d look at me.

‘To make the final round as fair and interesting as possible,’ the Carnegie official intoned, ‘we are going to weed out the chaff. Only the leading competitor from each Clan will be allowed to compete in the Acumen challenge.’

My brow furrowed. ‘Did he really just call almost fifty Sidhe nobles chaff?’ I murmured to Angus. ‘That’s brave.’

There were a lot of grumbles and hissed complaints. A lot of people were extremely annoyed and I didn’t blame them. If these Games were all about the honour of competing against your peers, a lot of Sidhe had effectively been tossed into disrepute.

The Carnegie official was oblivious. ‘Unless you are the sole Clan representative, you must leave the area,’ he said, without a trace of emotion.

I shook my head. They just didn’t get it. They harped on and on about honour and how important it was, and in the next breath they made it clear that unless you were in with a chance of winning, you might as well not participate. I was surprised that they didn’t chuck out everyone apart from me, Tipsania and Byron but perhaps that would be step too far even for this lot.

The discarded competitors filed out. When Jamie passed me, he raised his eyebrows and said, ‘Good luck.’

That was nice of him. Obviously, Byron hadn’t shared his insights about me with the rest of his Clan. Unfortunately Jamie’s friendly overtures were followed by one of the Scrymgeour competitors hissing something about wanting to see my entrails pulled out.