"I will go first," Alex said. "And I will be brief."
He looked at Leviathan with the same stillness he had worn since the moment the darkness had closed around them both.
"I remember the humiliation I went through because of you," he said. "Every detail of it. I have not forgotten a single moment." He paused, and something in the pause made clear that what followed was not the concession it might have sounded like.
"But I do not hold a grudge over it. Because I did take victory from right under your nose in the end, and I imagine that earned you a great deal of praise from your King." The sarcasm was present in his voice, the way a current is present beneath still water, felt rather than seen, entirely controlled. "So in a sense, we are even on that account."
He let the faint, almost-smile that had accompanied the sarcasm fade back into nothing before he continued.
