Both women looked amazed.
"That's not reasonable," Amanda said thoughtfully. "The best one loses. What does the other one get?"
"I will keep that a secret for now," Bastian said harshly. "You both are free to perform badly if you want to. That just means that I will not reward either one of you."
He smiled to soften the blow of his words.
"I don't think you are in a position to question him," Anasta said, blowing her nose on a napkin. "You have made him look at you in a different light already. We…we can't go on like this, Amanda. We need to make this count."
Bastian thought smugly of the reward he intended to give to the winner.
