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I wonder if I pull off the ring whether they’ll stay true to what the doctor had told me – that I wouldn’t be allowed to view the trial.

I know these Aureliansthinksuch measures are for my own protection, but I hate all this. I don’tneedprotection from the Aurelian Empire – not from the three devoted, beloved warriors who I’m Bonded to.

What Ineedis my triad. I need them to know it wasn’t me who disrupted the Orb-Drive. I need them to know I’m ready to give them everything they wanted from me.

"This way," one of the Elite guards finally breaks his silence, speaking in a dark, forbidding voice. We’ve touched down in front of a huge entrance. I follow the Elites – mydishonor guard, I suppose you could call them – into the coliseum. We pass through looming stone hallways until we finally reach a towering set of gates that open to the arena beyond.

I gasp as soon as I see them.

My triad are there, in the middle of the arena – on their knees in the rough sand, with their hands cuffed behind their backs. They can’t sense me through the Bond, but the thousands of Aurelians watching this spectacle gasp as one and turn their countless heads as I step through the gates.

My triad struggle to turn their heads so they can see me.

I see the betrayal in their eyes.

I can’t help myself. What have I got to lose?

Iwrenchthe Orb-Ring off my finger, hurling it to the sand. Before they can stop me, I run past the Elite guards, out into the sand of the area. I run to them – my triad. Myloves.

I don’t get far. Within seconds, one of the Elite guards grabs me by my collar, yanking me back through the gates.

“No! You willnotinterrupt.”

But without the ring on my finger, the auras of my triad suddenly flood back into my mind.

It’s like coming home, having them back in there…

…but coming home to find your house ransacked and robbed.

From their auras, I can sense that Hadrian and Kitos are wounded. Not physically, but deeply in their soul. Daccia’s aura has that characteristic calm to it – as if he’d been expecting me to betray him all along, and now he’s just accepted the inevitable.

“I’m so sorry,”I telepath desperately.“I didn’t disable the Orb-Drive this time. It was my sister! You have to believe me! I don’t want to hurt you!”

Relief suddenly floods through the auras of Hadrian and Kitos – followed quickly by an overwhelming sense of grief.

They already knew they were going to die in this sandy arena – where countless Aurelians have killed, died, and been judged for millennia.

They’d been facing death with resignation – thinking that with my betrayal, they’d had nothing left to live for, anyway.

Now, having communicated to them what really happened – by reaching out to them and letting them know that I cared for them as deeply as they cared for me…

Suddenly, I’ve given purpose to their lives…

…just moments before those lives are taken away from them.

I’ve given them the poison of hope.

Only Daccia’s aura lights up with light.

“One moment more, feeling your aura, is all I needed,”telepaths Daccia, and I feel his presence in my mind, massaging my being, feeling my deepest thoughts.

I look up at the place of honor. There sits Queen Jasmine, surrounded by her Emperor and his own triad. They’re looking down at us imperiously. Behind Jasmine are her sons. They range from young adults to Aurelian babes barely out of infancy – and yet they all stand like a silent army.

I count at least twenty. Jasmine has given birth to twenty strong, proud sons.

With a sob, I realize that could have been my life – if I hadn’t so foolishly run from my triad.

Jasmine looks down at my triad. She raises her hand up, and the crowd falls quiet.