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I’ll have my head cut off in the Arena of the Gods, broadcasted to the universe. There’s nothing I can do to stop it.

If she’s willing to use the Planet-Killers on worlds filled with humans, she’ll use them anywhere I set up a home. Anywhere my men gather will be blotted out of existence.

“There are no conditions.” Doman’s pitiless gaze pierces me. “Surrender, Obsidian, and tell them to lay down their swords. It’s over.”

I pull the drones down lower. They are linked to my mind. I thought the surgery and my mastery of the Rift would win me this war.

I had no idea what they were willing to do.

I could set the drones against him. I could pull the Reavers from their bays and have them fire down death on this triad.

But if I did, the Emperor and the spider of a queen would do things to me and my Mate I couldn’t dream of. I threatened her. I told her I’d torture her spawn for eternity in the Rift.

It was a bluff, to keep my Mate safe.

But ifshehad that power, she would use it against everyone I love.

I pilot the drones down lower to get a view of my surrender.

“I surrender to the Aurelian Empire. I beg mercy for my warriors, who followed a false God.”

“On your knees.”

He glances down at his smart-watch as he speaks, and I understand. It’s not him. He’s a conduit for his parents, and they want my humiliation to be complete, so that no one will ever confuse me for a God again.

I drop to my knees. I can’t fight this. I can’t fight an enemy willing to annihilate trillions of lives in an instant. Not when I was killed in front of the universe, shown to be nothing more than a mortal. My armies would splinter off, even if I tried to rally them.

“I surrender.”

“You will come to Colossus, to answer for your transgressions. Along with your Mate.”

I look up at him, with pleading eyes, and his Mate squeezes his arm. With a grimace, he glances down at his watch, then backto me. “You have my word, Obsidian, your son and your Mate will be safe. I pledge it, by my authority as Crown Prince of the Aurelian Empire.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, because I know that came from him, and not his mother’s orders. He’s making a public statement to force her hand, so that even as I am slain, my bloodline will survive.

Doman points to his Reaver. The door is open. I glance back at Fay, whose aura is screaming in my mind. She endured so much, a captive of my enemies, and now she will lose me.

My son will be safe.

“Stay back. You can only make this worse,”I telepath to her. She ignores me, walking over the black sands to me. Side by side, we go into the crown prince’s Reaver. Titus follows us, and barks the order to get into the cell at the back of the ship.

“We can’t escape. Please, Titus. The queen mother can’t see us here. You don’t need to throw us into a cell,” says my Mate, her voice soft, without an ounce of resistance.

Titus looks at me, then to her, his amethyst eyes trailing over my son. He swallows. I know his anger. With a scowl, he points to one of the bedrooms. I go in with my mate, into the sterile whiteness, and the door locks shut behind me.

“Fay...”

“Shhh,” she says, and we sit on the bed together, feeling each other in our minds, the terrible ring gone from her finger, and then, the mighty War-God, the man who killed thousands, who led fanatics, a man raised by wolves... I am all those things, but they melt away as I sit silently by my Mate, and the tears flow freely from my eyes that have seen too much.

She cradles my head against my lap as I weep, her touch so much more than I deserve.

47

ADRIANA

“Will they truly be safe?” I glance back at the hallway, which leads into the bedrooms.

“The public word of the Aurelian Empire is at stake. They will be safe,” answers Gallien, but his aura is fraught with trepidation. The human queen and her Imperial triad have gone far beyond his darkest predictions. This is uncharted territory, and my own life hangs in the balance.