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Chapter One

SACRED ARBOR REALM

RUNA

“They’re gaining on us.On foot! Can’t that infernal beast go any faster?” I shouted at Kronk, the muscle of our trio of bandits, as we raced along a narrow cliffside.

Shadows shrouded the winding trail. The only light was the glow radiating off a molten river that waited for one of us to make a single misstep. Heat seared my cheek, and the horse beneath me shied away from the threat. A quick glance at the chasm below had my heart quaking in my chest.

The Blood River Bandits had been in some pretty tight spots over the years. As bad as our situation was, this was nowhere close to the worst.

And I would keep telling myself that.

Seated on the bench of a bucking wagon, Kronk snapped the reins against the back of the strainingbula. “Yah! Move yourstubborn ass, you horned bastard, or I’ll carve you into steaks and have you for dinner.”

The massive bovine responded with a defiantmurrr.

Given Kronk’s considerable weight when he was in his athos form, I couldn’t fault the bula’s insolence. Athos were naturally bulky and muscular, even more so when they shifted, lending Kronk the strength of twenty men. His gritty flesh turned to stone, covering his heavily muscled frame. Kronk, unlike me, was also impervious to harm from weapons and fire.

Lucky bastard.

Guiding his trotting horse beside mine, Drazen, the third member of our macabre trio, cut me a critical glare I was all too familiar with. Fiery light from the lava pit gleamed off the onyx horns that curled over his skull, making the infernus appear especially demonic. Like Kronk, he too was impervious to the flames that spiraled across the pool. Infernus were born in fire. Lived it. Breathed it. Worshipped it. Did untold things with it in their bunks at night that I didn’t care to analyze.

“I thought you said they would all be in the temple,” Drazen barked, accusation in his tone.

The angry mob of Dark Cultists who chased us—with pitchforks, no less—was not my fault. How dare he criticize my plan? These mutton heads would be lost without my leadership. Anger swarmed like a nest of widow wasps inside my ribs, or perhaps it was the heat from the flarking lava, melting me from the inside. Either way, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with my brother’s crap.

“It’s not as if I can predict when a monk will take a piss,” I snapped. The intel I’d stolen directly from the head priest’s mind was spot-on. With my goddess-given abilities, I’d uncovered the cultists’ schedules, blind spots, and weaknesses along with the location of the temple vault. As a sorceress, what I couldn’t do was to predicthowthis simple plan would go to hell. Though it didn’t come as a surprise. I worked with idiots, after all.

I dragged a sweaty strand of lavender-tipped hair out of my eyes. “At least I’m not the dunderhead who blew our cover.”

Kronk’s massive shoulders hitched at the reminder. “It isn’t my fault that my dress was too short.”

Behind the sheen of sweat slicking my forehead, my pulse pounded. “I stole those robes to help us blend in. Why didn’t you wear the pants?”

“One does not wear pants under a dress,” Kronk answered with an imperious scoff.

I gripped my reins, itching to wrap my hands around his thick neck. Not that I had any chance of spanning its rocky girth. “For the last time, it isn’t a dress,” I grated. “And since when are you an expert in fashion?”

When Kronk had hiked his leg to climb into the cart, everyone, and I meaneveryone, saw far too much of the athos. I felt sorry for the females of his race. Although other athos considered Kronk a runt, what hung between his legs was truly terrifying and also out of place among the Dark Cultists. Apparently, the monks were all eunuchs. Who knew?

Before Kronk could reply, the cart’s wheel smacked a rock, nearly tossing him out of his seat. Our stolen bounty bucked against the wooden bed, and the lid of the stone sarcophagus popped free of its base.

“Careful, you buffoon,” Drazen shouted. “Damage the payload and we’re screwed.”

Kronk snarled back, the too-short hem of his robe flapping in the breeze, baring parts of my brother that couldn’t be unseen. “I cannot damage something long dead. What does Vex want with a pile of dusty bones, anyway?”

“Why does Vex want anything?” I screeched. My panic-driven voice annoying, even to my own ears. “The bastard’s a sicko.”

Vex, leader of a local gang of cutthroats, was a knowncollector of oddities. He was also someone you didn’t want to anger. If we didn’t need this payoff so badly, we never would have taken the job. Too many thieves had cut deals with Vex only to go missing.

Drazen glanced back at the bellowing mob, their roars intensifying as they drew closer. “Can’t that slovenly beast of yours move any faster?”

“Bula are not built for speed, but for strength,” Kronk defended.

“Kind of like you,” I scoffed, smirking when he shot me a granite glare.

Mature sorceress I was, I stuck out my tongue in retaliation.