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“Tending to you, oh, fierce and mighty warrior.” She slapped a sudsy cloth on my back, making me flinch. “Does this not please you?”

Twitch. Not at all. “I do find it pleasing when those beneath me know their place,” I dared to taunt. Soapy fabric smacked my face, and I whipped the offending cloth away. Fire stung my eyeballs, and I tilted my head back at Runa.

“Do you have an issue with the servant tending to me?” I asked, genuinely curious as to her response.

Runa sputtered. “No, well, yes, but no.” She stiffened. “Of course, I have a problem with people being treated like slaves.”

“And yet, you allowed her to assist you too.”

“That’s different.”

“Is it?”

“Men are such idiots, desiring women who will wait on them hand and foot.”

“You think this is what I desire?” I had no interest in brainless simpletons. In the past, I’d courted educated females with impeccable bloodlines and solid social standings. If our liaison would further my own agenda, all the better. Females who were nothing like the little thief.

“Don’t you? Shall I wash your hair next, oh, mighty lord?” Runa simpered, resuming her role.

“Absolutely not.” I’d no desire to have it yanked from the roots.

“Don’t you trust me?” she purred.

“Have you given me a reason?”

“You don’t trust me, and yet you let that female sit at your back.”

“The servant wasn’t a threat.” Runa, however…

Angry fingers threaded through my damp hair and pulled. Lips brushing my ear, Runa snarled, “And now thatIam sitting behind you, what does that make me? Friend or foe?”

It was an excellent question. One I shouldn’t answer.

Instead, I angled my chin, offering the sorceress my throat. “You tell me. Do your worst, little thief. If you dare.”

Strangely, it was both an insult and a compliment. I’d little concern the minx would kill me. After all, we had an accord. Runa was many things. Foolish wasn’t one of them. I had something she needed.

Twitch.Fates, save me. Not you!

For a moment, the sorceress seemed to consider my offer, and something deep inside quivered, eagerly awaiting her response.

With an angry splash of her legs, Runa slapped her hands down on my head and shoved.

Water sloshed over me in a deluge, shooting up my nostrils and burning my sinuses. I surfaced with a roar to find my attacker storming away. I studied the furious swish of the sorceress’s generous hips, not hating the view.

Despite my anger at being dunked, a smile cracked my lips. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d had this much fun while my life hung in the balance.

Chapter Fifteen

RUNA

After a sleepless night,the morning of the trials greeted me with little sympathy for my exhaustion and far too much fanfare. After being paraded around the amphitheater in the back of magically driven chariots, the “fallen” currently stood within the sandy pit.

The stands surrounding us were filled to capacity, forming a cage of flesh and bone. My eardrums trembled from the onslaught of the cheering crowd. The roar was almost too loud to bear.

None had ever described me as shy or reserved, and yet I struggled with the need to curl inside of myself. Far too many eyes peered down at me, measuring my value, determining my worth.

Over a lavender gossamer shift and ass-baring briefs, I wore a corset trimmed in glittering crystals. My long hair had been twisted into spiraling curls, and a beaded circlet rested across my forehead. On my feet were a pair of sandals with straps that crisscrossed the length of my calves. Instead of the skilledsorceress that I was, I’d been made to resemble a delicate sheep anxious to be slaughtered.