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Sweat dampened my palms. My bandits were next.

Golden light illuminated the athos’s stony expression. Despite the circumstances, he faced the threat with his chin raised. He stared out at the audience, daring them to murder him.

Fortunately, after Kronk’s skillful display with the giant statue, he was a crowd favorite and passed with little issue. Drazen as well. Lucky for him, there were a number of ladies in the audience who found his posturing attractive.

“One spot left, and yet we have two competitors,” Idris drawled.

My heart leaped into my throat, wrestling with the bile I struggled to keep down. The air thickened, pressing against my chest like an iron vice.

Only Runa and I remained.

Kronk and Drazen thrashed in their bindings, calling their sister’s name. Their voices were raw with desperation.

“Blessed goddess, hear my prayer,” Runa whispered, bowing her head. Confessing her sins? Praying it was me that Carcerem murdered? The tremor in her voice unsettled me, threading through my veins like poison.

Then that damned golden light shone down on my head, and I froze. Runa glowed as well.

“What’s it going to be, dear citizens?” Idris chuckled, savoring the moment, relishing the control he wielded over our lives.

“The sorceress…” Runa’s golden beam flared brighter, her expression stark in the blinding light. The bitter smell of her terror wafted in the breeze, fracturing my insides and waking something primal inside of me. It stretched and strained that feral part of me I usually denied. It clawed at my sternum, desperate to be released.Protect her.

“Or the leech…” The king’s energy surged, a searing presence pressing down on me.

I struggled to breathe. This heavy, useless feeling at my center. It was worse than when I’d faced the Council in the mortal world. Again, I was restrained, powerless while others held my fate in their hands. Except this time, I wasn’t alone, having more than myself to worry about. Instead of rage, there was a tightness in my chest, a jagged sensation in my gut. An emotion I hadn’t experienced in centuries.

Fear.

I glanced at the woman next to me, and the sensation sharpened,twisting into something unbearable. The realization struck like a crack of lightning, splitting my world in two. I wasn’t afraid for my own welfare. I feared for Runa’s.

It was the first time I could recall truly caring about someone else’s survival other than my own. An experience I loathed—a weakness I couldn’t afford. And yet, I had no choice. The damage was done the moment this fierce sorceress crashed into my life. Even then, our heartbeats had aligned. And I…

I was the fool who’d ignored it.

Who’d denied fate’s irresistible call.

There were some who spent their entire existence hunting for the gift I’d been handed.

Handed and rejected.

I closed my eyes and strained my ears, the piercing roar of the crowd slashing my sensitive eardrums. Icepicks stabbed my brain. And yet no amount of pain could dissuade me from pinpointing the one sound I craved. The pounding rhythm that called to me above all others. Runa’s racing heartbeat reached my ears, frantic and uneven.

My own pulse pounded in kind. A sledgehammer knocked at my chest. Every beat threatened to crack me open and spill my innards upon the sand for all to see. Faster.Fasterit hammered, sprinting to a quicker pace.

And then, as Idris’s revolting screen projected what should have been a private, sacred moment between two eternal souls above our heads for all to see—I heard it.

I heard it!

The perfect synchrony of our pulses. Two beats, one rhythm.

Duo corda, amor unus, semper. Two hearts, one love, forever.

I’d lived almost a thousand years and never expected to find the one female who was meant to be mine—and mine alone.

The fates had decided, and their cruelty knew no bounds.

Runa Starborn was my mate.

A sardonic laugh rattled my chest, an edge of hysteria clawing at its surface. Of course, she was my mate. Only destiny could be this merciless, binding me to someone moments before we were separated for all of eternity. Given the path my life had taken to date, it should come to no surprise that I would find my mate while the blade of a guillotine’s blade pressed against our throats.