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The heat was delicious. It seared through his bones, through sinew and muscle—contained by this weak shell that had bound him for too long. He needed to break free. Do as his goddess commanded, and tear out the star’s little heart.

Star.

His thoughts, unwieldy as they were, snagged on that one word. It was like a distant flicker in the darkness, a point of calm amidst this tumultuous sea of rage and bloodlust. He tried to rip himself from it—it was a distraction from his mission.

But he could not look away.

He did not want to look away.

Alder…fight this! Come back to me!

Those were not the words of his goddess and master, they were?—

Alder shook his head violently. The darkness disappeared, his vision cleared, and he was gazing across the rubble, at her.

Josephine.

She was lying on her back upon the floor, crying—why was she crying? And his cousin was kneeling over her as Josephine tried to hold the blade in Evora’s hands at bay.

“Alder, please…” Josephine cried, looking only at him.

Her eyes were so blue, like the summer sky and deep as the sea. He remembered that she’d never seen the sea until they’d been crossing the moors by Peressian.

That he had wanted to take her there.

His thigh suddenly burned white-hot, he cried out, and darkness consumed him again. He was drowning in it, blood and black, and he found himself looking for that little light again, the place of calm.

It’s what she’d been in his life, since the day he’d met her.

Light. Hope.

A chance at a new life. One that he wanted to spendwith her. But he didn’t know how to get back to her…

And then so softly he almost didn’t hear it, that little light broke through the darkness again:Alder, please come back to me. I love you.

“Alder, please come back to me…I love you,” Seph wept, arms trembling as she struggled against Evora’s blade. Her words seemed to fill that chamber of death, and an unnatural stillness followed.

Alder stopped twitching. The symbol upon his thigh faded, and it washisthigh. Human skin—not stag or depraved. His face was his again, his bare chest rose and fell with a slow, deep breath, and the little branding on his skin flaked away, like ash.

The Fate screamed.

A bolt of green light shot out of her hand and struck Alder square in the chest. Alder’s eyes snapped wide open, in surprise, in pain—pain that knifed through Seph’s heart—and he fell still.

Seph knew he was gone.

No…

She screamed and, in a burst of strength, she shoved Evora back, jumped to her feet, and ran at the Fate. She didn’t care that this creature was a goddess andshea mere mortal. No, Seph was fueled only by despair—but she’d only made it three paces before the Fate waved her hand, and Seph was knocked aside by a punch of air.

Seph landed hard on her shoulder, wincing and writhing in pain, but before she could climb back to her feet, an invisible force lifted her into the air. She hovered there, sobbing, with her toes just brushing the floor. She didn’t have the energy to fight anymore. To survive. To her right, Serinbor lay on the floor, unmoving, a handful of bone-masked kith dead or unconscious all around him, while Evora struggled to stand.

The Fate stopped before Seph, her expression void. “You stole my pet. I had such high hopes for him.”

“Youmonster.” Seph’s voice broke.

The Fate cocked her head to the side. “Monster, am I? Shall I remind you why my sister cursed you all in the first place? You had everything in the world, and it wasn’t enough. You wanted more. You wanted to beus. And so I am here to give you what you have always wanted. You no longer need to answer to Demas or Ava.Iwill be your god, and I will let you pursue whatever your heart desires, little star. There are no limits to your passions, under my rule, and if you give me what I want, I will let you keep your life in my new world.”

Seph wasn’t really listening to the Fate, not anymore, because her mind was still hung up on something the Fate had said:Whatever your heart desires, little star.