Two blue lights.
One labeled STEN.
One labeled AMRIN.
Both resting directly atop one another.
100% MATCH.
My mouth fell open.
That—no.
That had to be wrong.
I had to imagine that emotional resonance programs like the one we were using could be notoriously dramatic.
Students joked constantly about this project from Professor Franco.
Some even suggested that trying to pair couples on wild calculations was just as reckless as waiting for the Fates to pick a mate for you.
But still—warmth spread slowly through my chest anyway.
Because deep down?
I wanted it to be true.
I wanted something in this impossible terrifying magical universe to finally choose me back.
Witches technically didn’t experience fated mates the same way some supernaturals and Monster species did.
At least, not exactly.
But Asgarheim changed things.
Professor Kenna herself had warned me.
The Fates love games.
My thoughts spiraled instantly.
Maybe Sten and I really were written somewhere in the stars.
Maybe that impossible magnetic pull between us wasn’t just lust or loneliness or me desperately projecting meaning onto the first male who ever made me feel beautiful.
Maybe—a bell rang loudly overhead.
I startled hard enough to nearly drop my tablet.
Then someone slammed into my shoulder.
“Watch it, fatty.”
Ice flooded my spine immediately.
I turned.
And there he was.
