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Runa looked in my direction, eyes wide and panicked. She searched the spot where I’d stood with Zetas. Another crack of heartbreak bled in her stare. Biting her lower lip, she dropped her head, white hair cascading over her cheeks, hiding her tear-brimming eyes.
“Runa!”
“She can’t hear. Can’t see. Can’t know.” The air wriggled through my ear like an icy worm. “She asked. You asked. Rivoza obeyed.”
“I didn’t ask you to stop me from protecting her!”
“You did,” air replied. “This is us protecting her. Protecting them. Protecting all of them.”
Solin cleared his throat, speaking in an even stricter tone as if his throat was closing over every letter. “Runa has been chosen by the fire. Aktor is chosen by birth. Together, the blood of our lineage will continue.”
Zetas whimpered as she shot out of the grasslands. Her nose skated over the ground, chasing my tracks, confused and lost.
My back blazed from the angle the air kept me bound in. My arms craved to wrap around the wolf and give her solace, but Solin choked. “The chief and Fire Reader have always been blooded, for that is how the fire communicates with its chosen.”
Runa turned as white as Natim’s ivory belly, and two fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked up, trying to catch Solin’s eyes. “Please, Solin. Please, don’t—”
But the Fire Reader wouldn’t look at her as he dropped his attention to her hand still trapped in Aktor’s. His voice broke as he chanted, “By blood, soot, and fire, you are trothed to become one. By bone, smoke, and flame, you share one heart as it is done. No other will break this bind, just as no death will leave a lover behind. Your rule will be rich and long, your mating blessed with two spirits who belong.”
No.
It’s not possible—
Aktor suddenly screamed, bending forward and tripping into Solin. His poultice-wrapped leg gave out beneath him.
Runa’s back snapped straight as her lips parted in a silent cry.
“No!”
Solin leapt back as Runa and Aktor fell together, their hands entwined, their fingers glowing red, locked together by magic weaving its awful spell.
“Runa!”
The clan’s voices swelled like a wave. “Blood, soot, and fire, they are one! Bone, smoke, and flame, it is done!”
I lost myself to violence.
I thrashed.
I bucked.
Pain I didn’t know I was capable of feeling sliced through me.
Aktor’s harsh shout wrenched my head up as he yanked his hand from Runa’s, looking at his palm where joint blood smeared. Holding up his hand with a mixed look of triumph and trepidation, he revealed to his people the ash-drawn symbol like the one that’d been carved into Runa’s.
Two bison horns with a flame transforming into a sun.
Cradling his bleeding palm with his other, he glanced at Runa as she stumbled to her feet.
She shifted away from him, nursing her own bloodied palm, her skin stained with what Solin had done. Shaking her head, she looked at the cheering clan. Her amber eyes were dull as ochre; tears dripped over her eyelashes as she shook her head again and again.
The clan hushed enough for Solin to cup her shoulders and murmur just loud enough for all to hear. “The betrothal blood bind now flows through both of you. Through the power of the fire, your hearts now pump to the same lifeforce. You aren’t just bound; you are one.” He shuddered; no signs of joy on his weary face. “It cannot be undone. You will be mated the night after the Aium festival.”
The roar that ripped through the clan hurt my ears.
They celebrated Runa’s imprisonment as if it were her throne.
I groaned as agony tore through me.
I’d thought the Spirit Master wanted her for himself.
Yet he’d pledged her to the very male who’d tried to take her without consent. The male who’d held a blade to her throat and made her bleed. The male who’d strangled her and—
I fought with everything I had.
I was a wolf.
I was fang and claw and horn.
“Soon, Moon Mast—”
“NOW!” I snarled.
Food was thrown into the sky in jubilation. Younglings were hugged and swung around in wild glee, and feet drummed the earth, rising dust amongst their ankles as they all celebrated the nightmare that had just been given.
My bones popped as I wrestled and no longer cared how I would get free.
I would kill anything that got in my way.
I would strangle the wind and rip out the throat of fire.
I kicked and rolled and snarled.
With tears streaming down her white-washed cheeks, Runa stared at the spot where I broke apart.
I froze.
I shivered violently.
I felt her despair from here.
Felt her fear, her grief, her pain.
I groaned as every part of me howled.
Zetas suddenly sat up and raised her snout to the moon.
She made the sound I couldn’t—her haunting call ringing out over the foot-pounding, happy-dancing crowd.
Runa glanced at Zetas.
