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“But hot,” her sponsor says, appearing out of thin air as he squeezes her ass. She shrieks and playfully bats him away. “I’ll be putting you in the sluttiest outfit I can find once the king gives you to me.”

I roll my eyes.

“How did Coraline get a sponsor that can teleport?” I whisper to Sofia, who has shimmied to my side as we walk down the shoreline. My boots are waterproof, but I can feel myself sinking into the sand as water sprays on the back of my legs, drenching my pants.

Arwan gives me a kiss on my brow. “She’s not the only one,” he whispers before darkness unfurls around him, and then he’s gone, too.

I blink a few times when I spot him reappear up on a stage closer to King Njord and some of the royals who are corralled around a spherical screen. The visual seems to be flipping through various feeds as they jeer each other. Arwan ignores the group and heads to one of the velvet-draped tables that’s housing strange crystals.

“I’m more worried about Ferra’s sponsor,” Sofia says under her breath. Renalt joins Arwan and gives Sofia a wink.

“Which one is he?” I ask, keeping an eye on our sponsors, who very much seem to be up to something.

And where is Godric?

Sofia nods her head at one of the larger shifters. Not a hybrid, but clearly an Alpha from another pack. He wears a different emblem that seems to have blood streaks on it, and while he has the face of an angel, his gray eyes have a wicked gleam.

“Apparently, it’s allowed for rival packs to sponsor candidates of their choice. I don’t even know how he met her, but he looks downright cruel.”

“Just like Ferra,” I observe as he marches right over to her and places a rough kiss on her mouth.

Ferra returns his kiss with just as much ferocity, then pulls back and grins at the rest of us as she tugs a blade from her thigh. “May the best match win!” she cries, sending the other candidates and sponsors cheering.

I’m not even sure what she means by that. The goal is survival, not a competition for which sponsor and candidate make it to the castle first.

Based on Ferra’s look of glee, this very much is a competition, one she intends to win.

Ignoring her, I turn my attention back to Arwan and Renalt, but they’re no longer where I last saw them.

Where’d they go?

The air shakes with thunder, and I look up at the sky, searching for an approaching storm, only to find wispy gray clouds and nothing else.

When it happens again, I realize the thrumming sounds are drums, and I scan the shoreline until I see flickers of shadows across the long expanse of cliffs and rocky ground. There’s a single castle towering in the distance like a dark beacon.

The Deadlands.

“There’s something surrounding the castle,” I whisper to Sofia, and she squints her eyes in the same direction but must not see what I do, because she remains silent.

“Candidates, sponsors, ladies, and monsters!” announces a host, earning a cheer from the crowd. “We will count down to the opening of the portals, but for this year’s special event, Monster Isle will save the best for last.”

King Njord emits a sound, one that is eerily like the hum of Arwan’s tower, as the sky darkens and the strange beats continue to emit from a distance.

I don’t like this, I think as I curl my fingers into fists. I don’t have any weapons, just my vials. After all my practice with Godric, a knife can much more easily be turned on me, and I should rely on my sponsors as well as my vials, and my wits, to escape danger. I can’t overpower the number of monsters that Godric thinks are going to come after me.

I’m going to have to run. My fingers itch for the vials I intend to down as soon as no one is looking. I’m going to need every edge I can get.

The king’s blank gaze finds me, pinning me to the spot as he grins.

Best for last, his invasive voice repeats inside my head. I absently scratch my arms as if a hundred ants have found their way underneath my skin.

“Did you hear that?” Sofia asks me.

I stiffly nod.

I don’t even want to know what he means by that.

“Sponsors, take your place!” King Njord bellows as his voice continues to whisper different words inside my head.