hand, and begin the last assessment of the day—hand-to-hand combat.
Again, he returned his gaze to the floor, studying the wavy paths of woodgrain in the boards beneath his feet, counting the rings, each one a different story, a different age, a different year. No matter how he tried to distract himself, the sinking feeling just grew, as though the platform had begun to melt, sucking him down and down and down so deep that the air was stifling.
But he wouldn’t look up.
Couldn’t look up.
Refused—
The room erupted in a deafening roar of cheers.
Rafe’s shoulders caved in, and he looked up.
Ana stood in the center ring, her sword at the Princess of the House of Prey’s neck, wings pearlescent in the rays shining down the center of the arched dome. The winner. Tied for overall first place for the girls.
With that, he knew she was thinking the same thing as he—that, if put on the spot, her choice of mate wouldn’t have the gall to say no, not to the daughter of Aethios, the most prized match he could ever hope to make.
And she was right.
Xander would never say no to the offer.
Xander, the Crown Prince of the House of Whispers, who would walk up to his new mate and slide off his mask to reveal his face on the final day of the courtship trials.
Xander, not Rafe.
A fist clenched his insides and tore everything out of place, leaving him off-kilter as he followed the other princes to the center of the floor. Rafe shook his head, trying to clear his brain as he slid his twin blades from the scabbards on his back. Nothing had ever felt more comfortable or more natural in his hands than those worn leather hilts, and yet his fingers were numb and his arms heavy as he waited for his first opponent.
An easy match.
Yuri, the second son of the House of Paradise.
Rafe lucked out, because if he’d started with anyone else, he wasn’t sure his muddled instincts would have been up to the task. But by the end of that first fight, his focus had returned. Because this wasn’t about a willful princess, it was about Xander. And that was whom Rafe kept at the forefront of his thoughts as he turned to face his next foe—the hummingbird prince.
Xander, who needed a mate.
Xander, who needed a win.
Xander, who deserved to be happy.
Xander, who was relying on him.
And, well, Damien, who needed to have that smug smirk cleanly wiped off his face.
Rafe spun the blades in his hands, loosening his wrists. Damien stretched his smaller wings, violet feathers glittering in the sun, far more lethal than they looked since they made him fast. Impossibly fast. Little more than a blur as the bell chimed, signaling the fight to begin.
Rafe dropped to his knees immediately—downward being the last direction most people would suspect a bird to go—and rolled, anticipating his opponent’s charge. A whiff of air hit his cheek, the narrow miss of a blade’s edge, as the hummingbird prince attempted to strike. Rafe shoved his weapon up, metal ringing as the sword found a shield. A string of vibrations coursed through his arm, but Rafe ignored the sting and launched into the air. Damien followed.
The gods, he’s fast! Rafe silently cursed as he searched for the prince, blinking as a flash of purple caught the corner of his eye and spinning toward the blur. He held his swords in an X, stopping the prince’s blade a moment before it struck true. This time, his entire body reverberated with the blow. The hummingbird wasn’t playing. If Rafe hadn’t realized it from the strength of his hit, he knew it from the seething light in Damien’s eyes as the prince hovered for a beat before yanking his sword free.
This wasn’t a game or a test.
It was a battle, through and through.
Rafe snapped his wings closed and dropped ten feet, escaping the swing of a shield, an attack the prince wouldn’t neglect to attempt, obvious as it was. Before Rafe had time to balance his weight, the prince was there, dangerously swift, swinging his blade. Rafe kicked the center of the hummingbird’s chest, using the momentum to soar out of the arc of his weapon.
Think.
Think.
Damien was fast, but Rafe could be faster. He could be better.
Then he heard it. A gentle buzzing sound filtered into his ear, growing louder, into a—
A hum.
A hum!
Rafe widened his eyes as the realization hit, twisting toward the sound just in time to lift his