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I never got a good look at the thief’s face.

He had been obscured by a scarf, his hair hidden under a hood, his eyes downcast. Even his physique had seemed slightly different. But hadn’t he been tall, with a similar frame as Étienne? Hadn’t he moved with startling speed?

“That’s impossible,” I say. “It couldn’t have been him.” My voice sounds flat and distant, as if it’s not mine. But even as I say it, I know the truth.

Hadn’t Étienne created the illusion of Laine during my second test, the exact image of her? Hadn’t I wondered how he could do that, lest he saw into my mind?

This is how he knew. He knew, because he had seen her before.

“But—” My voice cracks, and I have to clear my throat before continuing. “—but why was I his target? What did Thorn want from me?”

Raven’s expression is somber, even regretful. “The role of the gods is to ensure that the universe is always in a delicate state of balance. But the god of Lies is not interested in that balance, nor does he ever want to hand the reins over to his Regent. The gods cannot directly affect the mortal world, so we go through our Harbingers. You.” He nods once. “If Thorn kills off the Regents to those gods he deems his enemies, he weakens us, takes away our successors and those who carry out our tasks, those who maintain balance. Weaken us enough, and he’ll take advantage of the imbalance in the universe to seize more power than he should have.”

Terran’s murder. Soren’s. And now me. Thorn is systematically targeting each of us, one by one. I think of my confirmation, of the way Thorn had sauntered up to me and studied me from head to toe, of his smile.

You can’t hide from your destiny, Harbinger.

Now I understand why he had challenged Raven’s confirmation of me as his Regent. He wanted a chance to either claim me or kill me through the tests. Étienne was always just a tool to do that.

I was always just a mark to him.

My heart feels like it’s breaking. The lingering gazes over a lunch. His little debate with me about love. Handing his silk bracelet to me. He was confident, because he knew I wouldn’t ask the right questions.

A liar, through and through.

Raven studies my gaze, his face tilted down so close to mine that I can feel his breath stirring gently against my skin. “That is why Étienne attacked you in the alley, all those years ago.”

What a fool I am. All this time, thinking that perhaps Étienne cared, that he has been helping me—rescuing me even—because there is something in him that hurts for me. That he even has feelings for me. How stupid I am, for letting myself soften at that. For opening my heart, for considering what he might mean to me.

All this time, it is because I’ve simply been an assignment to him. A long mission. He is the one who had attacked me in that snowy alley. He is the reason why I gave my life for Laine.

The anger in my chest is so visceral that I wince. All this time. All this pain. A fool, for believing a liar.

But—the look in his eyes that day, the genuine anguish and fury.

Could that have been a lie? How?

I meet Raven’s eyes again, still desperate to find an alternate reason. “But—Étienne saved me during my second test,” I say. “I could have been killed. Étienne could have claimed my soul for Thorn. But he didn’t.”

“Because he is in love with you,” Raven says.

Étienne, in love with me.

Love.

Étienne, insufferable and mischievous and mysterious. Étienne, whom I couldn’t stand, yet whom I find myself missing when he’s absent, wishing for his presence and protection.

“That can’t be right,” I mutter, dizzy with confusion at my emotions. But my words trail off at Raven’s expression.

All the fury and heartache in my chest—my rage at Étienne’s deception, my grief for all that I have lost, my fear for what might come—fuses into a single dark, driving force.

I cannot let Thorn win this. I cannot let him have me.

“What do you want me to do?” I ask.

Raven straightens. He is a figure that the shadows want to claim, all darkness and old hurts and unspoken feelings.

“Étienne’s love for you is the weakness that will stop his god from tearing apart the immortal world. It is what will save you. This will be your third and final test.”