Bound by the Liar's Prophecy

Ziratu’s mentor dies with a gruesome warning, leaving behind a flesh-bound novel detailing how Vashnir, the Silent Arbiter, will soon slaughter Ziratu and her little brother, Kidin. Always cold and calculating, Ziratu immediately implements a flawless, emotionless plan to evade her fated murderer. She fakes an engagement to the cremated remains of a disgraced noble, believing this legal loophole will place her entirely outside Vashnir’s jurisdiction. Instead, her bizarre, deadpan attempts to dodge the deadly inquisitor only convince him she is a dangerous mastermind. Told in alternating third-person perspectives, the story follows their escalating cat-and-mouse game until a ritual glitch permanently binds their souls into an unbreakable, entirely non-romantic investigative partnership. Forced to hunt the city's real eldritch threats together, Ziratu discovers the horrifying truth: the novel was completely wrong. Vashnir isn't a serial killer, but the only man capable of saving Kidin. The flesh-bound book was actually penned by Ziratu's own past incarnation, an elaborate web of lies designed to force this exact partnership. But what terrifying, world-ending entity was her past self trying so desperately to defeat?