Page 112 of Burning Heir

My legs throbbed as I dropped down from Naraic. The afternoon sun hung below the clouds. Ciaran and Naraic flew away mere seconds after we had touched the docks. I tugged at the leathers clinging to my clammy spine. There were a few awkward seconds between Archer and me as we walked down the docks silently and toward the academy doors.

“You have a trial in two days, Severyn. I hope I do not have to drag your body from the bottom of an ocean again,” he said.

I spun to face him. “Does that mean you’ll kiss me again?” My fingers slacked at my sides. We were nearing the Night hallway, and those halls seemed narrower, or Archer was closer to me than Damien had ever been.

Archer scoffed, and a shadow pinned me to the academy’s wall. He got close. “Severyn Blanche, I am your Serpent mentor. If you were anyone else, you’d be dead.” Shadow dusted to ashas my palm raised. “You’re against me for combat tomorrow. Try not to moan in your sleep too much.”

The door clicked open with a flick of my wrist. “I intend to do just that,” I said, whisking into my room and closing the door. I still heard his soft breaths through the iron. I waited—hoping he’d come inside.

It was only empty thoughts with no substance. But then, the crush of reality weighed on my shoulders. Damien had lied to me. It was more than despair… it was suffocation. And starving those feelings would take a while to shrivel. Archer and I couldn’t exist within these walls. He was a Serpent, and I stayed a naïve first-year.

But it was that soft knock behind me that made my bones melt. I knew that knock too well, and it still sent every nerve in my body on overdrive.

I opened the door, meeting Damien’s grin. He shifted his hands to the pocket of his slacks, and of course, he wore that shirt I liked on him. Of course, he’d come here minutes after I had arrived back.

And I swallowed hard as I let him in foolishly.

I mustered up my best shield. Tightening that flame around my mind as he stepped closer to me. “Hello, Damien,” I said.

“Where did you go for three days?” he asked. “Are you hiding from me?”

I could feed his satisfaction with the truth. “I was in Ravensla with Archer. I met Kian and your father.”

This seemed to shock him. I got the feeling he wasn’t used to being kicked out of my mind, but slowly, that brute force halted.

“You flew to Ravensla with Archer? That is a big trip, and Naraic is still injured from Skyfall.” He smiled. “But I’m happy you’re home.”

I know what you did to Everett. My jaw clenched, withholding the passion, the fury in my blood to yell at him. His eyes glanced at my bare neck, and that smile halted.

“Your pendant is gone,” he said.

I acted surprised, widening my eyes. “Shit, it must have fallen into the ocean.”

Hurt, pain, and anger flickered across his face. Had Archer gotten it wrong? There was no way he could be this cruel and lie this convincingly.

It took everything in me not to embrace him because, as much as I dreaded this moment, my heart yearned for it. But my fingers began to tremble, just as my father’s had when warding became too much. I knew, at any moment, the fire encasing my mind would simmer. I steadied my breathing because one heavy exhale would blow out that ash.

Damien brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, and slowly, that ash crumbled into shattered glass. “Is that all?” he asked.

And then he shoved himself into my thoughts, and gradually, I felt all those moments I had lived in the past three days slip out of the wall of fire I’d built. Some parts were missing, the spoken words blurred, but everything was there: his father’s attacks on my mother, Kian gaining his shadow, the illusionist masking as Klaus. A scorpion hissed at the final moment, even causing Damien to step back. His wild eyes burned, not with rage but with desperate curiosity.

“I’m impressed, Severyn. You held that shield longer than before.” He released that strand of hair with a grin. “I’ll be here at dawn to walk you to class, as always. We’ll need to do extra training for the trial in two days. Most first-years use those days to train their quells, but I suppose you aren’t like most first-years.”

He turned on his heel, pausing at the doorway. His grin widened. “Shadow quells cause nightmares. You may want to burn a lantern while you sleep.”

My lungs begged for air as I collapsed onto my bed.

Fuckingmind readers.

The following day, Damien did as he said. At dawn, he stood by my door, waiting as twilight streaked the sky. I dressed in warmer leathers, strapping knives to various limbs, including the two daggers Archer had gifted me. I grinned at Damien in silence as we left for warding class.

Professor Cain stood at the front of the classroom, drawing a large circle of chalk on the blackboard. His movements were deliberate, each line precise. Then, he turned to face us, his gaze sharp.

“I need volunteers to protect the circle,” he announced. “Severyn, would you care to defend it? Myla will use her ice quell to break through. It’s always fascinating when opposite quells clash.”

I nodded, stepping to the center of the room. Myla joined me after a few beats, the tap of her leather loafers echoing on the stone floor. Closing my eyes, I pictured the circle in my mind, every line burning with intent. I raised my fingers toward the blackboard, drawing a flame tight around the chalk, each curve outlined in fiery precision.

My tether wavered as Myla flicked her wrist, shards of ice pounding against my fiery fortress. Ice collided with flame, steam rising in spirals as our quells waged war. But I held my ground, flames flaring brighter with every strike.

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