Page 119 of Burning Heir

I turned onto my back, staring at the ceiling. “Tell me about Night. Distract me. I can’t rest knowing half the school plans to hunt me down once they find out whose blood I have.”

He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, his other hand lightly tracing the edge of my flame relic. “I didn’t think you were serious about a bedtime story,” he mused.

“Please. Tell me about your home.”

He saw the anxiety in my furrowed brow and sighed before speaking. He described the plains of shadows, the crystal mountains lining grey grass, and rivers of violet threading through the city. His voice softened as he spoke of owls hooting in wispy trees and the youngest heir to claim the Serpent title when his grandfather surrendered it to him.

And as I listened, the tension in my body eased, though the fire Archer sparked within me remained, smoldering just beneath the surface.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Frost coated my lungs as I ran through the Winter trails.

The entire estate would be used for the Trial of Malice, but we could not use our enigma to fly, and not that I wanted Naraic in this bloody mess, but even my flame would not spark in this dry cold.

“Severyn,” Knox yelled from the woods, and I hid lower behind the frosted bushes as he thrusted his sword—fresh blood coating the tip. “I know you’re here. You can’t hide from me.”

I gripped my bloodied arm where he’d swiped me an hour before. Thankfully, the falling snow concealed my trail of blood.

A hand clutched my mouth. I turned to face Antonia as her dagger was tight against my throat. “Scream, and you’re dead,” she whispered.

I nodded silently, eyes attuned to the cakedblood on her chin.

I saw Alaric in her eyes; his last words clung to my breaths, yet I knew this wasn’t the time.

She got to her feet, kicking frozen dirt at me as she yelled after Knox, “She went over there.” Her finger pointed further down the trail.

Antonia saved me when I did not deserve any kindness from her.

I gripped two daggers in my fists as they ran through the forest. The headmaster had referred to this as the Trial of Malice. But my brothers called it prey and predator, a childhood game I’d played growing up. The students were split in half, each marked as prey or predator. Each predator was to hunt and kill a student from another realm. But prey, we were told anyone was free game, including our own house. We were told the longer we survived without wounds, the greater our chances of being bid on was.

I never believed Father prepared me for this—but he’d planted the seeds of succession even when our vocabulary was limited. We’d played games as children, not knowing our sticks and stones would turn into daggers and swords.

Knox wanted to kill me. Perhaps I read power so differently in everyone that nothing surprised me. Even Knox needed to prove himself, and his stunt with the headmaster nearly cost me my life… but I’d seen his eyes and knew no light shone through them, and whatever held him was darker than Archer’s shadow.

This wasn’t a trial but a game—Knox had no idea whose blood ran through his veins.

They hoped we’d kill each other before the Serpent Bid, and every secret that was starved down was too weak to fend, to crawl up from whatever silent cave it was buried under.

Knox was a pawn in someone else’s game, and I wondered what was promised to him if he’d asked Monty to take the light of his soul to endure the pain of killing me. Priceless seemedfeeble right now—priceless was whatever Knox was fed to believe killing me was worth it.

I’d gotten flashbacks of us playing as children in the woods. But instead, victory was doing the other’s chores for the week.

Knox always won.

The cold wind wholly swept through and into my bones. I took off through the woods as my joints began to numb. Left would take me to Spring, but right would lead me toward darkness and into the Night realm. My quell would be useless if I got near that hot spring. I was running, not into the light of Spring shining through the trees, but into the darkness and to where I believed sanctuary was many weeks before as I went through this same trail.

The night crawled with me, consuming the trail with every heave of my breath. Soon, I became shrouded in that familiar blanket of cool shadow.

I caught my breath as I leaned against a cave, knowing the darkness was deceptive. My head jerked forward. Knox wasn’t the only predator, as howls and hisses sounded from the forest. I gripped my daggers as yellow eyes stalked me from the trails.

I had to keep going. I struck my flame as I went through the slicked trails. Those beastly eyes walked with me, waiting for me to take one step over and kill me.

I took it back. I didn’t care to see the Night realm, not when my heart was in my throat, and I could barely see my next step.

A figure approached, and I could barely make out Damien’s features.

“Severyn,” he called. A slick of sweat dripped from his brow as he caught his breath. “Are you prey or predator?”

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