Page 120 of Burning Heir

“Prey.” I took a step back as he drew closer.

“I won’t hurt you.”

“Are you prey?” I gripped the dagger harder.

“I am. I heard your mind, and I followed you here. I waited by your room this morning, but Malachi said you never came home.”

I shuddered. “Well, I’m sure you have an idea as to why. I don’t quite have a large circle I can trust right now.”

I didn’t have the energy to throw a shield up. Damien was in my mind, clawing over my visit with Estella… and probably where I had slept the night before.

He looked up at the night sky. “Listen, I’m not your enemy. You can trust me, Severyn. We need to survive this trial and claim what is rightfully yours.”

I shook my head. Then, one of those beasts’ paws slashed across the barrier. Damien grabbed my wrist and pulled me deeper into the Night realm as a seven-foot-long black creature with jutted grey horns stepped over the border, leathery wings extended from its hunched spine.

“We aren’t safe here. Run!” yelled Damien.

The wards of Night had fallen.

Damien unsheathed his sword, and we ran as fast as our legs would take us. The creature was gaining speed. Jaws snapping. Two more came from the other side, pinning Damien and I back-to-back. Those yellow eyes stalked around us in a circle, drool dripping from their engorged canines.

“Damien—” I swung the dagger as one of the creatures lunged for my chest, and I sliced it across the jugular. “We can’t kill them all!”

We were trapped.

Damien slashed his sword. “Hell no, will I allow a beast to kill me.” He held his palm toward the sky, and a thousand glass shards formed like floating crystals in the air. He twirled his fist and sent them flying at the beasts, striking them each in the chest.

They roared—but gained us enough time to take off.

I reached for the red-handled sword I’d won from Callum. I swung hard, clipping the broad shoulder of one.

“We’re going to die here, Damien!” I yelled over thrashing claws. Liquid night drowned me in a pool of midnight sky, searching for any safe place to run.

I flung my simmered palm out, barely scorching the second beast to my left.

Damien pressed his spine into mine, and we walked a slow circle. “Do you trust me, Severyn?”

I panted, “Not exactly.” There was no point in lying to him, not when my mind was screaming the truth. “Iwantto trust you.”

He scoffed and grabbed my shoulders to face him. A million shards of glass whirled around us until we were portaled through the fury. A few cut me, slicing my knuckles and cheeks in a prismatic kaleidoscope of fragments.

Speckled light surrounded us, shattering off the mirrors of glass in every direction until we were both standing on the sands of Summer. It took me a moment to adjust to the sunset above. I skimmed my palms down my entire body, expecting glass to be lodged into my skin.

He touched my bleeding cheek, and a ripple of pain shot through his flared eyes. “Are you okay, Sev?”

“I thought you said portaling someone else was dangerous with your quell?” I snarked. “We just traveled through glass!”

Damien looked almost as surprised that I was in one piece. “I said I’ve never tried it with anyone else. It was either that or us getting mauled to death.”

I gaped. “Next time, we travel through a flame, and we’ll see if you survive,” I hissed.

“My apologies, yourmajesty.” He shot a smug look at me, even daring to bow. I smacked him across the shoulder.

“I have a hundred reasons to be pissed at you, don’t make it a hundred and one.”

We began to make our way down the trails. Blades at the ready.

“I don’t believe I’ve done anything wrong, Severyn.”

---