Page 121 of Burning Heir

I scoffed. “I know what you did to Everett during training. I know you only sought me out because of my neval hair. And that pendant you gave me was only to spy on me, Damien.”

“Point taken—the Everett thing was wrong. And your neval hair only piqued my interest because they werehunteddown when I lived in Basilyne during boarding school. You were this mystery to me. No offense, but a fragile female from the north didn’t strike me as terrorizing. I gave you that pendant to ensure no onetriedto hunt you down. I took it too far, Severyn.”

“Well—” I cut my words short as Malachi stared across the trail. Blood dripped from her chin, her sword. She slumped her shoulders back, nearly collapsing into a pile of leather.

Predator. Predator. Predator.

She dropped the sword with a loud clang at her feet, face paled with one look at me. “He came after me. I had no choice, Sev.” Tears clung to her, and I saw that gash down her arm. She’d been attacked. “I killed him.”

“Who came after you?” I asked, already feeling the sting in my eyes. I knew. I knew whose name she’d cry next.

“Knox—he isn’t right. Knox is dead. He’s dead, Severyn.”

Knox was dead.

My body numbed. “Where is he?” I screamed, blinded by instant hot tears. I grabbed her arm. “Where is Knox?”

“Spring.”

I turned so quickly to face Damien that the wind slashed my cheeks. “Portal me there, Damien. Now.”

“Severyn, it’s too dangerous. Our quells are weakened there. I hardly know how to portal myself without slicing my own skin up.”

“I don’t care. Portal me. Now.” I swore I saw the shadow Knox lay in calling to me.

Damien nodded, gripping my shoulder as that same glass whirlpool spiraled around us. Shards of light and shadow sliced my skin like thorns this time. It was a ravenous pull, dragging me in, and for a moment, I saw myself in the shattered mirrors—the bloody, bruised girl in the bath, her wrist broken. An eagle-eye view of despair.

My sobs echoed through the fragments, a haunting chorus trapped in the void.

“You knew I was safe,”Archer called, his hands pinning my body to the wall.

Clipped glass mirrored a wall of daggers, seizing moments from time—moments I didn’t recognize, captured through another’s eyes.

“Is this where Monty touched you?”Archer’s voice was distant, pitched within the void of stolen time.

Damien had seen every moment of my life when he gave me that pendant.

Damien shielded my face against his chest. I flung back, crimson streaking my vision, metallic and heavy. Blood was everywhere, dripping down my cheeks, my arms. I screamed, prying a slivered shard from my hand, swinging left and right. My leathers were unscathed, but Damien… he’d taken most of the damage. A large gouge ran from his brow toward his eye.

I didn’t have time to ask if he was okay. I spun in a full circle. “Knox?” I screamed, my plea desperate, the sound echoing among the roots and vines. Only two hearts beat within their grasp.

Damien held his bloody eye, pointing to the bushes. A body lay curled there, a hand limp on his chest. Knox’s face was pale, lifeless. I ran, my steps frantic.

“Knox, I’m here!”

There are sounds capable of waking sleeping griffins. When feathered cries pierced the wards, I felt like I had died a little.

“Severyn, everyone is watching you. Do not save him.”Archer’s voice rang in my mind, distant yet resolute.

“I don’t have a choice.”

Our bond went cold the moment my foot sank into Spring’s mulch. Delicate florals waved in the breeze, scattered sunlight spilling through wispy leaves above. It was a trap—I knew it. The king wanted me to save him, to let the Serpents watch the live-action unveiling of my forbidden quell. I was the finale, the spectacle. The student who rose from the shallow grave of bramble and vines.

I’d wake more than griffins. I’d wake death itself.

“You’re too close to the hot spring, Severyn. Your quell won’t work here,” Damien yelled, stumbling after me.

My life or Knox’s. Either way, the Serpents would learn the truth. I gripped Knox’s face between my palms, whispering, “A Herring’s blood will not be spilled today.”

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