Page 148 of Burning Heir

I shuddered as though an invisible rope wrapped around my neck, dragging me closer to the three figures. From beneath the cloak of one, violet eyes pierced into me, her fingers curling in a sweeping motion. She glanced at the third figure.

“Fallon, she has already seen too much,” she said.

Fallon—the third figure was Mother.

Though her cloak remained tightly drawn, the glimmer of those familiar, unyielding black eyes was unmistakable.

“Severyn, my dear daughter.” Her voice was soft, dripping with honeyed venom. She stepped toward me, arms open as if for an embrace.

And it was true. Death always brought us together.

Hot tears streaked down my face. “Why are you attacking the realms? Archer has done nothing wrong!” I stepped back, keeping my distance as her arms slackened and dropped to her sides.

“I was stripped of my existence, Severyn,” she said, her tone sharpening. “Stripped of everything. Those whose quells are deemed forbidden are slaughtered. This cannot continue.”

The woman before me wasn’t just a shadow of my mother. She was the wielder of death, the one whose name was a curse whispered in fear.

I tried to rattle the bond with Archer, to will enough strength through my fear to reach him, but my mind spun helplessly.

“What are you doing here?” I forced the question through gritted teeth.

She raised her hand, and the ground beneath us shifted and sank. A mound of dirt erupted, giving way to a twelve-foot snake that slithered into view. Its dark brown scales shimmered with pointed ridges, its massive form curling across the ground.

It struck without warning, its fangs glinting like daggers as it lunged. Pain shot through me as it pierced my leg.

“Your father will die, and I will be nothing but a titleless widow,” she hissed.

“You—you can call snakes,” I whispered hoarsely, staring at the ungodly creature before me. Its yellow eyes were cold and calculating, and its brown scales shimmered with a grotesque familiarity.

“I should have told you when you first found it,” Archer said. And that’s when I noticed its left eye was scarred.

I knew this snake.

The golden egg hidden in my room months ago had grown tenfold in size.

“You kept it—”My voice cracked through the bond.“You knew.”

This was the lindworm that claimed me on Winter trails. It had chosen me to face it in battle, and Archer had known. He had known since that night when he found me in my bedroom.

My mother laughed—a sound so soft yet sickening.

“And you will kill it and claim a title, Severyn. The lindworm is the final trial. Kill the snake and become a Serpent. It has already chosen you, my dear.”

Her words slithered over me like the beast itself.

“A certain Night leader will be punished if I release it. It’s nearly treason to harbor one.”

He lied.

He had kept it on his land all this time. Archer had lied.

I couldn’t pierce through wyvern scales, let alone this beast. I couldn’t kill the lindworm when my quell barely simmered in my veins. I was daggerless, defenseless, and my leathers were shredded.

A faint spark flickered in my trembling palm, yet the force was so weak I doubted it would ignite a wick.

The lindworm hissed and struck again, fangs sinking deeper into my already-wounded leg. Blood pooled beneath my shredded slacks, staining the earth red.

The blood of a Herring would spill tonight.

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