Page 55 of Burning Heir

Grey sludge drained from my hair. It took three washes for my skin not to reek of dirt and whatever else was lying dormant in that lake.

Damien waited by my room after my shower. “Alright, where have you been all night?” A slight annoyance, perhaps concern, tinged his voice as he leaned against my door. He glanced at my sopping hair I’d hastily braided in two, leaving the single strand of my birthmark loose.

How do I tell him? Would he care?Did this mean Damien would always be a part of my life, tied to Archer somehow? Deep down, I felt closer to Klaus than ever.

I uncurled my fist and showed him that swirled relic of flame on my palm. “I got my quell,” I said.

His eyes lit up as he ran a hand through his tousled brown locks. “That is an antecedent relic, meaning you alsobonded?”

I nodded. “You’ll have to teach me some riding tricks.”

Damien let out a loud sigh. “I don’t know anything about griffins, Sev.”

“Well, it’s good that I bonded with a dragon then. I’m no longer in the run for my father’s title.” Speaking it out loud boiled venom in the back of my throat.

Failure. Grief. Loss. Our name would die. And that feeling was utter numbness.

The halls seemed tighter—suffocating as we walked to class. “I suppose I am your student mentor now, huh? Seeing as that quell is used to keep Summer wards strong. Luckily for you, there are two Summer heirs needed. We could both become Serpents.”

I was happy Damien didn’t see us as rivals, but why did Archer say I was in the run for his Father’s title when there was another vacant heir?

“I guess on your next Summer outing, you can finish showing me around the trails there,” I said.

He grinned back. “Does that mean you are finally taking me up on that offer to show you around the academy?”

“I guess so,” I chuckled. “The dragon I bonded with is a cousin of Naraic, my brother’s dragon… His name is… Skia.”

Skia was the first thing that came to my mind. It was also the name of the mountain that surrounded our home in North Colindale. Hopefully, Damien didn’t know his geography. I’d become good at lying—lying in the letter I wrote to my parents and lying to Damien.

Damien had no reason not to trust me. But I couldn’t risk him knowing… not when my mother was stripped for bearing a forbidden quell.

He asked softly, “I didn’t know you had another brother?”

“I have four. Three are alive. Klaus… died here.”

“That’s common for riders to bond with an enigma related to them,” he said. “Most griffin eggs here are descendants from the first year the school was built. Dragons also tend to find familiar bloodlines if their rider dies. It’s called Dragon Roots. I’d bet the flame quell has passed through centuries of your bloodline. Every hundred years, hatchlings branch out and find new bloodlines.” He shrugged. “It’s a strange way of discovering your distant relatives when their dragon roots with yours.”

“Here, I thought I had only iced blood. Hopefully, Bridger will stop trying to kill me.” But I knew deep down Bridger becoming my father’s heir was worse than anything I could have imagined.

“You’ve just entered another ballgame, North. Dragon riders are ruthless. You’ve missed a lot of combat classes. Most first-years should have earned a sword by now. If anyone duels you, you’re dead within seconds.”

I looped my arm with his. “Well, it’s a good thing I have an awesome friend who will bring me up to speed on everything I’ve missed.” I cocked my head, giving him the widest doe eyes I could muster, and it seemed to work. “And you promised to train me.”

“You’re lucky you fascinate me,” he said with a grin. His finger twirled my neval streak. “Not many beautiful riders these days.” We stopped before the warding classroom. His eyes shifted to my lips—or was it mine on his?

Damien was unlike Archer—his eyes held a darker intensity, which I hadn’t thought possible. Archer was the Serpent of Shadows, yet somehow, his brother seemed to inherit all his perfect leftovers.

He huffed as Myla cleared her throat, brushing past us. “She’s sitting with me today, dragon rider.”

Damien smirked. “She’s all yours.”

I grinned, shaking my head before following behind her.

Damien sat across the room with the second-years. I slipped into a seat beside Myla and Malachi. Oddly, Antonia and Alaric were in our row, with Jace strategically placed between them for reasons that were painfully obvious.

Malachi smacked the warding book closed in front of me. “I thought you died last night. A warning is appreciated when you decide to stay out all night after telling me you needed daggers,” she seethed. “I nearly sent every guard to search for you.”

I uncurled my palm to show her the flame relic. “Bad news, I lost your dagger, but the good news is I got my quell.”

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