Page 68 of Burning Heir

Seven souls. Archer had seven keys. Meaning a life would have to be lost for me to save one.

It all sank in. Guilt and shame reefed my insides. “I have to go.”

I ran from that room, from the walls that seemed to suck me in further, from his eyes that held onto me with such might I could not bear another second.

I was simply a vessel between life and death. I ran to Naraic, dropping to my knees. My hands pressed into the dirt as I met his violet eyes. He already knew my whirling thoughts but still nuzzled his sharp snout into my chin.

“Who am I to say should live?”I’d gotten better at speaking only through the bond.

“Perhaps those lives should not have been taken in the first place.”

“Do you think I would have bonded with another dragon if Klaus were alive?”

Naraic was silent for a moment.“I do not.”

“Why?”

“We knew you would come. There is no reality where Klaus survives. I know the names of each rider who will choose me, living and unalive. I knew you were next. I just didn’t know how exactly.”

“You knew? Klaus knew?”

“When a dragon is born, we have roots. Every hundred years, a new root grows… every hundred hatchlings have a choice. Our bloodlines are tied. I did not know how you would find me. I just knew you would.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You will someday. When you are ready to understand.”

Damien waited by the fields for our private lesson, dressed in traditional Serpent Academy black and green. The breeze picked up, yet I sensed summer would be in full rein within the following days.

Picking through my mind, Damien gave me a tight-lipped expression. “Do you want to talk about your conversation with Cain?” he asked, placing a clipped sphere in my hands.

“No. I’d rather spar until I can only think about my sore body.”

Damien cocked his head. “And you choose sparring to be that activity? I can think of other ways of getting hot and heavy that don’t involve a knife to your throat.” He twirled the dagger in his fingers. “Unless you’re into that.”

“I’m not in the mood to pretend flirt. Not when the Serpent Bid is in a month, and I have yet to keep a single dagger in mypossession during combat.” I pressed the dagger’s soft side into his chest, forcing him to step back.

“Pretend flirting?” Our daggers clanged as he lunged forward.

I grunted. “Yes. We kissed, and you now pretend like it never happened.”

Within a second, the dagger was against my neck, his hazel eyes burning into my gaze. I held my breath as his other hand gripped my wrist. My back slammed into a tree as he skimmed the blade along my neck, not hard enough to draw blood.

“Do you want me to kiss you?” he mused.

Damien never scared me, but the look in his eyes was more primal. “Not like this.”

“Your mind begs to differ. I’m a man of class, Sev, but my thoughts of you are more crude than the fable you’ve made about us in your mind. I’m not willing to risk a rider bond forming between us.” He leaned in, and our breath formed as one. “You are always lost in thought.” It was a complete topic change, but I was too annoyed to be embarrassed.

I watched his knee bend, bracing to pin me down. My spine scraped against the bark, jerking as his dagger tore through the air. I quickly swung at his leg, and a curse broke our feud of huffing.

“I don’t care about a rider bond. I want you, and I don’t know what you want.”

My heart pounded.

If my mind were my setback, I’d engulf every thought in violent flames. I would breathe in smoke through every word spoken to me.

“You clearly know nothing about rider bonds and how they are formed.”

---