Page 76 of Burning Heir

I did not bow as I said, “I’ll take the red sword if I win.”

Callum surveyed me, eyeing the daggers along my thigh and ribs. “You have nothing that I want. All those daggers are basic and easily found throughout Verdonia. Although, I’ve heard theSerpents are more keen to speak and bet if they recognize their home dagger. This sword was my first one. Said to have been wielded by the Forgotten children a hundred years before.”

I drew the flame back. “I must have something you desire, Callum.”

Frost licked his lashes, eyes turning pale as snow. “Put in a good word for your father at the Serpent bid. Not that his opinion matters, but to have his daughter brag about me… Gods, that will be something.”

“Fine.” Flame boiled in my guts from that barter. I needed a sword, and I wouldn’t win them all—not when it would take another few weeks for me to earn another dagger. Weeks I didn’t have.

Frost coated his fingers, traveling toward his elbow. An icicle struck from his palm, pointed and deadly, like the ones he’d used on that helpless shell I was weeks before. He held it high, aiming straight for my heart. A chill sucked down my lungs. Callum veered left as Damien had warned me, and I dove opposite, dodging that first blow that split a tree behind me.

My flame grew twice in size, reaching above my head in a whirl of ash. I snapped it at his chest, branding a mark along his t-shirt. The ice melted in his hands with a simmering hiss.

“Does Damien know you’re screwing his Serpent brother? Saw you leaving his room the other night,” he seethed. “But I’m not surprised. A girl like you gets everything she wants with a smile. I don’t think spreading your legs was necessary.”

I heard his words—heard them but could not process them beyond the rage that filled me to the brim with fire.

Fuck him.

Snow fell onto my forehead, melting with a hiss. “My father could create avalanches with his quell. A snowflake is hardly enough to stop a dozen beasts from attacking your realm. Might I suggest practicing more? How about it? Ward against ward.”

His voice was hoarse as he raised his hand again. “Did you believe that was all I had?” The temperature dropped—only for me. It seemed every bone in my body was set on ice. My blood slowly froze. Legs numbed and stiffened as they wobbled to a defensive stance.

My fire dulled, frozen in a blaze. Then, all at once, not a single spark ignited.

“When you give up, scream my name this time. Fuck, that was good,” he growled.

I was losing, but at this point, I might have been dying, and it was that same bitter cold I’d felt as I collapsed on the Winter trails. My fingers greyed, fearing they’d snap with one twist of my knuckles.

A distant breath sounded in my mind.“Is that all you have? Oh, Severyn, I thought you were dangerous.”

It was Archer.

That bastard was speaking to me through our bond.“Klaus would have burnt his toes off by now. What does it take to bring that flame out? Is it anger? Because I will piss you off if that is it.”

“Try it,”I screamed in my head. I didn’t care if Damien heard. This was life or death.

My fingers wouldn’t budge. My throat seized, frozen from the spit in my lungs. A crystalized gleam of ice splintered toward my elbow, like a lake growing that first layer of hardened frost.

“It’s not working,”I cried in my mind.

“I didn’t want it to be you.”

My chest tightened as a single, jarring, heated pulse echoed through me.

“Because I am weak,”I asked.

“Because you are his sister, and I try to hate you more every day because you will never be him, but I am reminded that his blood runs through your veins. You are his last shred of warmthcapable of making me feel something other than despair. Wield the damn flame, Severyn. Wield it now, or I will force it out of you through any means.”

“How?”I cried.“Do… I wield it?”

“I could turn you on. Even the sound of my voice ignites you.”

Another blow of ice hit my lungs. “That won’t work.”

“You could leave my bedroom in my shirt again. But we’d actually fuck, unlike the rumor he just spread about us.”He dared to breathe down our bond again.“Does that heat you, Severyn? The thought of you and me alone.”

“Not in any realm would I—”

---