Page 86 of Burning Heir

“Brantlyn,” Alaric hissed low, dodging another dagger. “This is a race, remember.”

“I know those scales,” he hissed at me. “You’re a freak,pigeon. What kind of black magic did you do on that beast you ride? Tell me, or I’ll consult the Malvoria guards, and I know the commander isn’t afraid to rip forbidden quells from the students here.”

I didn’t know his name until now, yet he wanted to kill me. I should have listened to Archer. Fuck, I couldn’t think of him right now.

Brantlyn aimed that next dagger at my heart, and Naraic’s wings were already pressed against the stone with nowhere to fly.

“He’s not a freak,” I said as Naraic smashed against the rocks as the dagger flew past us, nearly grazing his entire left wing to the bone. “He is mine, and I am his.”

“Leave her and race,” demanded Alaric. “Severyn has done no harm to you.”

“I think I’d rather kill her before she burns the academy down,” he said, thrusting another dagger at us. “I watched that dragon die two years ago.”

“No!” yelled Alaric as he lunged through the air, taking the strike in the stomach.

He met my swollen gaze as he crashed into the sharp abyss below. Seconds seemed like minutes as he gripped the bloody handle. He stared up at seemingly nothing and then shifted his silver gaze at me.

“Toni’s going to kill me… if I survive.” He tried to lean up, but a sphere was punctured through his shoulder.

“Alaric, I’ll save you!” I cried. “Don’t move.”

“Tell Toni… I love her. That I’d choose her if I could go back,” he said. “Please, Severyn. I need you to tell her that.”

Then, a sound that mimicked death itself sounded through the crisp air.

Brantlyn’s dragon was caught between the barbed crystals, screeching as its talons tore into stone and spheres.

“Naraic, we need to help Alaric!”

“Your humanity is not greater than your life. You do not carry his burdens. Nor his sacrifice.”

Alaric screamed at his silver wyvern. “Let me die! Release the bond so you can survive. I won’t be your last rider.”

I always thought an enigma bond was for life, but I wondered if Klaus had demanded Naraic release the bond before he drowned. If those were his last words.

Naraic roared a breath of deadly ash, cindering Brantlyn until only charred bones clung to the dragon’s spine.“That redhead was rather annoying, don’t you think?”

And Malachi had warned me three deaths were normal during Skyfall. And I had witnessed each one.

Alaric’s wyvern tore through the spheres, shredding its scales along the path before taking off into the sky. I felt the punch in my throat, the stillness as we glided out of the labyrinth.

“Does that happen often?” I cried. “He released his bond!”

“You will never see that again in your lifetime.”

“Klaus never—”

“I had no choice.”

“It nearly killed Ciaran,” I said out loud.

“I did it tosaveCiaran. This is more than a promise to protect. Ciaran is my other half. She is my sister, hatched in the same egg. We are one. Our bond is unbreakable. I ensured Ciaran and that rider of hers would live. I released the bond to find you. Dragons can only bond to the blood of our fallen riders. You were chosen the moment Klaus took his last breath. Klaus knew you were coming. Most dragons prefer to break the bond once a rider naturally passes. Our blood has been synced since before you were born, North.”

A shadow swallowed us whole. Above, a crack of moonlight fractured the darkness, its pale glow the only source of light. Naraic’s scales shimmered faintly, a constellation of silver beneath the scattered stars. Below, a restless grey sea battered jagged rocks, the crash and hiss echoing like a mournful hymn.

Shrieks rose from the forest ahead—sharp, hollow, like whispers torn from a nightmare. The overgrown path twisted into the black.

My stomach churned, a queasy knot tightening with every wing beat.

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