Page 89 of Burning Heir

“Your feet never touched the ground, North,”growled Naraic.

The headmaster adjusted his wind-blown cloak as he lifted my arm. “Severyn Blanche wins Skyfall with eleven ribbons.”

Those words did not taste victorious. Not with Naraic bleeding from his torn scales. Alaric was dead. And I killed Delair. What had Idone? Everyone stared, including Archer, whose eyes locked on Ciaran’s protective stance behind me.

A second breath sounded in my mind.His.

The king dug his snake cane into the grass hard, balancing upright. His voice was louder than the faded scoffs of Archer down our bond. “Severyn is disqualified. That is not her bonded dragon,” the king said.

The crowd went silent. I couldn’t tell the truth, not when Naraic was supposed to be dead. The headmaster gasped, realizing a moment too late that the pearl one holding me from falling was. Victory lasted moments before the remaining sixteen riders flew in. Before, I would be stripped of my quell in front of the entire school body.

Like mother like daughter.

Malachi boldly confronted the king with a voice only a blood relative could use. “That dragon chose her. Severyn won.”

“Dragons do not choose between riders,” the headmaster spat. “Doing so would nearly break the bond between dragon and rider. And that creature she rode isalreadyclaimed.”

Pride wasn’t worth dying for. I’d take being disqualified rather than answering why Naraic was alive.

The king surveyed me. Naraic and Ciaran rested together, and I hoped I was the only one who could see their matching scales, that the underbelly of Ciaran was of the same pearl texture as Naraic’s spine.

“They do if their dragons are bonded. Severyn won the race, and I will not strip her of that victory.” Malachi held her chin upright.

Strip. She would not strip me of myvictory. She’d get my life stripped from me if she didn’tshut up.

The king stared at me with a familiar gaze of green, deep-set eyes, yet I could have sworn they were amber before. “Very well,” he growled. The king gripped my wrist, raising my hand in the air. “Severyn Blanche has won the one-hundredth-and-one Skyfall race.” His voice muffled through the ringing in my skull.

This victory would cost my life. I was sure of it.

The infirmary beds were full of riders. Damien groaned in one, leaning against the wooden headboard as he saw me. “I heard you won, congratulations.” A wrap was around his waist with ice packs melted into the sheets. Bruises stained his ribs.

He was broken.

“Hardly,” was all I said, having no energy to explain the events leading after and how pissed I was at Malachi. “How are you doing?”

“The aide says I’m lucky to be walking. I dislocated seven disks in my back and my neck. It will take a week for me to get back on my feet and probably a lifetime of pain,” he said with a groan.

“I saw Everett. He didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“He came out of nowhere and froze Emerich’s scales, and I had nothing to grip onto as I fell. Maybe when Everett died, and you saved him, it did something to their bond. We know nothing about your quell.”

I furrowed my brows. “I wasn’t going to let him die. You were the one who convinced me to save him.”

“I know. You did what you had to do. There is a reason why your quell is forbidden. I hoped I could train you to shield before the Serpent bid, and that offer still stands.”

Something distant and unsettling stirred, and I could feel the change between us—it felt like I’d grown new skin over the weeks, shredded that faux frosted coat. “I’ll be waiting for you to heal.”

He half-grinned. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Sev.”

Chapter Eighteen

I scrubbed my skin raw, scrubbing all that blood off until my palms were flushed red. Surprisingly, the leather vest remained intact even after griffin claws had ripped through the backside. Bruises and wind burns covered my face and aching body. I was sure my blunt land on Ciaran had broken a rib.

I stared into the shattered mirror and finally realized I had won Skyfall, just as my mother had. I always believed we were not similar, and I could never endure what had happened in her past. But the longer I was away from her, the more the resemblance became uncanny.

The air was tight and cold in the hallway as I returned to my room. The lights flickered, stretching into endless darkness. I collapsed in my bed, not knowing I had closed my eyes before sleep had taken claim of my mind, dragging me into a depthless coma. It was Naraic. Our bond had finally snapped in place,enough for me to feel everything he felt. Enough that it took Malachi shaking me to wake up.

Her blonde ends brushed against my face, whispering, “The king has called for you. He wants to have dinner.”

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