Page 130 of Severed Heir

Damien’s smile turned venomous. “Why don’t you tell Severyn what really happens at those gatherings? How many women threw themselves at you in a moment of weakness?”

“Damien, stop.” I flicked an ember at his boot. “I get it. Archer had a life before me. But I don’t want to talk about our damn sex lives.”

“He went to a gathering while you were in Malvoria,” Damien shot back, chin raised. “Another secret?”

Archer’s jaw ticked. “I didn’t mention it because it doesn’t matter.”

I was ready to scorch his other boot, but Damien was the only one who’d heard my mother’s voice. The only one who might still hold answers.

“I don’t care,” I muttered.

“It was about your father’s shield, Sev,” Archer said quickly. “That’s it.”

Damien stretched his hands toward the fire, the flames casting flickering light across his face. “Our father made one thing clear. Whoever claimed his title would be bound to a daughter of the Winter Serpent. Archer knew that. And he kept it from you.”

My stomach tightened. “YouknewI’d be forced to marry him?”

He exhaled, jaw tight. “Yeah, Sev. I knew. But once I was sorted into Night, I thought it didn’t matter. Not until I met Klaus.”

Tears stung my eyes, but I swallowed the ache. “You should’ve told me.”

His gaze dropped. “Nothing I say now changes what I did.”

“It would’ve been nice to know,” I said quietly.

He shifted, bracing a hand on his knee. A dagger slipped from his belt and landed in the mulch with a dull thud. “Because now that you’re my heir,” he said, voice low, “the cycle begins again. And I won’t let it.”

“What cycle?”

“I don’t want children, Severyn.” The words cracked as he said them. “Not in any realm. I won’t bring life into a world where duty demands blood. I won’t pass this down.”

My breath caught. “Since when does this involvechildren?”

“Since you became my heir. A life with me means no legacies. No heirs. I decided a long time ago if I ever took the throne, I’d never marry someone I couldn’t give everything to.”

I didn’t know if I ever wanted children. Didn’t know if I longed for a pair of emerald eyes that mirrored mine, untouched by the weight of legacy. I’d already lost a brother. Already lost pieces of myself. What was left to pass down?

Damien sank to the dirt, brushing off his sleeves before leaning back against a fallen log.

“And guess what I did instead?” he muttered. “I got to know you. We became friends. I wanted marrying me to feel as easy as breathing. Then you ran off and hooked up with my brother at your scandalous little Ravensla getaway, and it all went to shit.”

“Not that it’s any of your concern,” I said, voice tight, “but all we did was kiss.” The words barely made it pastmy exhaustion. “Might I suggest we get some sleep?”

“Silence sounds wonderful,” Archer muttered.

Damien chuckled. “Not when you’re bonded to a mind-reader. I tend to ramble in my sleep. Could get awkward.”

I curled into the crook between root and log. The makeshift bed was as unforgiving as a Serpent hostel, rigid, cold, and bruising, but at least it was something. And I hadn’t rested in days.

I was alone in a barren field with two Lynch brothers. What could possibly go wrong?

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Don’t move,” Damien hissed. “Not another inch.”

I froze as a pair of dimly glowing yellow eyes hovered just above the mist.

Death dweller.

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