Page 204 of Severed Heir

He didn’t answer right away. But I already knew when I saw the fresh scars on his skin. “I begged her to break it. She refused. So I turned to the Gods. I pleaded with them to sever it before the guards could read my mind and find you.” His throat bobbed. “I didn’t expect the Forgotten to answer.”

I stepped closer, resting a hand on his chest. “If you ever have a child, will they take you away like they did Reina?”

He stilled. “I told you I don’t want a child in a world like this.”

I nodded. “I understand.”

“No,” he said, tightening his grip on my hand. “You don’t. I feel what you feel. I know you want a quiet life, a soft one. And I want that, too. But I bargained myself away to keep you alive. I don’t regret it. I’d do it again. But if the other realms find out what you are to me… it’s not uncommon for rulers to assassinate truemates to prevent their bloodlines from growing stronger.”

He didn’t have to finish. I knew what would happen. I’d seen what people did to threats they couldn’t understand.

“I don’t care about fairytales,” I said. I took his face in my hands. “Let’s not think about what comes next.”

But we both knew the lie of that.

He rested his forehead against mine. “Just a little longer,” he said. “Let’s pretend we have time.”

And still, as the wind whistled through the hills of Demetria, I couldn’t stop thinking about what was coming next.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

A day had passed since the celebration Archer had hosted in my honor.

Now, beneath a sky still bruised with stars, five dragons were brought before us. Their horned tails split the morning stillness, each movement a slow crack through air too quiet to hold them. They were massive, shifting like forces bound only by scale and bone. The moon hung low above the clearing, casting everything in silver.

A grizzled wrangler stepped forward. They called him Hensley. His beard was patchy, his eyes nearly white with age. A streak of black ran through the gray on the left side of his hair.

“Tansia is her name,” he said, snapping his whip to keep one of the younger dragons in line. “A wild one. Never bonded with a human before. But given your title, she may choose you.”

I barely heard him. Archer was already walking the row with a hunter’s eye, studying each beast in silence.

But my gaze was fixed on Tansia.

Something felt wrong. It should’ve been Ciaran. It had always been Ciaran.

“Where is she from?” Archer asked.

Tansia stood at the far end, chains coiled around her like vines. Her charcoal-dark scales shimmered with veins ofobsidian along the edges. But when she shifted in the moonlight, I caught a deep, iridescent indigo, hidden beneath her wings.

Her eyes glinted like fractured glass. Not white. Not red. Something between crimson. She didn’t snarl or growl or bare her teeth. She just stared. And gods help me, I stared back.

Hensley squinted at a faded parchment. “Can’t say for certain. With that bone structure, might be part wyvern. She’s never shown signs of a quell.”

Archer nodded, but I saw the flicker in his expression. “She’ll do,” he said.

I stepped forward, the words sharp in my throat. “She has to choose you, Archer.”

He turned to me, but his face gave nothing away. “She already did.”

“What did she say?” I asked, barely above a breath.

Hensley shrugged. “She’s wild. If she’s past her prime, she’ll bond poorly. If she bonds at all. I’d recommend a test flight. She’s never been flown with a human.”

“She’s not unpredictable,” Archer said, voice taut. “Not to me. I trust her more than any of them.” He stepped forward and extended a hand. The chains clinked, but the dragon didn’t move. “I’ll bond with her.”

A cold ache threaded through my chest. This didn’t feel like Ciaran. When I met her, there was something immediate—something known. With Tansia, there was only silence.

Archer’s fingers found my chin, tilting it toward him. “Trust her,” he said. “Trust me. This is how it must be, Severyn.”

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