Page 216 of Severed Heir

“No. You are to stay away from the Blanches.”

My body tensed. “Father, I think I heard the daughter in my mind. I just need to understand why.”

Victor’s gaze snapped to mine. “Not this truemate nonsense. Has your grandfather poisoned you with fairy tales again?”

“What is a truemate?”

He let out a sigh. “Someone who strengthens your title. You don’t chase them. You don’t fall in love. You make a strategic choice. Your grandfather has a list of noble girls for you. That ice-wielder’s daughter? She belongs to Damien. Or Kian. Not you.”

“She’s not property.”

“She’s a deal. And you will not speak to her.” His hand clamped around my throat. “Or I will tear the sun from this land.”

I didn’t even think. I slammed my fist into his jaw, hard enough to split skin. “Get the fuck off my land.”

Victor wiped the blood from his mouth, smiling. “So you want war? Fine. When this realm starves, you’ll know who to blame.”

“I want Kian with me,” I growled. “You won’t touch him.”

Victor’s expression darkened. “You’ll never see him again. I’ll make sure of it.”

Gods, I wanted to kill him.

“We’ll see what happens if he gets his shadows,” I said. “If you hurt him, I’ll hurt you worse.”

Victor stepped in close. “Touch that girl, and I’ll turn every alliance I’ve built against you. You ruin everything you touch, son. Don’t pretend she’s anything more than a mistake waiting to happen.”

I didn’t speak. I didn’t trust myself to. Because all I saw was red. I wanted to burn his legacy down to ash and make him watchas I claimed everything he said I’d destroy. I had spent my entire life trying to earn his name, to carry it like it meant something. And still, even now, he looked at me like I was nothing.

Maybe the mistake was believing I owed him anything at all.

He left that night. No goodbye. No parting threat. Just silence.

Before the sun rose, I boarded the first boat out of Demetria, bound for North Colindale. Five days across the Amber Sea. I slept on deck with nothing beneath me but splintered planks and a sky I couldn’t look at without thinking of her. The wind scalded my cheeks. I puked five times from the rocking. Maybe more. I stopped counting after the first storm.

I hadn’t brought armor. Gods, I hadn’t even brought food. No coat thick enough for the North. No plan beyond the ache that drove me. Just one reckless decision and a voice I couldn’t silence.

Her voice.

Each night, I waited for it to return. Some echo in the bond. But it never came. By the fifth day, my lips had cracked. My throat was raw. My tongue felt like sandpaper. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept without dreaming of warmth.

When the ship finally docked, a sailor kicked the heel of my boot. His accent rasped like salt across old wounds. “Last port,” he barked. “Get off my dock, Serpent.”

I staggered down the gangway, legs cramping with every step. The solid ground betrayed me with its stillness. My boots cracked over frostbitten mud. I passed skeletal trees and broken fences. A stone marker too weathered to read.

Above, the sky spun in whipped flurries. The snow muffled everything. It was a cruel kind of silence. And when my knees finally gave out, I dropped into the snow.

“If you keep going, you’ll die,”Ciaran warned through the bond.

“I know,”I said.“But I need to see her.”

“Death is not the answer.”

“It’s frozen,” I whispered. “Everythingfuckingfrozen here.”

“Your heart is, too. You’re dying, Archer.”

Then, like a blade through bone her voice slipped into me.

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