Page 36 of Severed Heir

Night-born. No questions about that.“Are you looking at me?”

“Always.”

“Have I met you before?”

The voice laughed. And somehow, it was worse that it sounded like my own—only colder, more cynical.

“That would give me away.”

I forced the bond shut. Felt the snap like a string pulled too tight and then severed. Silence rushed in, filling the space where that voice had lived.

I turned to Kian. “This is ridiculous.”

He cracked one eye open, his head resting against the stone. “Yeah, Sevy. Pretty sure mine only knows how to scream.”

“Shut them out,” I said. “I did.”

He groaned. “Thanks for the tip. I tried. They forced it back open.”

Across the grand hall, Rok raised his voice. “One more thing. Let me introduce your new lead guard, Callum. He will be overseeing this test, as I’ve been taken off recruits due to some… personal matters.”

The iron door creaked open, and a towering figure stepped through. His gold hair was glazed with frost, but it was his face that stopped my breath. His jaw had been mended with steel and wire. Blistered skin stretched over scars that looked half-healed, half-burning. The poison had eaten through parts of him, but I still knew those silver eyes.

Kian winced. “Shit. Remind me never to pisshimoff.”

Callum was alive.

And I knew, with a sick certainty, the voice in my mind hadbeen his.

Chapter Seven

By the weekend, I had survived.

One full week in this godsdamned place. Part of me almost wished Sabitha knew, just so I could throw my survival in her face.

I avoided Rok whenever I could. Even Callum hadn’t looked at me—not when I scrubbed his blood from the floor. Not when I nearly collapsed in the ring. Not even when he started drunken chants to celebrate resting day.

The forged bond had stayed quiet, but I kept my barriers up. There was too much at stake now. And honestly, I didn’t care who the voice belonged to anymore.

I leaned against a tree, letting the sun warm my raw, pruned fingers. A week of scrubbing blood had worn them down to nothing. I had to win. I had to make my flame rise.

Or I’d never leave this place alive.

A knock brushed against my mind as I sank into the grass.“Severyn,”Archer’s voice murmured. “I’ve been trying for days to speak to you.”

I swallowed the exhaustion burning at the back of my throat.“I didn’t know,”I said. I had been waiting to hear his voice. But if he saw what I was going through, I knew, he would raise all hell.

“You’re not sleeping, are you?”

My eyes swept the clearing for Archer.“Can you see me?”

The leaves stirred above. The bond pulsed. And then—he was there. Archer stepped from the shadows, a golden sheet of parchment in hand, its edges curling in the morning light.

“Severyn,” he said again, and pulled me into his arms.

I collapsed into him like he was the last solid thing in a world tilting sideways. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

He brushed a tear from my cheek with the gentleness that always undid me. “I hate seeing your tears, little heir,” he murmured, voice fraying on the last word. “What’s going on?”

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