Page 27

A beast lunged for him as he dragged his arm back, shooting it in the chest. “Get the fuck out of the water,” he seethed. “Now.”

Rage and something else filled his blue eyes.

The water beneath me bubbled as Archer grabbed my wrist, dragging me over the lip of the lake. Rolling onto my back, he shot another creature from behind.

“You wouldn’t understand why I came here,” I said, taking another breath.

“I know damn well why you went here. Do I need to sleep in your hallway to ensure your safety?”

Care . Genuine care beamed within those eyes as he pulled me to my feet with the bow tucked under his armpit. “What are you talking about? How—how did you find me?”

He threw a dagger over my shoulder. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Why haven’t you sent me to Malvoria yet? And why was I worth more than seven lives?” We were both running, but my drenched slacks weighed me down.

He didn’t respond, and perhaps he would drag me to the Malvoria boat if we did survive the woods. “I don’t owe you an explanation,” he hissed. “This was reckless, Severyn .”

“Then don’t owe me. Tell me why you saved me.”

Archer closed his eyes. “Curiosity will get you killed. Stop asking questions and be thankful.” Another barked order to shut up, but I wouldn’t, not when my voice carried seven faded screams .

We were nearly halfway out of the woods before one death dweller lunged and pinned Archer to the ground.

Its claws sliced into his chest. Blood dripped from his stomach, sweeping over that serpent tattoo that covered most of his ungodly body, over the veins of precision that carved his muscles.

Archer grunted, forcing an arrow over his shoulder, missing the snapping, snarling creature—

My hands became hot. Sweltering heat boiled in my gut, rising toward my inflamed cheeks. I reached for the last dagger and stepped toward the creature, and before I could breathe, a flame struck from the center of my trembling palms.

Flame.

I fell as the flame smothered the beast in a grasp of fire, crawling back and circling my fingers like withered ropes. Black smoke curdled from its hissing muzzle, collapsing into a pile of ash.

I killed it with flame.

I stared at my palms, then at Archer, who I swore was more shocked than me. “My quell…”

“Antecedent quell,” Archer breathed, cursing as the trails neared our sight. “You stole Klaus’s power.”

“I didn’t steal it!” I snapped, my voice breaking with desperation.

“A quell passed through a dragon is only strong through the bond of a living enigma. That dragon down there is a rotted corpse.”

He knew all along where Klaus was—knew it was only bones that held him together. But I had felt scales on that dragon. I had felt… warmth. I had felt something.

“It called to me and has been since I got here. It led me here, Archer. I swear! ”

We dove over the warded trail, finally breaking free from the suffocating forest. Archer stumbled toward a cabin, his steps uneven.

“A dead dragon cannot call to you,” he muttered.

He opened a cabin door, and I followed him inside.

“Do you know how to bandage? I won’t be strong enough to make it back tonight.

Not with the amount I’m bleeding. There’s bandages and cloth in the closet.

” He pointed a trembling finger toward the furthest wall.

I wriggled off my outer layer, slopping the wet garment on the ground.

My throat was dry as I nodded, watching Archer slump onto the cot.

The once-pristine white sheets were already soaked in blood.

I grabbed the first-aid bag from the linen closet and hesitated before sitting on the edge of the bed.

Carefully, I began pulling the remnants of his shredded top away, revealing the extent of the damage.

I wiped down his chest with an alcohol pad, my hands steady despite the chaos brewing inside me. Three inflamed claw marks were carved below his breastbone, the torn skin weeping crimson. Toned muscles rippled with every graze of my hand.

I had never seen a more beautiful man writhing in pain.

My breath hitched as I trailed along the black serpent tattoo etched into his skin. The towelette slipped from my fingers when my eyes landed on something unexpected—something impossible. Five familiar letters scrawled across his ribs, their penmanship unmistakable.

Klaus.

My heart pounded in my chest, each beat louder than the last. My voice trembled as I spoke, questioning my own sanity.

“Why do you have Klaus’s name marked on your ribs?

” My hand shook, hovering over the name.

I knew that cursive letter K was the way he signed his name on cards during Winter Solstice gifting .

Archer’s gaze hardened, his jaw tightening. “Klaus and I were bonded riders. Our enigmas were Gemini twins. Ciaran and Naraic.”

‘Find my name beside a thumping heart and flesh.’ Klaus’s words echoed in my mind, but I pushed the thought aside. It had to be a coincidence—some cruel twist of fate.

“Damien said you were… weak,” I said, my breath stifling in my lungs as I wrapped the bandage around his chest, tightening it with care. My eyes didn’t leave his. “Is it… because of Klaus?”

“Ciaran is weak, but hopefully, she will live another decade,” Archer replied, his voice quieter now, almost mournful. “She enjoys being here and knowing Naraic rests.” He paused, his gaze darkening with the weight of memory. “I’m still recovering.”

“How did Klaus die? I imagine it takes something quite large to take down a dragon of his size?” I pinned my arms to my side, leaning back on my ankles as far away from him. Yet, my eyes stroked the dark hair trailing the deep curve near his abdominal muscle.

Fuck, I was alone in a cabin with a bleeding ruler who, thankfully, didn’t notice my stare. “There’s more danger to this academy than those beasts in the forests.” He rolled onto his side, his chest moving up and down, and suddenly, I was fixated on his every move.

“Why is everything restricted? Students should be aware of any attack at the academy.” I returned the first-aid kit to the linen closet but stayed across the cabin. I was wrong about Archer. It took everything in me to take one more step back to him.

“As I said, curiosity will get you killed. Stop asking questions a first-year should not know,” he said with a breath of annoyance.

I stared at my blistered palms, where fire had willed from my veins. Fire , the thought of begging for snow to frost over my limbs, only to draw flame within those pleas, caused my lids to brim with tears .

And so, the girl who willed to know what lived beyond those plains of ice saw too much too fast. What would I tell Knox? If he’d even believe me, and if Myla would still trust me as fire boiled within me.

“Do you think my quell will go away?” I asked.

Archer traced the wooden planked ceiling. “It would be in your best interest.”

I pulled the drenched top over my head, wriggling out of my sopping slacks, throwing my clothes into the corner, covered only by the wraps around my chest and under bottoms. Archer kept his eyes on the ceiling as my spine faced him.

And I knew what he thought of me. Knew I was that annoying friend’s sister he felt indebted to protect as he clenched his jaw.

“You wanted me to find my quell, even telling Bridger that I bond with a pigeon if it’s the last thing he does,” I seethed.

Archer rubbed his index finger over his temple. “You have no idea what happened today, do you?” he asked.

Two cries sounded above, swooping low past the window to reveal pearl-white scales.

I rushed to the door, feeling a blast of heat against my face as I yanked it open.

Two dragons appeared. One soared higher, its wings spread wide, lavender eyes watching me with an intensity that rooted me in place.

Its black underbelly glinted in perfect contrast to the other’s shining white spine.

Their horned tails sliced through the air in unison.

They were nearly identical, their size and form a mirror of one another, except for the inverted scales.

Archer limped behind me, towering over my shoulder. “You—” he began, his voice low and uncertain. “This is not good.”

I couldn’t tear my eyes away. “Is that—?”

Archer cut me off. “Naraic and Ciaran. And one of those dragons is supposed to be dead—was dead. ”

Naraic’s wingspan stretched over thirty feet, his brilliant pearl scales shimmering as he landed. The impact shook the ground, his claws sinking deep into the soil. His neck curved gracefully, and those lavender eyes locked with mine. They stole the breath from my lungs.

“What do I do?” I asked, my voice trembling as my arms hung limp at my sides.

There were protocols for approaching creatures. Griffins liked their back feathers stroked before a flight, but a dragon? I had no idea what might provoke or calm one. One wrong move could end with me in flames.

My stomach churned, the wards inside me crackling with nervous energy.

“Walk forward,” Archer instructed. “And be still.”

I forced myself to take shaky steps toward the pearled beast, gathering what composure I had left.

Overhead, Ciaran swooped through the clearing, her shadow blanketing the path in starlit dust. Ash drifted from Naraic’s flared, algae-stained nostrils.

His wings—batlike and torn—exposed the veiny bones beneath, held together by sheer will.

He looked like a creature caught between life and death.

I reached out, extending my hand toward his cheek. The back of my fingers grazed a scale, its surface cool and smooth. I exhaled slowly, my breath shuddering as time seemed to pause.

“I found you,” I whispered. “You were Klaus’s dragon?”

“You were the only one who could,” Naraic’s voice rasped in my mind. It was not the same voice that had called to me in the Winter forests.

I turned to Archer, my voice cracking. “He’s been down there for two years… rotting.” I glanced back at the dragon, noting the exposed flesh and torn wings. For all the terror his state should have inspired, I only saw the beauty within his resilience. “How is that possible? ”

Naraic growled, and my attention snapped back. “Will you accept our bond, a promise to protect Verdonia, to give your life to me and our connection, and I will give you my protection, my soul?”

A bond?

Archer hissed at Ciaran, “She isn’t ready. Not yet, but I will train her to be Klaus.”

I would be a dragon rider. Had there ever been a dragon to live in the Frozen Valleys? I wouldn’t hesitate—not when two sets of lavender eyes stared at me, capable of ending me with one breath.

“Yes,” I breathed.

“Open your palm, Severyn,” demanded Archer. “He needs to mark you.”

I needed time to think, but my blistered fingers uncurled without thought. “I accept your bond,” I said.

Then Naraic blew a breath of fire at my fingers, marking my right palm with an intricate relic of flames that swooped between my knuckles. My hands tightened as a gag of ash shoved between my teeth, rising through my aching lungs. A tether synched, and something in my ribs snapped in place.

Ciaran watched me from afar, bowing low. “A bond to Naraic is a bond to Ciaran,” Archer said low. “Two dragons, one soul.”

I nodded at the same dragon who’d turned Bridger’s icy daggers into shadowed dust. Those wings I’d felt along my bare spine as I lay there.

“You found him,” the same voice whispered. “I knew you were brave.”

It was her leading me here to find her brother—and mine. The thought nearly had my eyes filled with tears. She’d saved me that night. Kept me warm under her wings.

I turned to stare at Archer. “I heard her in my mind.”

Archer reached for my arm, twisting my palm to stare at the swirl of flame. “We must bond too, but we’ll do that when neither is covered in blood. Enigma bonding can be draining. Rider bonding can be deadly and… personal.”

“Bridger mentioned rider bonds were forbidden,” I said.

“There are three types of bonds, and I don’t care to explain them. You can manage your own research.”

My head whirled. I couldn’t remember how to walk. I stared at Archer, knowing beyond those eyes was sheer annoyance, knowing I was the last person he wanted to bond with. “This is a lot to take in,” I whispered. “That’s why you saved me at the Rite? Because of Klaus.”

Naraic and Ciaran huffed before taking off into the skies. Archer dropped my hand. “You should rest,” he said firmly.

I didn’t want to rest. I wanted to understand this. “How did I save Naraic? Was he trapped in some petrified state?”

His voice was low. “The same way you saved Myla. You possess a forbidden quell, meaning if anyone finds out your dragon is Naraic, they will wonder how a dead dragon rose from the grave.”

A wave of sickness washed over me. “Myla was dead ,” I said, stepping back, nearly tripping over my damp boots. “They’ll strip me of my quell like my mother.”

And from his silence, I suspected he knew that part.

Archer gave a cruel, arrogant smirk. “Just stay out of my way. No one must know about Naraic. We say you bonded with a cousin of his if any of the third-years recognize his scales.”

I tucked my head between my knees. “I’m going to be sick,” I said.

Archer threw a cool shadow atop me, simmering that flame inside my rolling guts. “You are inheriting Klaus’s flame at his advanced level. The hardest part will be controlling it and keeping yourself… cool. It takes most students months for their quell to slay a beast. ”

Through the gleam of darkness, I met his eyes. “Am I still in the run for my father’s title?” I’d willed flame—breathed ash. I was a beast in the eyes of the Winter wards.

“No, a fire quell can not exist within Winter’s lands.

You are in the run for my father, Victor Lynch, as the heir to Ravensla.

Damien Lynch will become your student mentor.

Immediately.” He pressed his lips together.

“Since you two are well acquainted already, hopefully, he won’t consider you a rival. ”

And if I hadn’t shattered yet, I had now.

Damien was my rival.