Page 28

Cold sweats awakened me, the skin on my backside slicked, stuck to the cotton sheets of the cabin bed. The wrath of yesterday edged my memories as I stared at the bloodied sheets Archer threw into a pile.

I stepped into the rays of dawn. Archer had mounted Ciaran. Her wings flattened across the sandy path as Naraic sprawled behind her. His wings healed slightly overnight, the bone no longer twined with flesh and visible veins.

“I’d suggest putting your slacks back on to avoid scale rash. But I have a few ointments that can help if you insist on flying back to campus like that.” The humor was back in his eyes—healed as if a restful sleep was all he needed. He looked stronger, and I didn’t know that was possible.

Was the Serpent of Shadows weakened for two years? Was I seeing the flesh of a new man dressed in unscathed leather ?

Heat rose to my cheeks. Yesterday’s clothes reeked. I’d deal with scale rash if it meant I wouldn’t have to slide my legs through crusted slacks.

“How do I… get on the dragon?” I asked, staring at the creature.

He said, “You’ll need to swing your legs over his neck.” Archer gracefully descended Ciaran and stepped toward me, his eyes assessing me—head to kneecaps. “And you… are shorter than Klaus.”

Naraic pinned his neck down, snarling for me to climb up his scales. “I think you’re offending him.”

Archer shimmied out of his leather riding jacket and placed it over my shoulders. “Take my jacket for now, and I will find you a spare that fits you when we’re back at the academy.”

I shoved my arms through the jacket's oversized sleeves, the heavy leather settling awkwardly against my bare thighs. The weight of it pressed down, and I bit back the urge to throw it back at him. His smug grin practically begged for retaliation. “Thanks,” I muttered through gritted teeth.

“I expect that jacket back,” he said, his tone clipped, barely audible. “I know first-years enjoy the thrill of speaking to a ruler, but I’d rather not be associated with you.”

I glared at him, fingers brushing the half-moon relic pinned beneath the faded serpent emblem on the leather. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing this around campus.”

Lifting my leg to climb, I stumbled, my balance faltering. Archer caught me effortlessly with one hand.

“Watch yourself,” he said. “Or is mounting something too complicated for you?”

“I can mount anything,” I said.

His eyes narrowed, coughing dryly. “I doubt that. You don’t have a scandalous bone in your body. ”

“Boost me, and I’ll get it next time,” I said, annoyed at his watchful eye. Were we talking about the same type of mounting?

Then Archer curled his hands on either side of my waist, effortlessly shoving me onto Naraic’s spine. I couldn’t help but notice how his fingers lingered slightly on the jacket’s sleeve.

Archer touched my calf, angling it inward.

“Keep your knees locked and your legs tight against Naraic’s ribs.

” His fingers brushed toward my thigh but stopped short.

“Naraic will sense where you want to go, but if you need to veer a certain way, use your thighs to nudge him in whichever direction you wish. You do know which is left and which is right, correct?”

“You don’t have to be arrogant,” I said, then a wave of heat hit me. I wobbled forward, and a cool shiver ran along my spine. I blinked up, and it seemed all that sickness disappeared.

Shadows… he was using his shadows on me. A silken black sheet bathed my trembling arms. Silently, I watched him mount Ciaran, his calf muscles tight against her ribs.

Huffing, I said, “You should ask someone before inflicting your quell on them.”

He gave a blank stare, and the shadows dragged back. “If you vomit on my jacket, feel free to keep it. It might earn you a few challenges during combat. You seem to need all the help and handouts you can get.” He eyed the iced dagger Myla won off me.

Naraic took off first, his wings raised, beating within the air.

I lurched forward, keeping my grip tight on his neck as the air ripped past me.

“Sorry,” I said, unsure if Naraic heard me.

I knew Charles had a rider bond between him and Lorna and their griffins, but it seemed unnatural to speak in my mind. I knew nothing about bonds.

We glided above the castle, and I tried to keep the blazing heat from knotting around my stomach.

The land spanned for miles and miles, sheltered by jagged peaks flecked with snow toward the northern side.

Golden tints stained the grounds as Day rained dawn across the academy’s vast landscape.

I saw the crimson wall hidden within the Winter trails, nearly stealing my breath as we lowered.

Spring was wild with untamed flowers like a rainbow had wept over the lands.

The Night trails were a swallowing shadow of brittle trees and moonlight within a sea of stars.

I wouldn’t fly any closer to that dark oasis.

Naraic went easy on me. I knew those scars on his scales, where a few were torn, meant he’d lived through the worst of the land’s shows. I wasn’t his first rider, and I didn’t think Klaus was either.

The wind beat against my sweat-licked brow, curling through the folds of Archer’s jacket. I felt alive. I felt the connection between Naraic pulsing through my veins as we dipped low and toward the dragon fields.

We veered toward the grass. Naraic landed, tucking his wings in.

And I awkwardly slid off, nearly faceplanting into a pile of dragon shit as I stepped forward.

Archer stifled his laugh as Ciaran’s midnight wings crept low.

He gracefully jumped down, walking toward me with a pool of midnight shadows following his every step.

He opened his palm, glancing at the jacket he’d given me. I shrugged it off as a wave of his spiced musk sucked through my senses.

“You’re a natural, Blanche,” he said. “I suppose you are Klaus’s sister after all.”

It was the first compliment he’d ever given me, though it came wrapped in a thinly veiled insult.

My knees wobbled as I handed him the jacket, gaining my balance. I asked, “Will I see you later?”

“Listen, Severyn,” he began, “nothing changes between us. I am still a Serpent, and you are still a student. You will see me when I seek you out. Because when I tell you this will end badly if anyone suspects that dragon is Naraic—” His eyes darkened under the hood of his brow.

“I’ll be at the fields after combat for dragon training. Try not to get in my way.”

I nodded tightly. “In that case, may I be dismissed, Serpent?” I sneered low.

A grin crept to the side of his mouth. “Shower, you smell like a corpse.” His nose wrinkled at the jacket in his hands.

Grey sludge drained from my hair. It took three washes for my skin not to reek of dirt and whatever else was lying dormant in that lake.

Damien waited by my room after my shower. “Alright, where have you been all night?” A slight annoyance, perhaps concern, tinged his voice as he leaned against my door. He glanced at my sopping hair I’d hastily braided in two, leaving the single strand of my birthmark loose.

How do I tell him? Would he care? Did this mean Damien would always be a part of my life, tied to Archer somehow? Deep down, I felt closer to Klaus than ever.

I uncurled my fist and showed him that swirled relic of flame on my palm. “I got my quell,” I said.

His eyes lit up as he ran a hand through his tousled brown locks. “That is an antecedent relic, meaning you also bonded ?”

I nodded. “You’ll have to teach me some riding tricks.”

Damien let out a loud sigh. “I don’t know anything about griffins, Sev.”

“Well, it’s good that I bonded with a dragon then. I’m no longer in the run for my father’s title.” Speaking it out loud boiled venom in the back of my throat .

Failure. Grief. Loss. Our name would die. And that feeling was utter numbness.

The halls seemed tighter—suffocating as we walked to class. “I suppose I am your student mentor now, huh? Seeing as that quell is used to keep Summer wards strong. Luckily for you, there are two Summer heirs needed. We could both become Serpents.”

I was happy Damien didn’t see us as rivals, but why did Archer say I was in the run for his Father’s title when there was another vacant heir?

“I guess on your next Summer outing, you can finish showing me around the trails there,” I said.

He grinned back. “Does that mean you are finally taking me up on that offer to show you around the academy?”

“I guess so,” I chuckled. “The dragon I bonded with is a cousin of Naraic, my brother’s dragon… His name is… Skia.”

Skia was the first thing that came to my mind. It was also the name of the mountain that surrounded our home in North Colindale. Hopefully, Damien didn’t know his geography. I’d become good at lying—lying in the letter I wrote to my parents and lying to Damien.

Damien had no reason not to trust me. But I couldn’t risk him knowing… not when my mother was stripped for bearing a forbidden quell.

He asked softly, “I didn’t know you had another brother?”

“I have four. Three are alive. Klaus… died here.”

“That’s common for riders to bond with an enigma related to them,” he said.

“Most griffin eggs here are descendants from the first year the school was built. Dragons also tend to find familiar bloodlines if their rider dies. It’s called Dragon Roots.

I’d bet the flame quell has passed through centuries of your bloodline.

Every hundred years, hatchlings branch out and find new bloodlines.

” He shrugged. “It’s a strange way of discovering your distant relatives when their dragon roots with yours. ”

“Here, I thought I had only iced blood. Hopefully, Bridger will stop trying to kill me.” But I knew deep down Bridger becoming my father’s heir was worse than anything I could have imagined.