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“He was waiting for you. Patiently. Your brother was cunning. He knew I would find you. He just didn’t know how.”

“Archer is willing to let me die unless I prove myself,” I said, “willing to let me betray Damien for his own sick barter over his father’s title.”

“He knows your potential.”

“So, you are on his side. He forced me to lie to Damien.”

“You agreed.”

“I can’t see anything.”

Naraic sent a rumble down the bond, a laugh if I could call it that. “Your eyes will adjust someday.”

We plunged deep over the belly of the mountains, and I clung to Naraic’s scales to stop the motion sickness—to hold my breakfast down. Every breath was devoured by darkness, consumed by that sickening shadow. Even my quell had cooled to a soft vibration. We broke through the clouds and into Winter.

I grabbed the ribbon from Naraic’s snout, tying it with the others.

White engulfed my vision as Winter’s icy breath slammed into me. We narrowly dodged three hoops as hail lashed our bodies—sharp, relentless.

Hail.

I saw Everett. His veins bulged, dark and gorged, as he pulled Winter’s air into himself, grunting with every heave. Iridis’s wings flailed wildly, her movements erratic, like a bat tangled in a net.

“Everett!” I shouted, my voice swallowed by the storm as we drew closer.

His flushed face whipped toward me. “Severyn—I didn’t mean to attack Damien! Iridis—she lost control. I don’t know what’s happening to me!” His golden eyes were wild, pleading, as though I could help him .

“I think Iridis gave you a quell. A snow quell,” I said. “You need to leave this realm before it kills you.”

Ice rained down on us. I didn’t flinch but flared my quell to salvage the last remnants of warmth. A burst of blood vessels streaked his eye crimson as snow thickened, nearly knocking Naraic from the air.

Iridis suddenly surged forward faster than I’d ever seen a dragon fly.

“How is that possible?” I muttered to Naraic as we seized the last silver ribbon left from the wind, barely managing to peel it from the freezing metal.

“A snow dragon existed a hundred years ago,” Naraic said, his voice echoing in my mind. “The Forgotten killed them all. Everett must have Winter blood.”

Ahead, the ice wall loomed. My eyes traced the half-submerged caves where Myla and I had nearly drowned trying to recover those eggs. Gritting my teeth, I urged Naraic to veer right, bypassing the Spring realm entirely. There wasn’t time for all the ribbons.

And I had no idea if I was in first or last place.

Heat slammed into us. The muggy breeze carried the tang of salt and debris, a curling sea stretching into the horizon.

Naraic hissed sharply as two griffins appeared alongside us. Unbonded. Wild. The headmaster had warned about the rogue creatures.

One struck first, slamming into us with feral force. I lit my flame, smoldering a feather to the barb.

But I didn’t see the second griffin until its talons tore into me, ripping me from Naraic’s back by the claws. I flailed, reaching for Naraic.

And as those claws released me, Naraic’s thoughts filled my mind—not of me, but of Klaus. His screams reverberated, golden hair streaming in the wind as he hurtled toward a glinting lake below.

“Release the bond, Naraic,” Klaus cried. “Release it now! Severyn will find you—I’ve seen it.”

Naraic obeyed, the bond snapping like brittle glass. Water rushed up to meet me, cold and suffocating.

Yet I was still falling, and a lake didn’t await me.

Klaus’s final words echoed through the fading bond, a whisper swallowed by the deep lake water: “Find Severyn. Protect her with your life, Naraic. Thank you—thank you for everything.”

And as water consumed my dying brother’s lungs, that last call through their bond was the least expected words I would ever hear. “Tell Archer to protect Severyn when she finds you, and I forgive him for falling in love with my sister.”

Those were Klaus’ last words before that bond was silenced.

“We will, Klaus Blanche. We will protect Severyn.”

I waited for the impact… for my body to crack against the earth, not deserving of the soft blow of lake water. I reached for Naraic, but I fell faster than he could dive.

Wings encased me. And it was not Naraic who caught me, but Ciaran’s black-scaled neck. She shoved me toward her spine, and I held my breath, wrapping around her.

“Ciaran?” I asked.

She didn’t answer—our bond was too weak, or she knew allowing another rider on her was against some unspoken rule.

Seven riders ripped past and through the valley of wild griffins, snarling and tearing through the air. I hugged Ciaran as we took off. Naraic was a few beats behind.

But through the haze, I hadn’t seen that silver-backed wyvern headed for us with two dangled limbs tucked low with aged scales .

Naraic attacked first, shredding the wyvern’s right wing down the middle with a strike. The wyvern hissed, snarling and biting into Naraic’s neck.

No.

I felt his pain as mine, nearly blacking out right there.

“Retreat, Naraic!” I hissed.

Naraic took a swipe, and I felt each pound, each claw tear into his scales.

The academy dimmed in the mist, and I buried my face into Ciaran’s scales because I couldn’t watch him die.

As wing beats halted, I swore I would see pearl wings falling below me, but only torn grey ones lay in that valley of green.

“Ride,” Naraic growled, “and be fast.”

Ciaran forced herself to the fields with each beat of her muscles. Wind slashed my face, and I turned to see Malachi’s fingers waving beside us.

“No hard feelings,” she yelled, realizing whose dragon I rode a heartbeat later. “Is that Ciaran ?”

Ciaran dove forward, slashing through the violent wind, staying just a few beats behind our speed. “She saved me,” I said. In a smaller voice, I whispered, “Again.”

Ciaran snarled, unleashing a shadowed breath at Malachi, who had ripped past us.

Naraic slammed into Astoria, forcing them to veer a hard right and allowing Ciaran and me to take the lead. “ Don’t look back. Keep your eyes on the field,” barked Naraic.

I saw that soft glow of the finish line where no dragons waited victoriously. Then the wind ripped us back ten feet, and Malachi jerked in the lead. Damnit.

I struck a flame, tilting off Ciaran’s neck as I wrapped the fiery whip around Astoria’s tail. I pulled back quickly, and Malachi veered down. We were wing-to-wing now as we neared the finish line. I struck Astoria again on the underside of her belly. Her wings arched, slowing with a hiss.

Naraic followed, and we hit the ground hard.

I gripped Ciaran’s neck with all my strength, spinning as Malachi crashed beside us in a roll.

I rested on Ciaran’s neck, feeling the weight of every eye in the crowd fixed on me and Archer’s dragon.

Her pale violet eyes steadied me as I tumbled off, landing hard on my knees.

Naraic followed, curling his tail around Ciaran’s in an unspoken bond.

Malachi swarmed me with a sweaty embrace. “You won, Sev.” She wiped a streak of blood off my cheek. “You won Skyfall.”

“I dismounted Naraic. I fell. I’m disqualified.” I could hardly feel my left leg at this point. I leaned against Naraic, whose snout nudged me toward the headmaster and the king.

“Your feet never touched the ground, North,” growled Naraic.

The headmaster adjusted his wind-blown cloak as he lifted my arm. “Severyn Blanche wins Skyfall with eleven ribbons.”

Those words did not taste victorious. Not with Naraic bleeding from his torn scales. Alaric was dead. And I killed Delair. What had I done ? Everyone stared, including Archer, whose eyes locked on Ciaran’s protective stance behind me.

A second breath sounded in my mind. His.

The king dug his snake cane into the grass hard, balancing upright. His voice was louder than the faded scoffs of Archer down our bond. “Severyn is disqualified. That is not her bonded dragon,” the king said.

The crowd went silent. I couldn’t tell the truth, not when Naraic was supposed to be dead.

The headmaster gasped, realizing a moment too late that the pearl one holding me from falling was.

Victory lasted moments before the remaining sixteen riders flew in.

Before, I would be stripped of my quell in front of the entire school body .

Like mother like daughter.

Malachi boldly confronted the king with a voice only a blood relative could use. “That dragon chose her. Severyn won.”

“Dragons do not choose between riders,” the headmaster spat. “Doing so would nearly break the bond between dragon and rider. And that creature she rode is already claimed.”

Pride wasn’t worth dying for. I’d take being disqualified rather than answering why Naraic was alive.

The king surveyed me. Naraic and Ciaran rested together, and I hoped I was the only one who could see their matching scales, that the underbelly of Ciaran was of the same pearl texture as Naraic’s spine.

“They do if their dragons are bonded. Severyn won the race, and I will not strip her of that victory.” Malachi held her chin upright.

Strip. She would not strip me of my victory . She’d get my life stripped from me if she didn’t shut up .

The king stared at me with a familiar gaze of green, deep-set eyes, yet I could have sworn they were amber before.

“Very well,” he growled. The king gripped my wrist, raising my hand in the air.

“Severyn Blanche has won the one-hundredth-and-one Skyfall race.” His voice muffled through the ringing in my skull.

This victory would cost my life. I was sure of it.

The infirmary beds were full of riders. Damien groaned in one, leaning against the wooden headboard as he saw me. “I heard you won, congratulations.” A wrap was around his waist with ice packs melted into the sheets. Bruises stained his ribs.

He was broken .

“Hardly,” was all I said, having no energy to explain the events leading after and how pissed I was at Malachi. “How are you doing?”

“The aide says I’m lucky to be walking. I dislocated seven disks in my back and my neck. It will take a week for me to get back on my feet and probably a lifetime of pain,” he said with a groan.

“I saw Everett. He didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“He came out of nowhere and froze Emerich’s scales, and I had nothing to grip onto as I fell. Maybe when Everett died, and you saved him, it did something to their bond. We know nothing about your quell.”

I furrowed my brows. “I wasn’t going to let him die. You were the one who convinced me to save him.”

“I know. You did what you had to do. There is a reason why your quell is forbidden. I hoped I could train you to shield before the Serpent bid, and that offer still stands.”

Something distant and unsettling stirred, and I could feel the change between us—it felt like I’d grown new skin over the weeks, shredded that faux frosted coat. “I’ll be waiting for you to heal.”

He half-grinned. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Sev.”