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Knox’s jaw tightened. “Our mother deserved that title.” He pointed at Damien. “His father ruined our family, and now you’ve got both brothers in love with you. You’re bound to crash and burn, Severyn.”

“Maybe I enjoy crashing and burning,” I shot back.

Knox’s voice lowered, venomous. “Just remember, power consumes our bloodline. It always has.” He turned away, Everett at his side.

“Love is a rather strong word,” Damien muttered. “Loving you seems like a lifetime of misery.” His smile relaxed. “I pity whoever is bound to you for life.”

I blinked a few times, jabbing him in the ribs. “You’re a prick.”

The humor dimmed in his eyes as he moved closer to me.

“Your mother should have told you who her father was. Knowledge comes with trust. But being strong is nothing to fear, only when you lose yourself. There is a reason Knox was compelled to kill you. I don’t think your mother’s quell ever entirely was stripped.

Her quell could have evolved into a compulsion. ”

No . I refused to believe my mother could be that cruel. I refused to believe she could kill me. My head whirled, but Damien held me upright as my heel jutted between a plank.

She never wrote back to me.

I gaped at Knox, who held Everett’s hand near the iron balcony.

Had he known? Had this been Mother’s plan all along—to get Knox into the run for the king’s title?

I forced my boiling tears not to shed. I couldn’t hold my shield any longer, and slowly, that cemented ash began to crumble, and my thoughts slipped out like a dam breaking over a waterfall.

“No more secrets,” I said solemnly. “I forgive you.”

Damien pulled me into his arms, his chin resting atop my head.

“Friends,” he whispered. “Until one of us takes our last breath. Although, since we are being honest, I knew who your grandfather was when I first read Knox’s mind.

And when I read yours, you didn’t know anything. You were sheltered, cast away like me.”

I wasn’t a gripping book on his shelf as he turned the pages, uncovering this mystery like me. He knew all the lies I had been told the moment he met me. “You should have told me,” I said.

“It’s not really something you blurt out.”

“What else do you know? Tell me.”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

I scoffed. “There’s never just nothing.”

We went to the balcony. Below, the ocean of black curled waves thrashed.

“I just wish things were different, Sev. I tried to make this easier between us…” his voice trailed off. “Forget I said anything.”

Damien was in love with me. And I wasn’t.

The mountains were chipped into snakes and dragons, forming the mouth of a cave. Scales etched along the algae-flecked stone, rippling along the slashing waters.

The salted air burned my eyes, and the boat lurched under the cave.

Darkness blanketed the rocking ship. Muggy breaths drew from my lungs in ragged attempts to find clean air during that moment of shadows.

Bats squealed, shrieking as the boat groaned through the tight cave. Eyes of yellow beams blinked.

Daylight stole the shadow as I met Archer’s gaze from across the ship.

Whatever we were could not exist or breathe in sunlight. I tightened that shield as my eyes locked on the horizon.

Damien pointed to a narrow island in the distance. “That is the Serpent estate.”

Golden light broke through the sun as clouds of copper smoke hovered over the island.

An aged brick building sprawled along the grounds with sphere-tipped fences guarding that mysterious island.

An electrified current ravaged my veins as we went through a ward.

I hunched over the steel, resting my cheek along the bar.

Waves threw us right and left, nearly shoving me against Damien’s hip.

A wild, silver-back wyvern broke through the cloud bank, crying a deadly noise as it got trapped in the shield. Ash and smoke curdled the flurried air. The wyvern swerved, wings burnt and cindered.

“I think—I think I’ll be sick.”

Damien patted my back, but I flailed my wrist, demanding he stop immediately.

Keeping my head crouched, a crash sounded from the waves, splashing the railing. I knew it was the wyvern’s last screech as it drowned.

I steeled when a shadow crawled up my lungs on my next clipped breath. Through the gap in my elbow, I met Archer’s gaze—his one finger angled loosely toward me. And those shadows were the one thing keeping me from hurling.

“You’ve been holding your shield for too long, Severyn.

Let it down until we get to the estate, or you won’t be able to hold it for the entire night.

” Damien gave me a look of concern. “I am… impressed with how you’ve managed to hold it this long.

Whatever is on your mind can’t further hurt me.

” He looked like he wanted to say more, humor brimming in his slivered iris.

I cursed silently because Damien was right. I knew my body couldn’t handle this sweltering heat racing through my veins, and those shadows could only tie me down for so long. I closed my eyes, and that shield slowly broke down, chip by chip, until I braced against the balcony.