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“You’re alive?” I called back.

“Myla, what—what’s going on? ”

Not a muscle quivered in her blank stare as if she had no idea who she was, who I was. She dragged me toward Charles.

“Charles, what the hell is going on?” I demanded.

Archer yelled through our once-faded bond. “Severyn, leave. Now!”

Charles closed his eyes. “You should not be here, Severyn. Why the hell are you here?” A red-handled sword rested against his spine, rusted with blood. There’s no denying the commander stood before me.

“Are you attacking—are you the threat?” I lifted my arm, forcing it out of Myla’s grip.

Archer was in my eyes.

“I don’t have a choice. Malvoria was—taken over.” He eyed the cloaked figure behind him. “They—”

“Who are they ?”

Charles winced through his teeth. “I can’t say. I’m warded.”

“The Forgotten ones?” I hissed.

Charles kept his jaw still. But the look he gave me, I knew it was that. His face contorted, his spine tremored. His golden eyes faded to white, and my brother was unrecognizable.

The same void that held Knox during the last trial.

The cloaked figure lowered his hand, peering at me. His voice was icy and hoarse. “ Severyn Blanche , you should not be here.”

“Severyn—” Archer called. “Forgive me.”

I shuddered as though an invisible rope wrapped around my neck, dragging me closer to the three figures. From beneath the cloak of one, violet eyes pierced into me, her fingers curling in a sweeping motion. She glanced at the third figure.

“Fallon, she has already seen too much,” she said.

Fallon—the third figure was Mother.

Though her cloak remained tightly drawn, the glimmer of those familiar, unyielding black eyes was unmistakable .

“Severyn, my dear daughter.” Her voice was soft, dripping with honeyed venom. She stepped toward me, arms open as if for an embrace.

And it was true. Death always brought us together.

Hot tears streaked down my face. “Why are you attacking the realms? Archer has done nothing wrong!” I stepped back, keeping my distance as her arms slackened and dropped to her sides.

“I was stripped of my existence, Severyn,” she said, her tone sharpening. “Stripped of everything. Those whose quells are deemed forbidden are slaughtered. This cannot continue.”

The woman before me wasn’t just a shadow of my mother. She was the wielder of death, the one whose name was a curse whispered in fear.

I tried to rattle the bond with Archer, to will enough strength through my fear to reach him, but my mind spun helplessly.

“What are you doing here?” I forced the question through gritted teeth.

She raised her hand, and the ground beneath us shifted and sank. A mound of dirt erupted, giving way to a twelve-foot snake that slithered into view. Its dark brown scales shimmered with pointed ridges, its massive form curling across the ground.

It struck without warning, its fangs glinting like daggers as it lunged. Pain shot through me as it pierced my leg.

“Your father will die, and I will be nothing but a titleless widow,” she hissed.

“You—you can call snakes,” I whispered hoarsely, staring at the ungodly creature before me. Its yellow eyes were cold and calculating, and its brown scales shimmered with a grotesque familiarity.

“I should have told you when you first found it, ” Archer said. And that’s when I noticed its left eye was scarred.

I knew this snake .

The golden egg hidden in my room months ago had grown tenfold in size.

“You kept it—” My voice cracked through the bond. “You knew.”

This was the lindworm that claimed me on Winter trails. It had chosen me to face it in battle, and Archer had known. He had known since that night when he found me in my bedroom.

My mother laughed—a sound so soft yet sickening.

“And you will kill it and claim a title, Severyn. The lindworm is the final trial. Kill the snake and become a Serpent. It has already chosen you, my dear.”

Her words slithered over me like the beast itself.

“A certain Night leader will be punished if I release it. It’s nearly treason to harbor one.”

He lied.

He had kept it on his land all this time. Archer had lied.

I couldn’t pierce through wyvern scales, let alone this beast. I couldn’t kill the lindworm when my quell barely simmered in my veins. I was daggerless, defenseless, and my leathers were shredded.

A faint spark flickered in my trembling palm, yet the force was so weak I doubted it would ignite a wick.

The lindworm hissed and struck again, fangs sinking deeper into my already-wounded leg. Blood pooled beneath my shredded slacks, staining the earth red.

The blood of a Herring would spill tonight.

A faint shudder went down our bond as Archer spoke, “You weren’t ready.”

I sucked a breath of cool air down my lungs, dodging the second blow of fangs—barely. I’ve trained for this. I’ve trained for months.

Shadows crawled within me, suffocating my lungs with each draw. The flames in my palm faded into a liquid black rope. I struck the lindworm’s broad frame, curling that black smoke around its wavering neck. Its scales sizzled, breaking free from my quell.

I screamed at my mother, cursing with each breath, “Why didn’t you tell me what you were? For months, I’ve been uncovering your bloodline.”

“Our bloodline, Severyn. We were never meant to be someone’s shadow. It is time we take back what is ours. You’ll be dead the second you return to the academy. They will strip you of your quell. Do you think you’ve kept it hidden?”

“I had no choice.”

And I didn’t. I saved Knox from the burden of grief, even when I was that trial for him. I’d saved Knox twice, Myla, to keep my mind sane.

The snake struck me again on my palm, piercing into my flesh. I screamed in pain as I rose, trying to muster a spark again. “I will not die,” I cried.

I only had the darkness to will. My flame relic was pierced.

“Wield the snake!” Mother screamed. “Tame it.”

Bloody ash hissed through my clenched teeth. I raised my fist, just as my mother had done, and the snake followed.

Mother grinned under her concealed hood, those glassy eyes fixed on my every quiver. I raised my other fist, and the snake lifted its curious head, hissing.

And all those snakes I’d willed into my flame—their hisses echoing as embers sparked to life—they had been warnings, whispers of a power I could wield. A power I could claim, just as the Forgotten once had.

Victor wasn’t far off.

“Claim it,” Mother hissed. “You are my blood, child.”

Tears welled in my eyes. I blinked, turning around as I twisted both fists and heard the snap of the snake’s torso, bones wrapping together. I fell to my knees, dragging my nails along the bloodied dirt.

A vibrant ray of light shattered from the mangled creature. Something hot clung to my spine, melting through my leathers. I screamed in agony, begging anyone to relieve the pain and torture.

Shreds of my leather tore off my back, and only my wrap covered my breasts as every fabric on me cindered in flames.

I was bare. Bloody. Half-alive and broken.

A Serpent born through deception, a false guard of the moon.

Not one person helped me. Not the guards sworn to their posts. Not Myla or Charles. Even my own mother watched diligently as my skin melted with each twist.

“It hurts,” I sobbed. “Help me.”

It was a pain like no other. Not grief, not a broken wrist. It was the pain of loss.

Charles’s golden eyes stared from a distance. Disgust. Fear. Terror bore through his unmoving features.

“A Serpent was born,” Mother hissed, “now it is time to claim what is rightfully ours.” Her voice faded, but the sear in my spine intensified until I could no longer see or speak. My cheeks gritted against the rocks, eyes tracing the slender moon soaking me in light.

A blanket of soft silhouettes consumed me as my mind went dark.