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Everything in the capital shimmered gold, even the lies.

Golden, wing-tipped birds sang on every fourth tick of the clock tower, like time itself moved to their rhythm.

Smoke curled from the Serpent Press in gilded billows, each one carrying headlines sharp enough to cut.

It was only a matter of time before my name bled across the front page.

A fire-wielder born in an iced kingdom, now heir to the last-standing shadow realm.

That wasn’t scandal. That was a spark poised to start a war.

I was with Charles, my eldest brother, in one of the king’s endless rooms. I’d spent two days trying to convince him I was innocent. Two days of careful words and swallowed pride. None of it mattered.

Charles sat straighter in the wooden chair, facing the extravagant wine bar stocked with blends imported from every region. He dragged a hand beneath his jaw like he was barely holding himself together. Strands of golden hair slipped into his eyes, but all I saw was the monster he’d become.

“Can you explain something, Severyn?” he asked, voice flat. “How multiple witnesses recognized Naraic’s white scales. That dragon’s been dead for two years. ”

“You stormed in before I could explain,” I muttered, my gaze dropping to the silver badge pinned to his chest. It was the one they gave him the day Klaus died.

They called it honorable.

“Then explain,” he snapped. “Because my little sister is now at the center of a treason investigation, and I’m the one expected to clean up the mess.”

“You don’t have the right to call yourself our brother.”

“If this is about Klaus,” Charles began.

“There’s nothing you can say to justify killing Klaus.”

He met my stare and gave a slow nod. “Fair enough.”

Ash coiled around my middle finger, sensing the fury rising under my skin. “This is how I feel about you.”

Charles let out a dry, bitter laugh. “Very mature. I saved him, Sev. If anyone had found out what he was, they would’ve chained him to a desk and drained him until there was nothing left. Seekers don’t survive in this world. You really think you could’ve protected him better than I did?”

“He was mid-flight,” I snapped, slamming my fist into the bar. “You didn’t have to kill him.”

“And now you’re a titled Serpent. Convenient, isn’t it?” He leaned back, cold and deliberate. “His death bought your crown. We all take something from this world.”

Flame surged through the relic on my palm, heat burning across my chest. “I’d burn the title if it brought him back,” I said. “You traded our brother for a silver badge.”

Charles tilted his head, that insufferable smirk tugging at his mouth once again. “You’ve got one brother left. And you don’t even trust him.”

I didn’t answer. Knox hadn’t heard from me since the Serpent Bid. Maybe he thought I was dead. And Charles had conveniently forgotten about Cully. Then again, everyone had. Cully left for Valscribe three years ago, chasing a future with the Serpent Press. He was another brother turned stranger.

Charles leaned forward in his chair. “This shadow throne isn’t yours,” he said quietly. “And I won’t let you keep it.”

“I didn’t ask for the throne,” I said. “But it is mine.”

“No,” Charles said, smooth as frost. “You’re not ready for this.”

“You want the throne so badly, Charles?” I shot to my feet, the chair screeching against the marble. “Maybe you shouldn’t have dropped out of the Serpent Academy.”

His smile faltered. Then he stood, jaw tight. “I made a choice for our family. I’m the one who always cleans up our messes. And this mess you’re in? It won’t end kindly.”

I turned and walked out before I burned his hairline so far back, he’d need a crown just to hide it.

The castle doors slammed shut behind me. The cold bit down hard, sharp and unforgiving. A year ago, I would’ve been curled up with a book, dreading the nightmare of receiving a letter from the Academy. Now, the fire I used to read by lived in my veins.

The capital stretched wide before me. It was too golden for grief, the sky, the steps, the railings. Every surface gilded and polished to a shine. And behind me, I could still feel Charles’s damn golden stare searing into the back of my skull.

The sharp tang of iron laced the air beyond the estate’s towering fences. Below this marble monstrosity, the market buzzed with metalworkers, jewelers, and alchemists. The capital had everything, and in just three days, I’d learned it was the most advanced city on the entire Continent.

A shuffle behind me broke the stillness. Then came a voice I’d grown to know too well.

“Severyn Blanche.”

I turned to face the king. His steel-colored cloak swept to his ankles, sharp and regal. A few purple seaglass beads were woven into the silver braids of his beard. I wasn’t fashionable by any means, but the king’s taste in beard décor had always struck me as questionable at best.

The king’s cane stabbed into the frost. “Well?” he asked. “Are you going to make an old man walk the whole damn way?”

I rose, brushing ice from my shins. The Serpent mark on my back flared with pain, sharp and sudden. The nurses had whispered about cursed flesh when they saw it.

Still, I bowed low. “Sir,” I said, my voice rough from too much silence. “If this is about the Port…” I paused, the words catching. “I swear I didn’t know what my mother had done.”

My mother had killed his one true love. Veravine.

My grandmother. What he didn’t know was that she’d carried his child, my mother, causing the greatest secret in royal history.

We hadn’t spoken of it. But I’d been waiting.

Waiting for him to say something. Waiting for the truth to crawl out of his mouth like it burned.

“The Port has nothing to do with this,” he said. “We are family, Severyn.”

Well, there was my truth.

“Then to what do I owe the honor?” I asked, steadier now. “Because I’ve been kept here for three days like a prisoner.”

He’d sent Archer away the night Charles tried to strip me of my forbidden power. Threatened war if he refused. It took six guards and a light-stealer to drag him from here. I hadn’t dared open our bond since. Not with the risk that a more skilled mind-reader might be working for the king.

The king turned toward the swirling snow beyond the archway, where a bed of yellow pansies had begun to sprout through the frost. I’d never seen a yellow flower bloom in the snow before.

“I’ve always loved Winter,” he said. “The quiet. The way it falls like the world’s holding its breath. ”

I was tired of playing cold and composed. So I gave him something real. “It reminds me of home,” I said.

He laughed. “Someone like you will never have a home.”

My chest tightened. “What does that mean?”

“To have a home is to love,” he said. “And you don’t love Winter. Or Night’s shadows. What do you love, Severyn?”

He didn’t say Ravensla. And somehow, that stung more than it should have.

“I belong to my chosen realm,” I said softly. “Night.”

He stepped closer, his cane biting into the stone with each step. “I still need an heir. You could be queen.”

“I don’t want to be queen,” I said, the words dry and bitter. Not over a Continent that killed my brother.

“In due time,” he muttered.

I lifted my chin with an exasperated breath. “I’m done with cryptic threats and fluttering, all-knowing parchments. What does that even mean, in due time?”

His finger toyed with a bead threaded through his beard. “A proposition.”

Unease curled in my chest. “What kind?”

“My title is unclaimed. The chosen Serpents of each realm will compete for it. Something is coming… something we can’t control. I want our bloodline to survive.”

“And Monty Garcia?” I asked, my voice sharper now. “Doesn’t every Serpent step down if I claim heirship from his Bid?”

“Monty never completed his barter. The people mustn’t know you’re mine, Severyn. But if you win fairly, the throne stays in Herring hands. You have a pure heart. I can sense it.”

The thought turned my stomach inside out. “So you’re pitting Serpents against each other.”

“When I choose,” he replied simply .

My mind spun fast, already slipping into uncertainty. “What about Malachi?”

“She failed. Unless she claims her Autumn title within the year, it falls to you. Evil has already breached our walls. They’ll come for everything. Trust no one, Severyn.”

I swallowed hard. “I want to go home.”

The king tilted his head, and the seaglass beads woven into his beard caught the falling snow. “Where is home, Severyn Blanche?” he asked.

I didn’t answer right away. It felt like a trap. “Demetria,” I said at last. “The Night land.” It was the politically correct answer to say since I had become Archer’s heir.

“You and Archer Lynch cannot exist,” the king said. “That ruler made a mistake when he kept that snake for you. I can’t protect him if the Continent learns the truth of his heart.”

“I earned the title.”

The king’s gaze hardened. “That mark on your spine disagrees. That heirship wasn’t earned. It was forced. You have no shadow blood in you.”

“I have a shadow power,” I said, curling the shade between my fingers.

“Love can kill, my darling granddaughter. You, of all people, should understand that. Veravine loved your mother. If anyone had discovered who Fallon truly was, she wouldn’t have survived. And neither would you.”

Love could kill.

It could unravel bonds, break empires, and leave realms barren.

“When did you find out I was your granddaughter?” I asked. “Was it after Skyfall?”

“I always wondered. There were rumors of Veravine with a guard. I knew she would never give herself away like that. I became certain when Knox gained a light quell. ”

My fists clenched. “You were married. You let your wife take the blame for killing your mistress. Why?”

“There are some things you won’t understand until it happens to you,” he said quietly. “You may question my title, Severyn. But don’t question my heart.”

It was cold-hearted adultery. No matter how he tried to dress it.