Page 49

A trickle of shadow bled from my relic, slow and steady, like a rusted tap sputtering to life. It laced across my knuckles with a strange, familiar chill. I inhaled sharply as the cool weight settled around my skin.

“I’d call it a borrowed quell,” Rok murmured.

I propped myself up on my knees. “Can I give it back?”

He chuckled. “What fun would that make our little barter?”

“It’s late,” I said. “Don’t you have dungeons to haunt? Faces to punch?”

Rok didn’t move. The look he gave me held something far more dangerous than amusement.

“When I take on someone’s quell,” he said, voice quieter now, “I feel the imprint of what it’s done.

The misery it carries. Anyone joining leadership here?

I test them. Their quells.” He tilted his head. “And I felt you in someone else’s.”

My blood ran cold.

“A certain guard,” Rok continued. “An ice-wielder used his quell to torture you.” He didn’t need to say Callum’s name.

“I was hoping he’d be dead,” I said flatly.

“Careful, Severyn. A blunt Serpent is rarely a wise one.” Then he turned on his dirt-caked heel and disappeared down the corridor.

Could I give the power back to Archer? It couldn’t be as simple as handing it over. Power didn’t work like that—or at least, I didn’t think it did. There was still so much I didn’t understand about the bonds, about the way quells worked, about what Archer had truly sacrificed for me.

And I needed answers.

“She won’t ever forgive me…”

Damien’s voice slipped into my thoughts so quietly, so unexpectedly, that for a moment I wasn’t sure it was real. I slammed my shield shut on instinct, forcing the bond closed.

But then it came again. “There was so much blood.”

I froze. “Damien?” I whispered, lurching upright .

I pushed off the cot and went toward the door, but the halls were empty. “Where are you?” I whispered.

“She’ll never forgive me. Severyn will never forgive me.”

He’d said those same words again and again. That I would never forgive him. But why?

I walked through the lantern-lit halls, peeking my head around a second corridor. I kept walking until I reached the Serpent halls, listening for the tether of the voice.

“She was onto me. I had no choice.” Was he talking in his sleep?

As I moved farther down the corridor, I focused, reaching out through the bond. “ What did you do?” I asked.

But he was quiet.

“What did you do?” I asked again, pushing harder.

“…I wanted to save you.”

“ From what?” I whispered into the quiet.

But just as my mind went still, a shriek of metal cut through the silence. The door I was pressed against swung open, and Damien stepped into the hall, shirtless and rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“Shit, you scared me.” He blinked. “Are you alright, Sev?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” I said, trying to sound casual. “This place gives me the creeps.”

My shield was up now, tight and unbreakable. I couldn’t risk him knowing I’d heard anything.

He smiled. “Archer’s room is three doors down.”

“I wasn’t looking for Archer.”

“You came to see me?” He chuckled, the sound low. “In the middle of the night? How scandalous of you.”

I needed to stay close. Close enough to listen. To catch whatever he was still hiding.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “About our wedding. I thought we needed to talk. ”

He gripped the handle and pulled the door open, stepping aside to let me in. “Then come in and talk.”

I sat on the edge of his bed as fractured light spilled across the room in sickly shades of gold and green.

“We can be friends,” I said quietly. It didn’t sound like a lie, but Damien knew me too well.

He exhaled slowly, eyes fixed on the wall. “I don’t want to be your friend.”

“Then what do you want?”

His gaze flicked toward me, sharp and burning. “What does he have that I don’t?”

“Damien—”

“Tell me.”

“I trust him,” I said. “And he doesn’t come with a motive when it comes to my heart. I don’t want to love someone out of obligation or manipulation.”

He smirked, leaning in just enough for the air between us to tighten. “He doesn’t want you, Sev. He’s told you that. To your face.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “An heir can’t love their leader.”

Then his eyes darkened. “And yet... he takes what he wants from you. Uses you. Strings you along.”

The words stung, too close to the fears I hadn’t voiced.

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” His voice rang in my head, and from his calmness, he didn’t know I had heard it.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

I knew this was wrong. Getting close to him just to hear his thoughts went against everything I believed in. But I wasn’t leaving without a damn answer.

I shifted closer, letting our fingertips brush where we sat on the edge of the bed. “I wish things were different between us,” I said .

“She knew it was her legacy,” another thought of his leaked into my mind.

Closer. I needed to get closer.

“You’ve been poisoned with nightmare venom, Severyn,” he said, voice low. “You don’t want me. Not really.”

I shuddered. “Please,” I whispered. “I feel horrible about how everything went down.”

He let out a quiet scoff, amusement curling at the edges of his voice. “Careful, Sev. You’ve got fuck-me eyes.”

“No, I don’t,” I said.

He tilted his head. “The eyes never lie.” Then he leaned back, his shirt hanging open just enough to expose his chest. “But you do. You lie all you want, Sev, but I know you. I know your mind better than you do.”

His smile turned smug. “And I won’t tell anyone that you still want me.”

“I don’t.”

He knew exactly how to knock me off balance. I stood abruptly. “It’s late.”

I didn’t wait for a response. I nearly sprinted back to the infirmary. Whatever Damien was hiding, I’d find out. Eventually, but not tonight.

But the second I stepped into the room, I froze.

The cot I’d been sleeping in had three daggers pierced straight through the pillow, driven clean through where my head should’ve been.

Someone had tried to kill me. And deep down, I already knew who it was. Rok.