Page 69

By the time we crossed into the untamed lands, it felt like the world had collapsed. The air grew thinner with each step. Every movement felt like a trespass. This was a place where things either ended or began again.

“Keep walking. Cloaks on. Shields high.” Rok’s voice cut through the wind, sharp and cold. We obeyed without hesitation. One wrong move out here and none of us would make it out.

We marched in three tight lines, with guards and heirs woven together. Eventually, we came to a halt and remained there, unmoving. We waited as the minutes dragged on, each one stretching longer than the last.

“What the hell are we waiting for?” Caius growled beside me.

“Keep your voice down,” Rok snapped.

Caius muttered under his breath, “We’ve been standing here coughing up dirt for an hour. This is bullshit.”

Without warning, Damien stepped through the line. “The Forgotten never bargained for the heirs to fight, did they?” he asked. “You made that choice for them.”

Rok’s gaze swept over the ranks. “Speak up,” he said, his voice like ice. “If there’s treason among us, I want it named. Now. ”

Caius scoffed. “The only betrayal here is this godsdamned institute.”

“No,” Damien said, stepping forward. “That’s not it.”

Rok’s eyes narrowed. “Then what is it?”

“You lied to us,” Damien said flatly. “The Forgotten didn’t send us here to fight. Malvoria did. The Forgotten never declared war, Malvoria did.”

Rok stilled. His hand drifted toward the hilt at his hip, his voice turning to ice. “And how exactly did you come to that conclusion? Has a mind been feeding you secrets?”

The realization struck like a blade to the chest. I turned on Damien, heart pounding. “You. You’re the one feeding them information.”

But Rok didn’t move to stop him. He didn’t lash out or shout. He stood completely still. The nod he gave wasn’t just agreement, it was understanding. As if Damien’s words hadn’t just been said out loud, but pulled straight from his mind.

Then, in one swift, practiced motion, Rok drew his blade and turned. Not on Damien, but on Kian.

Gasps echoed across the line. A few guards reached for their weapons, but Rok’s snarl froze them in place.

“Not him,” Rok said, his voice flat and lethal. “But your little shadow’s been consorting with the enemy.”

Kian didn’t flinch. He just exhaled, slow and tired, like a man who had been waiting for this moment to come. He lifted his hands with a forced smirk, cracked his neck, and muttered, “Shit. You caught me.”

Then the mist shifted.

Shapes formed. Dozens at first. Then hundreds. Cloaked figures emerged in perfect silence, their hoods low, their weapons sheathed but ready. The Forgotten had come.

And we were outnumbered .

A woman with blood-red hair and dark roots stepped through the line of cloaked figures, her violet eyes glowing like glass catching firelight.

“My boy,” she said, her voice rich and unmistakably proud. “You’ve done so well.”

Kian bowed his head, shame tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You made me betray them,” he said hoarsely. “Don’t hurt them, Mum. Please.”

Mum?

Rok’s blade wavered. “Reina Lynch,” he breathed. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

She smiled—and gods, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Not in a mortal way, but in the way starlight looked just before it vanished.

“I haven’t heard that name in years,” she said softly. “Most call me Octavia now. After my maiden name. Octavion.”

Archer’s mother had been alive this entire time.

Damien staggered a step back, like the ground beneath him had shifted. His voice cracked as he spoke. “I saw Father’s memory. He killed you. I watched it happen.”

Reina tilted her head, and her expression was unreadable. “You’re a powerful mind-reader, Damien. But power without clarity is dangerous.” For a heartbeat, her gaze softened. “You are your father’s son… and for that, I’m sorry.”

“Quells up,” Rok barked, snapping us back into formation.

My heart slammed against my ribs. “Wait,” I said, lifting a hand. “We should hear them out.”

But Rok didn’t hesitate. He stepped forward and extended his palm in a rigid, trained motion. “No. We give you the heirs. In return, you leave Verdonia untouched.”

Reina didn’t blink. “That isn’t what we asked for.” She moved closer, her voice level and unshaken. “We want only one thing, that Malvoria stops killing those born with forbidden quells. Nothing more.”

Rok let out a bitter laugh. “That’s not a request we can honor. Forbidden powers are unstable. They destroy everything they touch.”

Reina raised a hand. “Then you will watch your borders crumble. You will see barren lands rise through the valleys. And all the rot you’ve sown will return to you.”

Rok’s tone turned to stone. “Forbidden powers tarnish us. To know the future is to unravel it.”

She didn’t flinch. “One thousand Seekers were slaughtered in cold blood throughout the last century. Some never even carried the power of foresight. Your institute assumed guilt before proof. You speak of destruction? You are the source. And now, you try to barter us their heirs in hopes of saving your own skin.”

I glanced at Damien, my stomach sinking . “They sent us here to die,” I thought through our bond.

“And your leader has conveniently severed the bond that ties you together.” Damien’s voice shook in my mind. “I was never your enemy, Severyn. He was.”

My fists clenched, the shadows roiling beneath my skin. “No. No. I don’t believe you.”

“Then you are a fool,” Rok sneered, lifting the first sword. “We will fight to protect Verdonia from the corruption of forbidden quells and the Forgotten’s rule.”

He raised both arms high.

Ellison summoned flame, his eyes glowing bright and frenzied, as if his body no longer answered to him. “It’s not me,” he whispered, staring at the fire writhing in his palms. “I’m not in control.”

Rok turned to me, extending a hand .

Flame flared in my chest, wild and feral. He was siphoning our powers.

“Rok, stop,” I said. “This isn’t right. We don’t want war.”

But the shadows I’d kept locked down for weeks surged forward, coiling around my arms like starving vines.

“Who better to fight for the Continent,” Rok shouted, “than the heirs chosen by the academy that cast out the Forgotten?”

He raised his arms to the sky.

“It began with the first six gods,” he roared. “First came Soliath’s ice—shredding their flesh!”

Bridger reacted instinctively. His arm snapped forward, and jagged shards of ice burst from his palm, cutting through the advancing Forgotten with brutal precision.

“And flame,” Rok bellowed, “sealed the barriers!”

Ash erupted from Ellison’s hands, coiling into searing ribbons that sliced through the fog and scorched the cloaked soldiers ahead.

A scream split the air and the battle began.

Rok moved like a conductor of chaos, tearing the heirs’ quells from their cores, unleashing them like living weapons. One by one, we were turned into tools of a war we didn’t choose.

“Then,” Rok breathed, “came darkness.”

Kian stumbled forward. Shadows spilled from his palms, coiling like nooses around the necks of Forgotten soldiers. Screams echoed through the snow-choked silence.

“No!” I cried, fists trembling. “I won’t fight.”

A dagger sliced into my shoulder and slammed me to the ground. Pain ripped through my ribs as another blade struck fast and clean, piercing my side. I felt the wet warmth spread.

I couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t stop any of it.

“Severyn!” Damien’s voice broke through the chaos. He crashed past the guards, blood smearing his cheek. “You’re losing control. ”

“I know,” I gasped, the words torn from my throat. “I can’t stop him.”

“They want you to break,” he said, dropping beside me. “They want Demetria to fall for a girl who doesn’t even believe she’s worth saving.”

“I’m not,” I choked, barely able to form the words. My hands shook so badly I could barely lift them.

He reached for me, his voice steady despite the madness around us. “You’re scared. And you hate me.” His eyes searched mine. “But if you give in to this, you’ll prove them right.”

“I do hate you.”

“Then use it,” he said. “Not the fear. The hate. Be angry, Severyn. Not at yourself, not this time. Be angry at me. Because I failed you. I ruined whatever we were, and I’m sorry. For all of it.”

“I am,” I hissed. “You let me believe you were dead. You knew Kian was leaking information and you did nothing. You killed Malachi.”

“He’s my brother,” Damien said quietly. “And you’re fighting."

My flame cracked. Pain bloomed in my chest, sharp and sudden. My knees buckled, and I hit the ground hard.

“You’re fighting,” he said. “But you don’t think you deserve it. You don’t see what I see.”

“I hate you.”

“Good.”

A low rumble echoed over the rise. The ground trembled beneath my hands. I looked up, breath catching in my throat as the sound grew louder. Hooves thundered across the earth, shaking the fog loose in pulsing bursts.

And then he appeared through the smoke.

Not a god. But he could have passed for one.

Archer .

His cloak snapped behind him, each gallop cutting through the haze. The warhorse surged beneath him, wild with momentum. Before it fully stopped, Archer launched himself from the saddle, landing hard in the churned earth. His bow slipped from his grasp mid-run, forgotten the moment he saw me.

He didn’t hesitate.

He ran straight for me, like nothing else in the world mattered.

“No,” I rasped, backing up as the panic rose. “No, no, no. Archer, stay back!”

But he didn’t slow. Not even for a second. He ran straight for me, eyes locked, like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.

And I couldn’t protect him.