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The Malvoria guards dragged the bodies from the scorched land, their boots stirring ash into the air. Cries of mourning rose through the veil of smog, a grief too heavy to silence.

A trial for the king’s title would come.

Archer stood without an heir. Would he fight? I didn’t have time to ask before Reina stepped forward, then faltered, her gaze locking on her eldest son.

I nudged him gently. “You should talk to her.”

“I have nothing to say to her,” he hissed low.

“You may never get another chance,” I said quietly. “Please. You need answers.”

Archer shook his head and stormed toward her. “Why did you leave? Was it worth abandoning your three sons?”

Reina lifted her chin, though she couldn’t meet his eyes. “Demetria was next,” she said. “I made a bargain. A life debt to save your grandfather.”

“You made an alliance with the Forgotten?” Archer’s voice sharpened.

“I severed an unbreakable bond. I didn’t know Ciaran would bond with you after that.” She reached for him, fingers trembling as they touched his cheek. But Archer flinched away .

“You asked them to sever Ciaran’s bond when she was bonded to my grandfather?” His voice cracked. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“The Gemini dragons,” Reina whispered. “When Veravine died, your grandfather began to fade. The bond was killing him. I had no choice but to ask the Forgotten for help. I forced them to break it.”

Archer turned, grabbing my hand. “We have to find Ciaran.”

Reina’s voice shook behind us. “You severed your bond. But it wasn’t Ciaran’s choice. A rider can’t break it. Only the dragon can or someone else with the power.”

“Archer…” My voice caught. “How did you sever your bond?”

Before he could answer, shouting erupted behind us. From the mist, a cluster of Forgotten soldiers emerged, escorting a chained figure through the ash. His steps were uneven.

Klaus.

Cleminore stepped forward, her voice slicing through the tension like a drawn blade. “The resurrected Seeker comes with us. We won’t allow you to torture our champion,” she said to Rok.

Champion? My breath stilled.

Holy Gods. They were going to make Klaus fight in the Serpent Trial. Force him to bleed for the king’s title.

“That’s not him,” I whispered.

“I know,” Archer said softly, his gaze locked on the figure as though looking at a ghost.

I seized his arm, forcing myself to stay focused. “How did you sever your bond?”

His fingers curled against the air, as if reliving it. “I didn’t have a choice, Severyn. The guards were in my mind.”

“What choice?” I pressed, voice rising. “What did you do? ”

Reina stepped from the line like she was approaching a mirror fractured down the center.

“In our darkest moments, we don’t think of the consequences,” she said.

“Archer made a bargain with the Forgotten to sever his bond. It may come due tomorrow or in ten years. Maybe when you have children and you’re forced to leave them behind.

Or maybe it’ll come during the trial, when they pit you against your own people for the king’s crown. ”

She paused, her breath catching. “Or maybe... they’ll make you fight against her .”

“Enough,” Archer snapped, his voice low and edged with finality. “You’ve said enough.”

He thrust his hand forward, shadows spiraling from his palm as a portal tore open between us. Without waiting, he gripped my arm and pulled me through. The darkness collapsed behind us, swallowing the battlefield whole.

We landed outside his estate, the sky above us streaked in lavender dusk. My knees nearly buckled. I was hurt and disoriented.

“Why?” I demanded, rounding on him. “Why did you sever the bond? What could possibly be worth protecting?”

His gaze didn’t waver. “You,” he said simply.

The word hit like a blow to the chest.

“The guards were in my head,” he said quietly.

“They sensed something between us. And they did find your power, Severyn. They wanted to corrupt it. To turn you into a weapon.” He swallowed, jaw clenched.

“They would’ve made you slaughter Demetria’s civilians…

then forced you to bring the monsters back to life. ”

“They tried.” My voice cracked. “You sacrificed your quell. Your kingdom.”

“I laid down my life for my home,” he said. “And you are my home. ”

“Why was the bond between us so important to them?”

Archer’s voice dropped, barely above a breath. “It wasn’t our rider bond they sensed.”

“Then what bond was it?”

He looked at me, truly looked at me, and in his gaze, there was no armor left. “They were hunting my truemate.”

The world tilted.

“Your truemate?” I echoed.

“There’s a reason your quell never hurt me,” he said, stepping closer. “Because it never could. We were always meant to find each other.”

My heart thundered.

“But… shouldn’t your truemate be from Night? To preserve the bloodline?” I asked.

“Whatever god sent you to me must’ve known I didn’t need more shadows,” he said, voice low. “I needed fire. I needed light.”

He reached for my hand, holding it like it was the only thing keeping him tethered to this world. “You were raised in frost, Severyn. But you’ve always been the heat. You are the powerful one.”

I swallowed hard, my heart rattling in my chest. “How long have you known?”

His thumb brushed my wrist. “Since I claimed my grandfather’s title. I won’t make excuses for Andri. Falling in love with his truemate while married is wrong, but I understand it now, because I felt you in my mind for two years.”

I couldn’t speak.

Of course, Klaus had known. That’s why his final words were for Archer. He forgave him for loving me.

And it was never really about the dragons.

The words sank into me, heavy and unshakable. I opened my mouth to speak, but he silenced me with a kiss. His lips met mine, firm and desperate, and suddenly, the only thing I could hear was the wild beat pounding in my chest.

His hands slid to my waist. He found the twin blades there, easing them from their sheaths, and let them fall to the ground with a soft clatter.

And I let him have all of me.

A shadow portal opened behind us, the air rippling with flame and ash as it pulled us in. The world tilted, blurred, then steadied again as we landed in his room.

“We need a shower,” he muttered. “Well, I need a shower. Desperately.”

We staggered toward the heat, steam curling around us as the water rushed over scorched skin and bruised bones. The battle clung to us in aches and silence, but here, in the quiet, we let it slip away.

Archer’s hands found me, steady and certain, and he leaned in close. His breath brushed my ear as he whispered, “Every part of me loves you, Severyn. You protected my realm when I couldn’t. You are everything.”

I closed my eyes, the words hitting something fragile and unguarded inside me.

“I love you, Archer Lynch,” I whispered. “I think,” I added with a wink.

He kissed me again, hard enough to chase away doubt. My back met the stone, cool and grounding, but his touch lit a fire beneath my skin. There was urgency in him, a kind of desperation, like he needed to claim the one thing he had almost lost.

His voice was rough when it came, brushing my lips like a vow. “Let me worship you, Severyn. Let me erase every moment we were apart.”

“I need you closer,” I gasped .

He pressed his forehead to mine. “I’m not letting go. Not now. Not ever.”

I nodded. In one fluid, desperate motion, he lifted me. My legs wrapped around his waist as he pressed me against the wall. Then he lowered himself, sinking to his knees in a bow beneath me.

His hands tightened around my thighs, spreading them open as the water fell between us. “You aren’t leaving this shower until I’m done with you,” he said.

His lips and tongue kissed my thighs as my feet rested on his shoulders. He plunged his tongue inside my heated core, tasting and devouring every single sense that was left inside me.

Oh shit , I was about to come undone one minute in.

And when his fingers curled, I arched back. “Will you fight in this trial?” I gasped.

His eyes flicked up. “No talk of politics while I’m savoring you.”

“What are you going to do about it?” I asked.

He wiped his chin. “Well, clearly I’m not hitting the right spot if your mind is focused on politics.”

He curled a finger deeper inside me. “I just wanted… to talk,” I gasped.

“Okay, you want to talk while I pleasure you?” He leaned closer. “You won’t be able to keep this up, little heir.”

I was up for the challenge, for the most part, before I cried out in pleasure and he pressed his lips on mine.

He shifted me down and gripped my thighs even tighter. “Fuck you are beautiful. Glistening, sweet and all mine.”

“All yours?”

He placed his hips before mine, pausing. “Yes.” Then he edged his hard cock before my entrance, dragging the tip between my folds, like the teasing bastard he was. “Any last political remarks,” he murmured, “before I make sure I’m the only thing on your mind?”

I shook my head. “Quite scandalous making love to another Serpent’s heir,” I said.

He pushed himself inside of me and my head leaned back. “That sounded political to me, but I’ll allow it.”

“Could this start a war?”

His chest fell against mine, breath against my ear. “I have no political ties with Wrathi. So yeah, being inside his heir and hearing her moans could start a war.”

“Good.”

He wrapped his hand around my neck gently. “I think you enjoy being rebellious.” He groaned in my ear.

“Yes.”

Then he kissed me again, deeper and ash fell on our bare bodies like rain. “Don’t worry about burning me,” he urged, his thumb stroking my breast. “Don’t hold it in.”

“I don’t have the strength to hold it in,” I said.

I couldn’t hold back. Flames flared in my palm, the heat curling up my spine as his mouth found my throat. He nipped and sucked at my skin until even my neck felt marked by him.

We weren’t making love anymore. This was war.

Desperate and consuming, a clash of bodies and breath as he drove into me, deeper with every thrust. I reached up, tracing the serpent inked along his neck, feeling the strain in his tendons as he moved.

Every inch of him was power, and every part of me answered it.

“That’s it,” he groaned. “Release it, little heir.”

It wasn’t a god I cried out for as I dug my nails into his bare neck, it was him. I toppled to my knees and stared up as I took his hard, erect cock between my hands and clamped my lips over the head and sucked.

“Fuck, Severyn,” he groaned.

“Shh,” I urged. He ran his hand through the damp ends of my hair, gently guiding my face closer to his body as I took him deeper in my mouth.

“Shit,” he moaned. Then I swirled my tongue up and down his shaft until he leaned back and finished. Both of us panting and wrecked.

We cleaned up after. Then, for hours, we lay tangled in the warmth of his bed, our limbs a quiet knot beneath the covers. Starlight poured through the open balcony doors, casting soft silver hues across the room. My head rested on his chest, rising and falling with each steady beat of his heart.

“You should sleep,” Archer murmured, his voice hushed against the dark. “After-battle sex will tire anyone out.”

“I can’t,” I whispered. “Hadrian expects me in Wrathi in three days.”

His fingers threaded through my hair slowly.

“When I won my title, my grandfather was sick. He handed me the crown before I even understood what it meant. I was terrified. I thought the people wouldn’t follow me.

That I’d fail them. That I’d fail him.” He paused.

“I never let anyone see it,” he said. “I couldn’t. ”

“We’re all a little broken,” I said.

“So we are, little heir,” he murmured, brushing his knuckles down my cheek. “So we are.”

“I have three days left,” I whispered. “I want to live all of it. You. Demetria. The traditions. Everything I never got to have.”

His smile was soft and aching. “You want to see what your life could’ve been?”

“I want to see it with you.”

“Close your eyes,” he said, voice barely above a breath. “And when you wake, I’ll show you.”

I curled deeper into him, my fingers tracing the lines of his chest, memorizing every ridge and scar. Soon, I’d leave for Wrathi. Soon, I’d become Hadrian’s heir .

“I remember the day you came to my estate,” I whispered. “I thought my father was going to kill you. It feels like a lifetime ago.”

Archer gave a soft laugh. “He thought I was there to claim you as my wife. He didn’t know I hadn’t even won the Summer title. Everything was unraveling. My grandfather had just surrendered the crown. I was drowning… and then I heard you for the first time.”

“You heard me in your mind before the academy?”

He looked down at me. “Yes.”

I laughed softly, blinking against the sting in my eyes. “I was probably insufferable.”

“Actually,” he said, “quite the opposite. The only way you would’ve heard me was through a rider bond. I hated knowing your thoughts without your permission. So… I bonded with you.”

I groaned. “Gods. So you’ve known everything I’ve ever thought since you were heired?”

Archer gave me a crooked grin. “Well… you did have a bit of a crush on me, Severyn.”

I jabbed his arm. “I did not.”

“Should I be offended?”

“Maybe I just liked the attention of a Serpent,” I teased, grinning. “Shadows are kind of hot.”

But my smile faded as I glanced down at the place where my relic used to rest. The space felt oddly hollow.

“It feels strange not having them anymore.”

He reached for my hand, his voice gentler now. “Thank you for keeping them safe, my love.”