My fingers twitched, useless against the weight anchoring me in place.
“You wield unimaginable power,” she continued, stopping in front of me. Her voice turned reverent, hungry. “But we all have our specialties. Mine is precision. Yours—yours is unique due to your connection with your dragon.But it’s unstable. Untethered. Because of her.”
I looked up, barely able to raise my chin.
Seraveth’s eyes gleamed. “To reach your full potential… all we have to do is kill her.”
The words sliced through me worse than any blade.
Kaelith.
Her voice had gone silent for days—but thebondstill pulsed faintly. Weak, distant, butalive.
I shook my head, breath catching.
“No,” I whispered.
But Seraveth just smiled.
“Then you’llneverbe more than half of what you’re meant to be.”
I gritted my teeth against the searing pain of her spell, forcing my trembling hands to brace against the forest floor. My voice cracked, but I spoke anyway.
“Then kill me,” I rasped. “I’d rather bedeadthan a pawn of the Blood King.”
Seraveth didn’t flinch.
Instead, she tilted her head, a strand of pale hair falling over her cheek like snow sliding from a ledge. “You say that now,” she murmured, circling again. “But you don’t know the truth. Not really.”
I looked up, my vision blurred at the edges. “Enlighten me.”
She stopped behind me, her voice low, dangerous.
“The Light Fae started this war,” she said. “We justfinishedit.”
My breath hitched. “What are you talking about?”
Seraveth came into view again, her steps slow, calculated. “The dragons had nothing to do with the initial blow. It was never their war, not at first. The battle between the fae factions began long before the humans even noticed. Before the first tower fell. Before the throne fractured.”
I blinked. “You’re saying thiswasn’tabout dragons?”
“No,” she said softly. “Itbecameabout dragons. About power. Territory. Mortal allies. But it started… with the Light Fae.”
She crouched beside me, brushing her fingers against the dirt inches from my hand.
“You are blood-bound to the most powerful fae to ever live.”
I knew the name before she said it, and still… it felt like poison on her tongue.
“The Blood King.”
I sneered, heart pounding. “I’drather die.”
She smiled faintly. “Yes. You are his granddaughter.”
My stomach lurched.
“What?”
