I met Seraveth’s gaze through the pain, through the pulsing throb of her magic still crawling under my skin. Her offer hung in the air like rot wrapped in silk.
Belonging. Family. Power.
All I had to do was surrender everything I was.
I bared my teeth through the ache, through the betrayal still burning in my chest where Kaelith’s silence screamed the loudest.
“You can go tohell,” I spat.
Her smile didn’t falter.
She simply rose, slow and graceful, brushing off invisible dust from her cloak like my defiance had barely grazed her.
“It’s too soon,” she said softly, her eyes gleaming with something cold. “You still have hope. Still think she’ll come for you. But that will change.”
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t.
“You’ll remember this moment,” she continued, “when you’re bleeding out on some battlefield, screaming for your dragon… and she doesn’t come.”
My throat clenched.
“And then,” Seraveth said, stepping back into the shadows, “you’ll understand what it means to be alone.”
The trees swallowed her like fog.
She didn’t run.
She didn’t need to.
And I stayed there on the forest floor, heart pounding, pain humming through every limb, my bond with Kaelith as cold and silent as it had ever been.
The moment Seraveth disappeared, I collapsed to the forest floor, arms trembling as the last pulse of her magic released its hold. My breath came in ragged gasps, my blade forgotten in the dirt, and the silence that followed was so heavy it felt like the trees themselves were holding their breath.
I reached for Kaelith.
Kaelith,I whispered through the bond, voice fraying at the edges.Please. I need you.
The silence stretched long and piercing.
She said…I swallowed hard.She said I’m the Blood King’s granddaughter. That my blood could bond dragons to the fae again. That I’m the key.
Nothing.
I closed my eyes, biting back the tears, shame and dread knotting together in my throat.
Is that why you never wanted me?I asked her.Did you know?
Finally, her presence stirred at the edge of my consciousness, like a distant ember flickering in a dark cave.
I knew you carried power, Kaelith replied slowly, voice as distant as it was cold.I felt it the moment you entered the barracks. But I did not know… who spawned you.
The wordspawnedhit like a lash.
Now I do.
And?I pressed, voice cracking.What does that mean?
Her silence was answer enough.
