Kaelith.
She stood proud and alone, her body coiled like a bowstring, wings tucked tightly. A fae woman approached, radiant and calm, white hair braided with silver threads. For a moment, I didn’t recognize her without the venom in her eyes.
Severeth.
But then—her hands moved.
Storm magic exploded around her.
Wind howled and lightning cracked. The force of it drove Kaelith back. For a second, I thought she’d fall, her limbs buckling under the storm’s ferocity.
But then fire erupted from the sky.
Siergen.
He crashed down like a wrathful god, golden and furious, and slammed Severeth with a wall of flame. She screamed, her form flickering, seared and broken as she fled into the mist. Most of her body was burned, scorched and ragged—but she escaped.
And in the silence that followed, Kaelith’s voice slithered into my mind like smoke sliding across glass.
I will never take a rider.
The vision snapped away, leaving only my ragged breath and the faint shimmer of magic in the mist.
Truths, buried deep.
Old wounds, older oaths.
And me, caught in the center of it all.
I stumbled from the mist, my legs unsteady, my lungs dragging in the thick air like it weighed more now—like truth had a gravity of its own. My clothes clung to me, damp with sweat, and my heart hadn’t quite returned to its rhythm. It beat slow, then fast, then slow again.
Kaelith waited, unmoving. Her violet eyes locked onto mine like they knew what I’d seen. Like she remembered.
Norven stepped forward, his expression unreadable.What truths will you share?
I wiped a tear from my cheek, the last one that had slipped down my face when I’d seen the silver dragon die. “My mother gave me away.”
Why?Norven asked.
“To protect me,” I said softly, the words foreign and painful on my tongue. “Likely from my grandfather. Veralin.”
Norven inclined his head.And your second truth?
My gaze drifted to Siergen, whose golden form still burned behind my eyes.
“He lost his mate in the Blood Fae War,” I whispered. “He was gold, and… she died.”
Siergen held my stare, his body as still as stone. He said nothing, but I could feel his silence, and his grief. He didn’t deny it.
Norven’s voice deepened.And the third?
I turned to Kaelith. She had not moved, but I felt the tension in her limbs, the wary breath she held.
“A Blood Fae,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Named Severeth. She attacked Kaelith—tried to bend her, control her. She resisted. But…”
I swallowed hard.
“She said she would never take a rider. She doesn’t want to be bound to me.”
