Page 236 of The Fifth Heir

“I’m still here,” I reminded him.

“And doing an excellent job of it.”

The headmaster glanced at Torren’s hold on me but did not ask him to put me down.

“The infirmary staff are waiting inside,” he said. “Before you go, I need to know what happened beneath the Hall.”

Sebastian handed him the fragment he had torn from the Trial floor.

“The final chamber had been altered,” he said. “The Stone runes were reversed to direct all four elemental powers toward Talia’s platform. This authority mark was embedded beneath the alteration.”

The headmaster accepted the stone.

The crown-and-gate seal remained visible inside Sebastian’s shadow ward.

His expression hardened. “Keeper authority.”

“An office held by many men,” Malcolm called from the entrance. “That seal proves nothing against me.”

Torren turned toward him.

Heat moved across the courtyard.

I felt his dragon ready itself beneath his skin, and the other three responded through the connection. Silver current snapped around Rafe’s fingers. Sebastian’s shadow darkened, while frost whitened the paving stones beneath Leander’s boots.

The guards near Malcolm drew their weapons.

“Put me down,” I told Torren.

“No.”

“Torren.”

“You can confront him from here.”

“That is not the point.”

He looked at me.

I pushed enough annoyance through the bond to make my position clear.

His jaw tightened, but he lowered my feet to the ground. He kept one arm around my waist beneath the cloak.

The other men closed in around us.

We crossed the courtyard as one group.

Malcolm watched our approach with the same controlled expression he had worn through every test, accusation, and inquiry.

I had once found that composure reassuring.

Now I understood what it concealed.

“You knew there should be five heirs,” I said.

“I knew the Prism had exhibited undocumented behavior in the past.”

“You knew about Crystal Dragons.”