Page 158 of Severed Heir

Archer stepped forward, took the key from Lynwood’s hand, and tucked me into his side. “Let’s forget it all. Just for tonight. We’ll go back to Night tomorrow. I’ll call a dragon wrangler. I’ll bond again. Maybe we can find some normality in the chaos.”

I exhaled. “I just want one day where the world doesn’t fall apart beneath me.”

He led me down the hall. The narrow corridor felt smaller than I remembered. Months ago, I’d walked these same halls as a Serpent student, dreading the sight of Archer Lynch. I was too proud, too stubborn to see that his protectiveness wasn’t cruelty, it was always there, right in front of me.

Archer’s voice cut through the hush, low and wrecked. “If I could take your pain, I would. All of it. I’d bury it in a place no one could ever find it.”

I swallowed. “Sometimes I wish I was still that girl. The one chained to ice.”

His breath hitched.

“Would we still be us?” I asked.

Archer nodded once, slow. “I swore to Klaus I’d protect you. Nothing would’ve changed that.”

“But if you’d claimed your father’s heir… what then?”

His voice roughened. “Then I would’ve despised myself for trapping you into a marriage. Maybe you’d grow to love me, but I would’ve seen my mother in you. I couldn’t live with that.”

The truth hit hard.

“And you never wondered who I really was?” I asked, searching his face. “You knew our father’s made a marriage bargain.”

Archer tilted his head, lips curling into a slow, sin-wrapped smile. “Technically… you’re the reason I met Klaus.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I was already initiated into Night,” he said. “I had two younger brothers, and I assumed one of them would become my father’s heir. But then I heard Klaus’s name called for the trials. I was curious.”

He took a step closer.

“When Klaus introduced himself, I stayed. And when he spoke of you… I knew none of my brothers could have you.”

“Why not?” I breathed.

His gaze dropped to my lips, then lowered. “Because they didn’t deserve you.”

Archer slid the key into the lock, and the door creaked open, revealing a room so grand it might’ve swallowed me whole. Golden curtains spilled over the windows, casting the space in a warm glow. White columns lifted a ceiling painted with rays of sun.

He lifted me into his arms, effortlessly, and for the first time in what felt like weeks, I let myself relax.

“I love you, Severyn,” Archer said. “Those words may be treason, but I do. I’d give you everything. Even my realm. Maybe if I’d been called to Summer, and Klaus had been my rival, I’d have glorified the chance to claim you.”

I held my breath. For once, it didn’t feel like a burden. I had always wondered what love truly was. I had seen it in stories, glimpsed it in my parents. I used to think it was sharp and fleeting. A rose, quick to bloom and just as quick to wither.

But love, I realized, was something else entirely. It was a dark flower, grown from grief and ice. Its petals opened slowly, trembling with every touch. Love wasn’t pain. It was yearning, and giving everything you had without knowing if it would ever be enough.

“I think I love you,” I whispered. Even then, the words tore through me, leaving everything raw and exposed. It was the only way I knew how to protect myself, offering part of the truth, but not all of it. Not until I knew he meant it.

Archer brushed the hair from my face and gently laid me back on the bed. The soft clink of metal followed as he unbuckled his gear, each piece falling away like burdens shed.

And mine lifted too.

He eased in beside me, guiding my head to rest in the crook of his neck. “I’ll wait as long as you need,” he said softly, “for it to only be three words.”

I shifted slightly. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

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