Page 34 of Severed Heir

Rok’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Oh, this will be our little secret, Severyn.”

He didn’t move closer. Instead, he raised a hand from where he stood, fingers curling in the air like he was sketching something invisible. And then I felt the flame sear into my skin. The first stroke burned so deep I cried out, clutching the wall for balance.

“They say the worst torture,” Rok murmured. “is being killed by your own magic.”

The flame dragged again, tracing another line into my ribs.

“Rok—why?” I gasped, breath catching in my throat.

His gaze flicked to mine, dark with something close to fascination. “Because pain makes people obedient. And you, Severyn, were never meant to obey.”

He wasn’t just branding me, he was using my own flame to do it, carving the mark into my skin with his finger.

“Why are you so cruel?”

“Because a dead dragon has risen,” he said softly. “And your brother told me to break you.”

“No,” I breathed, vision blurring. “He wouldn’t want me to be tortured.”

“Oh, yes he would. And we both know it.” He lowered his hand, and the final line of the brand seared into my skin.

“The ‘M’ can stand for many things,” Rok muttered. “Malvoria. Monster. Mistake.” He smiled, slow and razor-sharp. “But me? Maybe it stands formurderer.”

“Murderer?” I choked, pain tearing through me. When he leaned back, I collapsed to my side, clutching the jagged brand seared into my skin.

“Your quell killed the Warden’s daughter,” he said. “I felt it the moment I siphoned your power. He doesn’t know it was you.”

“I didn’t mean to,” I rasped. “I didn’t—”

Rok flexed his fingers. “Now,” he said smoothly, “about that barter. I do have something in mind.”

“What?” I asked.

“Your shadow quell,” he said. “I want to borrow it.”

I tugged my shirt down, shaking. “No. I can’t give you that. Iwon’t.”

He leaned in, close enough that I could taste the smoke on his breath. “Then I’ll tell the entire Continent that Archer Lynchis screwing his heir.” His grin stretched wider. “Scandal of the century, don’t you think? And if the Warden finds outyou’rethe one who killed his daughter…” He let the threat hang. “I don’t think you want to know what he’ll do to you.”

And in that moment, I didn’t fully grasp what I had agreed to, or the cost of lending my shadow to a monstrous guard who knew far too much.

But I knew one thing: He hadjust ruined me.

Chapter Six

Ellison shook me awake in the early hours of dawn, or at least, I thought it was dawn.

The pounding in my head made time feel irrelevant. The dim light filtering through the door’s crack did little to clarify the hour, but I could tell by the way my body ached that sleep had been a rare, broken thing.

After getting branded, two sleepless nights had blurred together into one endless ache. Even Rok siphoning my flame hadn’t strengthened me. If anything, it had left me weaker.

“Giesel says a week into the initiation to be a guard worsens,” Ellison muttered. “Today’s the final test. The trust test.”

“We—I didn’t even pass the second one,” I said, glancing at Giesel asleep in the corner, curled in on herself like a wilting flower.

Blinking against the dizziness, I forced myself to my feet. The world spun in sick, slow circles. Maybe Archer would claim me as his guard sooner than later. The thought was almost funny.

As we left the dungeons, the first slice of sunlight nearly blinded me as I stepped from the cellar’s choking dark. Fresh air hit my lungs, so clean it hurt, and for a moment I just stood there, gasping like someone who had been drowning.

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