Page 11 of The Fifth Heir

Mother and Father remained seated.

Camilla had not moved.

I could see her face between two celebrating candidates. She looked at Leander, then at the empty space where the final torc had floated.

There was no torc left.

No beam left.

Four heirs had been chosen.

Camilla was not one of them.

My thumbnail dug into the side seam of my robe. I had prepared myself for her selection so completely that I did not know what to feel in its absence. She had given more than half her life to this moment. She had studied crown law, military strategy, elemental alliances, and every recorded Trial. She had trained until the scales along her ribs cracked and bled.

The Prism had passed her over in front of the entire realm.

The headmaster raised both hands, calling for silence.

Slowly, the applause diminished.

Torren, Sebastian, Rafe, and Leander stood within separate circles of elemental light. The other candidates remained in formation around them, some openly disappointed, others already recovering their composure.

Camilla looked toward our parents.

Mother’s hand covered her mouth. Father stared at the Prism as if waiting for it to correct an obvious error.

My sister’s gaze shifted to me.

I did not know what she saw in my face. Sympathy would humiliate her. Shock would be worse. There was no expression I could offer that would not acknowledge what hundreds of witnesses had just seen.

I gave her the smallest nod I could manage.

Not pity.

I see you.

Her shoulders straightened.

The headmaster turned toward the four chosen men.

“The Prism has named its heirs.”

Light flashed beneath the western lamp.

I glanced toward it.

The hidden lines I had uncovered were glowing.

At first, the illumination was so faint that I thought it came from the Prism. Then another buried mark ignited beneath the lamp stand. A third followed, carrying color through the cuts still packed with dust.

The glow moved across the floor.

Not toward one of the four prominent runes surrounding the Prism.

Between them.

The pulse beneath my keeper’s badge returned.