Page 215 of The Fifth Heir

They still struck hard.

“Why?”

“I asked him to challenge your selection.”

My throat tightened. “You told me to be careful what I shared with the other heirs. Then you gave my private information to him.”

“Yes.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That you redirected the fire. That your torc reacted to all four heirs. That being separated from them caused you pain. That you hid how badly things hurt.”

“Why would you do that?”

Camilla looked at me then.

“I thought it would prove the fifth beam had changed you in ways the academy couldn’t control. That your selection wasn’t valid. If your selection was declared invalid before the Trials continued, the Prism could have been reopened.”

The truth arrived before she finished.

“You thought it might choose you.”

Her eyes filled. “It was supposed to.”

Torren took another step, but I raised one hand.

This belonged to Camilla and me.

“You thought that if they removed me, you would take my place.”

“I didn’t want them to hurt you.”

“You wanted them to disqualify me.”

“I thought you wanted that too.” Her voice broke. “You kept saying the Choosing was a mistake. You said you didn’t belong here. I thought if Malcolm proved it, you could return to the archive and I could—”

“Get what you deserved.”

She looked away.

Everything I had told her returned in pieces. The ache beneath my ribs. The fire that had moved when I reached for Torren. The way the torc reacted to all four men. My fear that my dragon was dangerous.

Sebastian went completely still.

The demonstration had tested exactly those things.

The individual elemental exposures. The simultaneous activation. The redirected power.

Malcolm had not guessed what might affect me.

Camilla had given him a list.

She had not designed the demonstration, but her betrayal had made it precise.

“I didn’t know what he planned,” she said. “He told me the demonstration would establish whether your selection was authentic. He said no one would be in danger.”

Ignorance did not make her innocent. It only marked the point where her ambition had allowed someone else to choose the cost.