Page 241 of The Fifth Heir

Rafe left the sofa and approached the doorway. “Can I go?”

“No,” four of us said.

He sighed. “This bond has disadvantages.”

Sebastian brought a crystal lamp close to the first set of runes. Light moved down the staircase, activating one symbol after another.

A map appeared across the wall.

Crown Wing Academy occupied its center. Seven paths extended beyond the mountains toward elemental seals cut into the distant edges of the stone.

Fire.

Frost.

Forest.

Storm.

Shadow.

Stone.

Sky.

Fire, Frost, Storm, and Shadow glowed in answer to the men’s torcs.

Forest, Stone, and Sky remained dark.

“Four have already answered,” Leander said.

Sebastian studied the runes forming beneath the map. “Because their heirs completed the Academy Trials.”

Below the seven seals, five empty impressions appeared in the stone.

One for each heir.

A second inscription emerged above them.

THE ACADEMY CHOOSES THE WING.

THE ELEMENTS FORGE THE CROWNS.

The words faded. Three shorter lines replaced them.

FIVE BEARERS.

FIVE CROWNS.

SEVEN POWERS.

No one spoke.

The academy had taught us that four heirs entered the Trials so one could take the crown.

The Fifth Wing showed us something else.

The four men had not been chosen to lose their claims to one ruler. I had not been chosen to defeat them.