Kael's POV
I can't breathe.
I'm a dragon. I've lived for three hundred and fifty years. I've survived wars, betrayals, and enough murder attempts to fill a book. I don't worry.
But right now, flying through the night sky toward the Southern border where my country is under attack, I can't get enough air into my lungs.
Because she's still there. In my head. In my chest. In every breath I take.
Lyra.
The mate bond snapped into place the second I touched her hand during the process, and now I can feel everything she feels. It's like someone shoved her heart inside mine and said "good luck."
Terror. That's what I feel from her right now. Pure, overwhelming fear that makes my dragon instincts scream to turn around and protect her.
But I can't protect her. She's probably the reason we're being attacked in the first place.
"Kael, focus!" Rhys roars beside me, his red scales shining in the moonlight. "We need a strategy before we reach the border!"
I force myself to focus on flying, on the fifty dragons following us, on the battle ahead. But Lyra's feelings keep crashing into me like waves.
Fear. Confusion. And underneath it all... guilt?
No. Not just guilt. Shame. Deep, terrible shame that makes me want to land and throw up.
"Something's wrong," I say to Rhys through our mental link—the way dragons talk when flying. "The bond... it's showing me things that don't make sense."
"What things?"
"She didn't know about the attack. I can feel it. She's just as shocked as we are."
Rhys is quiet for a moment. "Are you sure? Or are you just hoping because she's your mate?"
That word. Mate.
I never wanted another mate. Not after Vera. Not after trusting a human woman who smiled and kissed me and swore she loved me—right up until I caught her trying to rip the heartstone from my chest while I slept.
"The bonding fire rose for her," I say, because I can't deny what everyone saw. "That only happens with true mates. But she's lying about everything. Her name. Her identity. Probably her feelings too."
" The connecting fire doesn't lie, though. That's exactly the point of the ceremony."
I don't answer because he's right, and I hate that he's right.
We reach the Southern border in minutes—dragon flight is faster than any horse. Below us, I see the chaos. Aurelian soldiers have crossed into our land, setting fire to the villages near the border. My people—dragons, phoenixes, and other magical beings who decided to live near the edge of my kingdom—are fighting back.
But something's weird about this attack.
"They're not advancing," Rhys sees it too. "They're just... destroying and fleeing. Like they want us to chase them."
It's a trap. Obviously a trap.
"Half of you stay here and protect the villages," I order the dragons behind me. "The rest, with me. But stay alert. This doesn't feel like a normal attack."
We land in the biggest village—or what's left of it. Buildings are burning. People are crying. A mother dragon holds her child, both of them covered in ash.
And through the mate bond, I feel Lyra's heart break.
She's miles away, back at the palace, but she feels my pain. Feels my rage. And her grief matches mine so exactly it makes my chest ache.
A human soldier walks out from behind a burning house. He's young—barely twenty—and frightened. When he sees me in dragon form, he drops his sword.
"Please!" he begs. "Please, I didn't want to come! They forced us! Said we'd be executed if we didn't cross the line!"
I shift to human form. "Who sent you?"
"Duke Magnus! He said the Dragon King married Princess Rosalie and that she was going to betray us all. He said we had to strike first!"
Ice floods my blood. "Princess Rosalie?"
"The King's new bride! The princess from Aurelia!"
But that's not who I married. I married Lyra Everhart, daughter of a bookstore keeper. A commoner claiming to be a princess.
Which means...
"They don't know," I whisper. "Aurelia doesn't know Lyra isn't the real princess."
Rhys, now in human form beside me, whistles low. "So whoever sent her here to act doesn't know about this attack. This is someone else's plan."
Through the bond, I feel Lyra's confusion. She can feel my thoughts—not hear them exactly, but sense the shape of them. She knows I just figured something out.
And then I feel something else from her. Something that makes my dragon roar inside my chest.
Recognition. Horrible, dawning understanding.
She knows who Duke Magnus is. And she's absolutely afraid of him.
"Get me a communication crystal," I snap at one of my guards. "Now."
They bring one quickly—a floating orb that lets us talk to anyone with a matched crystal. I attune it to the castle, to the throne room where I left Lyra standing alone.
Her face shows in the crystal, pale and frightened. She's still in her wedding dress, still standing on the black glass floor. Alone. No guards. No defense.
What was I thinking, leaving her there?
"Kael—" she starts, but I cut her off.
"Who is Duke Magnus to you?"
She flinches like I slapped her. "He's... he works for Princess Rosalie. The real princess. He's the one who—" She stops, biting her lip.
"He's the one who what, Lyra?"
Tears fill her eyes. "He's the one who took my father. He's the one who told me I'd marry you and make you fall in love with me, or my father would die. He's the reason I'm here."
The mate bond floods with her truth. Every word is painful, honest, real.
She was sent here to seduce me. To control me. To make me fall in love with a fake princess while... what? While Magnus did what?
"This attack is just a distraction," Rhys says softly. "If Magnus wanted to start a real war, he'd send more than a few dozen terrified soldiers."
"A distraction from what?" I demand.
And then, through the crystal, I see Lyra's face change. See her eyes go wide with fear as she looks at something behind her.
"Kael," she whispers. "Someone's in the palace."
The crystal goes dark.
Through the mate bond, I feel her fear spike so high it nearly brings me to my knees.
And then I feel pain. Sharp, burning pain in her arm. In her side. Like someone's hitting her.
"LYRA!" I roar, shifting back to dragon form.
But I'm miles away. The fastest I can fly, it'll take me ten minutes to get back to the house.
Through the bond, I feel her fighting. Feel her purpose. She's trying to defend herself against someone, trying to guard something.
The heartstone chamber. She's running toward the heartstone room.
Just like Vera did.
Just like the last human woman I trusted, who tried to steal my power and destroy me.
"No," I say, even as I fly faster than I've ever flown. "No, not again. Please not again." But through the link, I don't feel greed. I don't feel deception.
I feel love.
Desperate, terrified, absolute love—for me, for my country, for the home she's had for less than a day.
She's not stealing the heartstone.
She's protecting it.
"Faster!" I scream at the dragons behind me. "She's alone and they're going to kill her!"
My mate. My impossible, lying, brave, foolish mate who was meant to betray me.
And I left her alone to face my enemies because I was too scared to trust again.
Through the bond, her pain increases. She's losing. Whoever attacked her is stronger.
And then I feel something else. Something that shouldn't be possible.
Heat. Rising from inside her. Not dragon fire. Something older. Something I haven't felt in ages.
Phoenix fire.
The mate bond explodes with power as Lyra's dormant magic wakes up—burning, protective, dangerous phoenix fire that she doesn't know how to control.
I feel the exact moment she realizes what's happening. Feel her shock. Her fear.
And then I feel nothing at all.
The mate bond goes silent.
Either she's asleep...
Or she's dead.