Seraphina's POV
"To the future Duchess Corvus!"
The champagne glass slipped from my fingers.
It didn't shatter—Lord Damien caught it smoothly, his perfect smile flashing at me like I was the most precious thing in the world. Around us, a hundred nobles clapped and cheered in the grand ballroom. Their voices echoed off the crystal chandeliers, making everything feel like a beautiful dream.
My 23rd birthday. My engagement party. The night I'd stop being "the Duke's embarrassment" and finally become somebody.
I touched the moonstone necklace at my throat—the only thing I had left of my mother. Mama, can you see me? I made it. I'm going to be happy.
"Seraphina looks like a fairy tale princess!" someone whispered loudly.
"Lord Damien is so lucky!"
My cheeks burned with happiness. For once, people were saying nice things about me instead of whispering about how I didn't quite belong in my own father's house.
Across the ballroom, my half-sister Elena watched me with a strange smile. She wore a red dress that matched her lipstick, and her eyes glittered like broken glass. Something cold slithered down my spine, but I pushed the feeling away.
Stop it, Seraphina. Not everyone is your enemy. This is your night.
Damien squeezed my hand. "You're trembling. Nervous?"
"Just excited," I lied.
He leaned close, his breath warm against my ear. "In a few months, you'll be my wife. No one will ever make you feel less than again."
My heart swelled. He understood. He knew how hard things had been, growing up as the daughter my father's wife pretended didn't exist. How I'd worked in the kitchens just to earn my place at the dinner table. How I'd studied healing magic alone in my room because no one would teach a "half-blood" properly.
But Damien saw me. He chose me.
The orchestra started playing something soft and sweet. Damien pulled me toward the dance floor, and I floated in his arms like I'd finally found where I belonged.
Then Elena's voice cut through the music like a knife through silk.
"Everyone! I have important news!"
The music stopped. Dancers froze mid-step. Every head in the ballroom turned toward Elena as she glided to the center of the floor, her red dress swirling around her like blood in water.
My stomach dropped.
"Elena, this isn't the time—" my father started, but she ignored him.
"My dear sister is getting engaged tonight, so I thought it was the perfect time to share something wonderful!" Elena's smile was so sweet it hurt my teeth. "I've been researching our family history, and I found the most fascinating documents."
She pulled out a leather folder from seemingly nowhere.
My heart started hammering against my ribs. No. No, no, no.
"It turns out," Elena continued, her voice carrying to every corner of the deadly silent room, "that our dear Seraphina's mother—the woman Father claimed as his second wife—was never actually married to him at all."
The world tilted sideways.
"What?" someone gasped.
"Is she saying—"
"That's impossible!"
Elena held up the papers like they were weapons. "These are the official records from the Temple. See? There's no marriage certificate. Father had a mistress, not a wife. Which means..." She turned to me, her eyes glittering with triumph. "Seraphina is illegitimate. A bastard."
The word crashed through the ballroom like thunder.
Time seemed to stop and speed up all at once. Faces that had been smiling at me seconds ago twisted with shock and disgust. Whispers exploded around me like wildfire.
"A bastard?"
"Pretending to be nobility!"
"How shameful!"
"No wonder she never quite fit in..."
I tried to speak, but my throat had closed up. I turned to my father, desperately searching his face for denial, for anger at Elena's lies, for something.
He wouldn't look at me.
"Father?" My voice came out small and broken. "Tell them it's not true. Tell them Mama was your wife."
His silence was the loudest sound in the room.
"Father!" I grabbed his arm, but he pulled away like I'd burned him.
"I..." He cleared his throat, still not meeting my eyes. "Your mother was... we were going to marry officially, but she died before..."
The floor seemed to disappear beneath my feet.
Not a lie. Elena wasn't lying.
Damien's hand dropped from my waist like I'd suddenly become poisonous. I turned to him, desperate for any sign of the man who'd promised to protect me just minutes ago.
"Damien, please—"
"Don't touch me." He stepped back, his face twisted with disgust. "You knew, didn't you? You knew you were lying about your bloodline."
"I didn't know! I swear, I thought—"
"You made a fool of me!" His voice rose, angry and cold. "I was going to marry a bastard. Do you know what that would have done to my family's reputation?"
Tears burned in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of everyone who was watching me like I was an animal in a cage.
"I'm still me," I whispered. "Nothing's changed—"
"Everything's changed." Damien straightened his jacket, his face hard as stone. "I, Lord Damien Corvus, hereby break our engagement. You are released from any promises made between us."
The formal words felt like physical blows.
"Damien, no—"
He turned his back on me.
Then he walked straight to Elena.
No. He wouldn't. He couldn't.
"Lady Elena," Damien said loudly, so everyone could hear. "You've saved me from a terrible mistake. How can I ever thank you?"
Elena's smile was razor-sharp and victorious. "I can think of a way."
And right there, in front of everyone, in front of me, Damien dropped to one knee before my half-sister.
"Elena Ashborne, true daughter of the Duke, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
The ballroom erupted in shocked gasps and excited whispers.
Elena looked directly at me as she answered, her eyes full of cruel satisfaction.
"Yes, Damien. I would love to be your wife."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't move.
This wasn't real. This couldn't be real.
But then Elena walked over to me, her new fiancé following behind her, and leaned in close enough that only I could hear her whisper:
"Did you really think Father would let a bastard embarrass this family? I've been planning this for months. Every moment you thought you were happy, I was destroying you."
She pulled back with a sweet smile, then grabbed my mother's moonstone necklace and yanked.
The chain snapped.
"This is too fine for someone of your... status," Elena said, dangling my mother's necklace in front of me. "I'll take better care of it."
Something inside me broke.
I lunged for the necklace, but guards appeared out of nowhere, grabbing my arms and hauling me backward.
"No! That's my mother's! It's all I have left—"
"Take her to the servants' quarters," my father said, his voice tired and empty. "Give her old work clothes. That's where she belongs now."
The guards dragged me toward the doors while the nobles parted around me like I was diseased.
"Father, please!" I screamed, fighting against the guards' grip. "FATHER!"
He finally looked at me.
His eyes were cold and distant, like he was looking at a stranger.
"You are no daughter of mine."
The guards pulled me through the doors. The last thing I saw before they slammed shut was Elena wearing my mother's necklace, her head on Damien's shoulder, accepting congratulations from every noble in the room.
And I realized with crystal clarity that this night wasn't about love at all.
It was about power.
And I'd just lost everything.
Three hours later, I sat shivering in the cold servants' quarters, dressed in rags, when the door burst open.
Royal guards stormed in.
"Seraphina Ashborne—or whatever your real name is," the captain announced, "you're under arrest by order of the King."
My blood turned to ice. "What? Why?"
The captain's smile was cruel. "The Dragon King in the Obsidian Mountains is dying of poison. You're going to heal him."
"But I'm just a—"
"Or you'll be executed for treason at dawn. Your choice."
Behind the guards, I saw Elena watching from the hallway, her smile satisfied and cold.
She'd won.
And now she was sending me to die.