Chapter 3

Romy, 23.

Present Day.

“That dress,” Camellia noted, her polished finger pointing directly at my neck as I turned slightly in the full-length mirror. “It doesn't cover the tattoo.”

“Why are you so bothered about her tattoo?” Erica asked from the vanity chair. She was the chief bridesmaid, Amy's younger sister, and four years older than me.

Camellia, a brown-haired, blue-eyed friend of the family, crossed her arms. “I just think her dress is too revealing. It’s bad etiquette if a bridesmaid looks prettier than the bride, don't you think?”

From the moment I had stepped into the luxury suite here in Buston, I had wanted to claw Camellia’s eyes out. She’d been glaring at me all morning while pretending not to.

Looking at her heavily made-up face and heavily beaded gown, it was obvious she was the one trying desperately to outshine everyone in the room.

“You should look in the mirror, Cam,” Erica flung out absentmindedly, blending the last of her setting powder. “I think you're the one trying a little too hard today.”

A low, dark smile curved my lips.

“Erica!” Kathy gasped.

Erica simply shrugged. “Look at her, Kathy. Tell her not to ruin the wedding. Whatever Romy chose to wear was approved by Amy, which means it is technically no one’s business. You all need to be out in the hall in ten minutes.”

After the fire thirteen years ago, Amy’s mother, our former housekeeper, had taken me in, adding me to her house of four girls. Carly, Erica, Kathy, and of course Amy.

Amy, our bride, I owed her my life for saving me from the hands of that devil, Rowan Ashwing-Kael Vexley.

Vengeance burned in my chest for thirteen years– his cold, monstrous face haunted my dreams every single night.

I had sworn to the ashes of my home that I would find him, and I would utterly destroy him.

“Earth to Romy!” Kathy called, snapping her fingers an inch from my nose. “We are about to start.”

I ignored their side talks and turned to follow them toward the door, just as a heavy vibration buzzed against my thigh from the hidden pocket in my silk skirt.

I paused, leaning slightly toward Kathy. “I'll be right back.”

Kathy eyes narrowed. “Where are you going? We're supposed to—”

I was already walking down the hallway cutting her off. I slipped into a private, marble-lined restroom down the hall and locked the heavy oak door behind me.

Reaching into the slit of my dress, I pulled out the encrypted burner phone. I tapped the single blinking dot on the screen.

The line connected immediately.

“Whose information did you just send me, Xry?” I demanded, fuming at the interruption.

“Check the file,” the distorted voice echoed back.

I opened the secured document.

TARGET: The Beast of Flames

REWARD: $20,000,000

EXPIRY: 04:00 AM

[This message will self-destruct in 30 seconds]

I scoffed, placing the phone back to my ear. “Fuck me. How am I supposed to locate him when no one in the underground knows what he looks like?” I asked. “The only thing the files say is that he can burn a city to the ground with a flicker of his fingers.”

Everyone knows of the Beast of Flames, but no one knew what he looked like. He's the most wanted assassin in the world, and the most dangerous.

But that had never stopped me before.

Xry’s voice came through the speaker. “He's currently at the building you're in. Eliminate him before dawn.”

I paused, staring at the phone. “He's where? Are you aware I'm at a wedding?”

“It’s Amy’s wedding. Of course I know.”

“And I'm supposed to ruin her reception by hunting down some invisible fire bender in an evening gown?”

“That fire bender is a massive threat to the Hunters,” Xry snapped. “You have to do as you're told, Romy, or you lose twenty million dollars. Worse, you lose any protection and intel you need for your personal mission.”

I huffed “Fine. How do I find him in a crowd of four hundred people?”

“I'll send a picture of him in a minute.”

“You have a picture of the Beast of Flames?!” I asked, as I unlocked the restroom door and stepped back out into the hallway, heading back. “That's news to me.”

“Well, some miracle happened, and a street camera caught his face during a border crossing… oh, shit!”

I stopped walking. “What?”

“There's no way…” Xry’s voice was filled with panic. “There’s no way he's the Flames. I need to inquire with the guild if eliminating him is even an option anymore. I just sent you the picture.”

Then the line went dead. And moments later, my phone dinged in my hand.

I pulled the phone away from my ear, tapping the image file just as I reached the massive, gold double doors of the reception hall.

As I pushed them open, a sudden, chaotic gasp erupted from the hundreds of guests inside.

At that exact moment, a sharp, blistering heat slashed across my throat.

I gasped, my free hand flying to my neck. Beneath the ink of the raven, my cursed mark was pulsing with a violent, burn– one I hadn't felt in thirteen long years.

My vision blurred slightly as I struggled to look at the photo.

I froze, my jaw tightening instantly.

Staring back at me were the familiar, cold gray eyes of the monster who had haunted my dreams for thirteen years.

Rowan Ashwing-Kael Vexley,the Supreme Alpha of Stormveil and the Fire Lord of the Ashwing bloodline.

He was the Beast of Flames?

I stumbled backward, the edges of my vision blackening with the same rage I’d felt thirteen years ago as I imagined all the Greyson ways to kill him without causing a scene.

A panicked guest, backing rapidly away from whatever was happening inside the hall, slammed hard into my shoulder.

My phone slipped from my grip and fell to the floor with a loud thud.

I stared blankly at the floor, my lungs refusing to take in air as everything came rushing back.

Fire and blood, Alina dying in the grass. And Rowan, driving a dagger straight into her chest. The memory hit me so hard it felt like no time had passed at all.

Just then, a pair of polished, expensive leather shoes stepped into my line of sight. Large, veiny hands reached down, retrieving my phone from the carpet.

Slowly, pulling myself out of the suffocating daze, I raised my head to muffle a mechanical thank you but the words died on my tongue as soon as I lifted my gaze.

Standing in front of me, was the man from the photograph.The same man I had trained my entire life to slaughter.

He looked godly in a perfectly tailored charcoal suit, his broad shoulders blocking out the light seeping from the window opposite where stood.

He wasn’t glaring at me. He was looking at me like I was the only person in the room.

A soft, tender smile curved his lips as he took a step towards me.

He leaned forward and uttered the one word I never imagined would leave his lips.

“Mate.”

The air left my lungs in a sharp, agonizing gasp. The monster who murdered my family, the ruthless Beast of Flames, was my fated alpha.

Before I could even process the horror, his large hand wrapped firmly around my waist, pulling my body flush against his chest.

“You have no idea how long I've waited for you, ” he whispered against my ear, causing a chill to run down my spine.