CHAPTER 8: Forced Partnership

 

"The prince has been attacked."

The messenger's announcement cut through the garden like a blade. For a moment, nobody moved. The conversations died mid-sentence, and the soft sounds of the estate seemed to disappear beneath a blanket of stunned silence.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

In my first life, there had been only one assassination attempt during the mating ceremony. The attacker had failed before ever reaching Kael, and the incident quickly faded into court gossip. There had never been a second attack. Never another attempt on the same day.

Something was wrong.

Not merely different. Wrong.

The future wasn't unfolding the way I remembered. Every decision I made seemed to send ripples through events that should have remained unchanged, and those ripples were becoming impossible to ignore.

"Is he alive?" Vivienne asked.

Her voice was sharp with concern, and anyone watching would have believed it completely. The slight widening of her eyes. The tension in her shoulders. The tremor in her breath.

A perfect performance.

I knew better than most how convincing Vivienne could be.

The messenger nodded quickly. "His Highness survived."

A collective sigh moved through the gathered servants and nobles.

Mine never came.

Relief wasn't what I felt.

If anything, the knot in my stomach tightened.

The fact that Kael had survived wasn't the issue. The attack itself was what terrified me. Someone had altered the game years ahead of schedule. Someone was moving pieces across the board before they were supposed to move.

And I had no idea who.

"Several royal guards were injured," the messenger continued grimly. "The prince has ordered an immediate investigation."

Of course he had.

Kael never ignored threats.

Sooner or later, that investigation would uncover the Crimson Dragon symbol.

The same symbol hidden beneath his letter.

The same symbol tattooed behind the stranger's ear in our garden only moments ago.

The connections were beginning to form, but I still couldn't see the entire picture.

Beside me, Vivienne released a relieved breath and pressed a hand against her chest.

"Thank the Moon Goddess."

I kept my expression neutral.

A far more troubling thought had just settled into my mind.

The second attack had happened after my meeting with Kael. After the strange mark appeared on my wrist. After someone had seen it.

The timing felt too precise to be coincidence.

Cold unease crept beneath my skin.

What if I wasn't simply changing the future?

What if the future was reacting to me?

---

The rest of the afternoon dragged by.

Vivienne lingered far longer than necessary, fishing for information about my private meeting with Kael. Every question was wrapped in concern and cousinly affection, but I recognized an interrogation when I heard one.

This time, she got nothing.

Each answer I gave was carefully measured, frustrating her more than she cared to admit.

Good.

For once, I wasn't walking blindly into one of her traps.

As evening approached, I escaped to the estate library.

The room had always been my refuge. Towering shelves stretched toward the ceiling, crowded with books that smelled of dust, leather, and age. Sunlight filtered through stained-glass windows, painting faded colors across the floorboards.

Usually, the library calmed me.

Today, it felt like a war room.

Books lay open across the table before me as I searched through every reference I could find.

Dragon Queens.

Ancient bloodlines.

Lost kingdoms.

Forbidden magic.

Anything connected to the visions.

Anything connected to the dragon.

Hours passed.

The deeper I searched, the stranger the omissions became.

Every text mentioned dragons only briefly before dismissing them as extinct. Lost. Destroyed. Gone from history.

The repetition felt deliberate.

As though someone had spent centuries erasing them from the world.

My frustration finally boiled over.

I slammed a heavy volume shut and immediately winced at the noise.

The sharp crack echoed through the library.

Something fluttered loose from between the pages.

I frowned and reached for it.

The parchment was old enough to crumble beneath careless fingers. Its edges were yellowed and brittle, and most of the ink had faded beyond recognition.

Except for one image.

The moment I saw it, every muscle in my body locked.

A dragon stared back at me.

Not a drawing that resembled the creature from my dreams.

The dragon.

The same ruby-red scales.

The same ancient golden eyes.

The same crest carved into its forehead.

A chill ran through me.

Beneath the image, a single sentence remained legible.

When the Dragon Queen returns, the Gate shall open once more.

My mouth went dry.

The Gate.

The massive black gate from my visions.

The one covered in glowing runes.

The one the dragon kept showing me.

Before I could process the discovery, a sharp knock rattled the library door.

I jumped hard enough to nearly drop the parchment.

Nobody usually disturbed me when I hid here.

The knock came again, louder this time.

Urgent.

Uneasy, I crossed the room and pulled the door open.

A royal guard stood outside.

The black uniform and silver insignia immediately told me where he came from.

Blackwood Palace.

My stomach sank.

"What is it?"

The guard bowed respectfully.

"Lady Seraphina."

His face was unusually tense.

"His Highness requests your presence."

I stared at him.

Absolutely not.

Not again.

"What for?"

"I'm not authorized to say."

Of course he wasn't.

For one glorious second, I considered refusing.

Unfortunately, Kael Blackwood wasn't the sort of man who accepted refusal gracefully.

If I ignored him, he'd simply come looking for answers himself.

The guard hesitated before adding, "His Highness said it was urgent."

I closed my eyes briefly.

Wonderful.

Just wonderful.

---

Night had settled over the capital by the time I arrived at the palace.

The atmosphere was completely different from the previous evening.

Tension clung to the corridors like smoke.

Guards stood at every entrance. More patrolled the halls in pairs, their hands never straying far from their weapons. Servants hurried through the palace with nervous expressions, speaking in hushed voices whenever they thought nobody was listening.

The second attack had shaken everyone.

A servant guided me through several hallways before stopping outside a private study.

"He is inside."

I nodded and entered.

Kael stood beside a large desk near the far wall.

The moment he saw me, he dismissed the servant.

The door clicked shut.

We were alone.

Again.

My irritation returned immediately.

"Do you enjoy summoning me without warning?"

One corner of his mouth twitched.

"Not particularly."

"Then stop doing it."

The faint amusement in his eyes only irritated me further.

Infuriating man.

Without responding, Kael reached into a drawer and tossed something onto the desk between us.

The object landed with a soft thud.

A piece of black cloth.

I froze.

Embroidered across the fabric was a crimson dragon.

The same symbol.

The same mark.

The same nightmare that seemed determined to follow me.

Kael watched my reaction carefully.

"You recognize it."

Not a question.

A statement.

My stomach dropped.

I hadn't hidden my reaction quickly enough.

"I've seen it before."

His gaze sharpened instantly.

"Where?"

Every instinct screamed at me to lie.

But what would be the point?

The attacks were escalating. The timeline was spiraling out of control. And I needed answers just as desperately as he did.

"In my family's garden."

For the first time that evening, genuine surprise crossed his face.

"What?"

"I saw a servant with the symbol tattooed behind his ear."

His expression hardened.

"Tell me everything."

So I did.

The stranger.

The tattoo.

The moment our eyes met.

Every detail I could remember.

When I finished, silence settled heavily between us.

Kael looked troubled.

Not angry.

Troubled.

That frightened me far more.

"What aren't you telling me?" I asked quietly.

His jaw tightened.

For several seconds, I thought he would refuse.

Then he opened another drawer and removed an ancient scroll.

The moment he unrolled it, my pulse accelerated.

The parchment was covered in symbols.

The same symbols from my visions.

The same symbols carved into the enormous gate.

Kael spread the scroll across the desk.

"The attackers weren't trying to kill me."

A cold chill slid down my spine.

"What?"

His eyes met mine.

"They were searching for something."

The room suddenly felt smaller.

I looked from the scroll back to him.

A terrible suspicion began forming.

"What were they searching for?"

Kael held my gaze.

"You."

The word hit harder than any physical blow.

Silence filled the study.

Neither of us moved.

Neither of us looked away.

Then Kael spoke again, his voice quieter than before.

Measured.

Careful.

Almost as though he already knew the answer and was waiting for me to confirm it.

"Tell me the truth, Seraphina."

His golden eyes locked onto mine.

"What exactly are you?"

End of Chapter 8