All Chapters of THE NIGHT MY MATE BURNED ME ALIVE : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

ARC 2: The Secrets of the Dragon Queen​The note felt heavier than parchment ever should.​I stared at the single line of neat, razor-sharp script, waiting for the ink to bleed into something—anything—else.​If you want the truth about your first life... come to Blackridge alone.​My knuckles turned white as I crushed the paper in my fist. A sickening cold plunged straight to my stomach.​There was one glaring, terrifying problem.​No one was supposed to know about my first life.​Not Kael. Not Rowan. Not Vivienne. No one in this entire damned realm.​I had guarded that secret like a phantom blade ever since I woke up five years in the past. Every lie I had spun, every calculated deflection, every blood-soaked, sleepless night had been spent ensuring that impossible truth stayed buried in the ash of a erased timeline.​Yet someone had written it down as casually as a dinner invitation.​"You've gone pale."​Rowan’s low voice cut through the fog in my head. I shoved the crumpled note in

No one moved.​The old man stood at the edge of the crater with one hand resting on a weathered staff, looking more like a wandering pilgrim than someone standing in the middle of a catastrophe. Wind tugged at his gray robes, but he didn't seem bothered by the cold. His eyes remained fixed on me—patient, almost sympathetic, as though he'd been expecting this meeting for years.​Around me, steel hissed from its scabbards.​The royal guards spread out instinctively, forming a loose ring between the stranger and the rest of our party. Rowan drew his sword, keeping his blade leveled straight at the old man's chest.​"State your name," Rowan commanded.​The stranger smiled faintly. "Names change. Titles change. They matter far less than truth."​Rowan's jaw tightened. "I won't ask a second time."​The old man ignored the threat entirely. "You're wasting your breath, Commander. If I meant you harm, you would never have made it past the lower pass."​The remark was delivered so calmly that it

The old man's words lingered in the freezing mountain air, refusing to fade even after the echoes died away.​No one moved. The ruined valley settled into an uneasy stillness, broken only by the occasional groan of shattered rock shifting somewhere in the depths of the crater.​Blackridge Fortress no longer resembled a military outpost. It looked as though the earth had split open and swallowed it from the inside out. Half the cliff face had collapsed into a vast hollow choked with white mist, while broken watchtowers leaned against jagged rocks at impossible angles. The stench of damp earth mixed with pulverized granite, and every breath I drew scraped against the back of my throat.​Kael stepped forward, positioning himself half a pace ahead of me without drawing attention to the movement. His right hand rested lightly on his hilt—not an outright threat, but a promise of violence if the old man moved too quickly.​"You've made a remarkable claim," Kael said, his voice deadly even. "N

The voice lingered in the darkness long after the final word faded.​"Come home, my daughter."​Every muscle in my body tightened. It wasn't simply that the voice sounded like my mother's. It was my mother's, down to the warmth that had soothed childhood nightmares and the quiet affection that always made the world feel a little less frightening. I'd watched her die. I'd stood beside her grave until everyone else had gone home. I knew she was gone.​So why did my feet still want to carry me toward her?​I caught myself leaning forward before I realized I'd moved. One more careless step and I would have walked straight over the edge of the black crystal staircase without thinking.​"Do not follow the voice."​Argos's warning echoed through the vast chamber, cutting cleanly through the fog clouding my thoughts. I forced myself to stop and tightened my grip on the Sword of Dawn until the worn leather pressed into my palm.​"You heard it too?" I asked, unable to keep the strain from my voi

The woman's footsteps echoed through the shattered chamber with quiet certainty.​Around her, fragments of broken crystal hung motionless in the air, refusing to fall. Dust drifted without settling, suspended in the crimson glow that filled the Hall. Even time seemed to hesitate as she approached.​At first, only a silhouette emerged from the shifting shadows, the darkness clinging to it like a living veil. With every measured step, the shadows loosened their hold until she stood fully revealed beneath the crimson light.​She wasn't what I had imagined.​The First Dragon Queen wore no jeweled armor and no sweeping royal cloak. A simple crimson gown flowed around her, embroidered with silver thread that caught the light like dragon scales beneath clear water. Her dark hair rested over one shoulder, and a narrow circlet crowned her brow.​She looked barely older than I was.​That alone should have been impossible.​What unsettled me most was her face.​She could have been my sister.​The