قصص وروايات قصيرة من فئة Fantasy وعن Tragic Love وتضم Bias وتدور في Regret

Seven years married to Adrian Locke. For me, he tore the unbreakable scale from his own body and left the deep sea for dry land. For him, I left everything and moved to the beastkin world. To everyone else we were the most loving couple. Even I believed it. Then he started coming home carrying a fox scent that wouldn't wash off, and every illusion I had about him shattered. The late nights came more often. The nights he didn't come home at all came more often. I knew it was time for us to end. And then that woman sent me the results of her pregnancy test. I filed to dissolve our marriage with the Beastkin Authority and bought a one-way ticket back to the human world. Adrian, if you can't promise me your love is mine alone, then I won't take any of it. From now on, we never see each other again.

In my last life, I fought for power, kept the books, and built alliances for my fiancé from the Fire clan until I had secured his position as heir. On the night of the victory banquet, he killed me with his own hands. He said Sophia was the woman he truly loved. I had taken her place and forced their love into the shadows. They had been conspiring all along, and even the child I had raised so lovingly was their illegitimate son. I died consumed by hatred. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the marriage contract was to be signed. This time I wrote Sophia's name on it.

At eight, I swallowed the Tear of the Abyss, hidden in the holy font by my grandmother. After that, my skin was like pearl. It would never age. She called it a curse. Left by the Sea God. Every year, on the Night of the Tides, someone had to prove they truly wanted me to stay—press a Golden Scale to my heart. Or the scales would tear through my skin. My legs would fuse into a tail. The tide would drag me back to the abyss before dawn—a mermaid, trapped beneath the waves forever. Before she died, Grandmother left three Golden Scales. She gave them to my fiancé Alaric, my brother Caspian, and my childhood friend, Crown Prince Lucian. Their promises were so easy. "Just a scale? We'd get you the stars if you asked." But on the Night of the Tides, I saw all three. Pinned to a brooch on Evelina, the orphan from the Sanctum. They said she'd suffered, never known love. The scales would soothe her "fragile soul." But me? A princess didn't need trinkets to know I was loved. She danced. "I'm the luckiest girl in the empire." I pushed through the crowd. I just needed one. Alaric grabbed my wrist. "Haven't I given you everything? Don't be selfish now." Caspian shot me a look. "Let the artist finish, then you can have them." I showed them my hand. Sharp scales were already breaking through the skin. Lucian touched them. Laughed. "Illusion magic? Seraphina, your pranks are getting old." They escorted her to the throne. In their eyes, my life-or-death curse was just a pathetic play for attention. The blood moon was setting. T he gills behind my ears tore through my flesh. Blinding agony. I finally understood. I was meant for the sea. The water is cold. But at least I won't have to beg to stay anymore.

Everyone at the Golden Crown Court knew I was the Dragon King's youngest, most beloved daughter. A childhood injury had left my dragon breath — the power inside me — unstable. Every seven days, I needed someone to help steady it. But my three childhood friends had stayed by my side for more than a decade: Lucas Ashford, commander of the dragon knights; Darian Stormwell, my father's personal guard; and Silas Wintermere, a dragon priest. They'd sworn before my father that they would always take care of me. Then everything changed. On her first day at court, Kassan Blackthorn, a black dragon, defeated three of our dragon knights. Lucas was impressed. He called her a true dragon warrior. He forgot his promise to practice sword fighting with me and spent the next several days following her around, eager to please. Darian said Lucas was like a sailor under a siren's spell. "He's not worth getting upset over," he told me. A few days later, Darian missed his turn to help regulate my dragon breath, too. Pain swept through me, burning hot one moment and freezing cold the next. Just before I passed out, Silas burst through my door and gathered me into his arms. Holding me tight, he said, "Evelyn, whatever happens, I'll always be here for you." But three days later, I watched him fasten around Kassan's wrist the very dragon crystal bracelet I'd wanted for myself. He gave her the same tender smile I knew so well. That was when I realized I had nothing left. So I knocked on my father's study door and told him I wanted to go north and marry Derek Frostborne, chief of the frost dragons.

When I was little, my parents had abandoned me on the frozen tundra. A lonely dragon found me there, carried me back to its lair, and raised me for 15 years. Before the dragon died, it gave me three reverse scales and bound them to me with a blood curse. Each scale could grant one wish. More than that, each one represented one of my three lives. Once the final scale burned to ash, I would die for good. With the first scale, I cured the beast plague that threatened to wipe out Rhaine's entire pack, earning him a fearsome reputation as a powerful Alpha. With the second, when a savage rogue wolf tore through his lungs and left him on the brink of death, I burned another scale and bargained with the Grim Reaper for his life. Rhaine went on to rule the entire pack, basking in glory and power. Yet late at night, I would catch him staring at my dragon scales. His voice always sounded heavy with worry as he asked whether I would ever leave him. Every time, I gave him the same unwavering answer. "Never." I even suggested holding a proper bonding ceremony so the entire pack would know I belonged to him. However, on the very night of our ceremony, rogue wolves breached the pack's borders. Countless she-wolves lay gravely wounded, while dozens of pups were trapped in cages at the edge of a cliff. Heavily pregnant, I searched the entire territory for Rhaine, but he was nowhere to be found. Desperate and out of options, I sacrificed my final dragon scale. The moment it burned away, I spotted Vivian and Rhaine standing atop the mountain, watching the chaos unfold as though they were spectators at a show. Vivian, the widow of Rhaine's elder brother, smiled smugly. "Female wolves are naturally drawn to power. If you hadn't listened to me and stripped her of her last trump card, she would've eventually betrayed you and gone to a stronger Alpha." Rhaine's voice was gentle, yet utterly cruel. "I had to force her to use her last scale to save them. Even if she resents me afterward, that's better than letting her leave while she still has all that power in her hands." So the catastrophe that had threatened to annihilate the entire pack had been nothing more than an elaborate trap, carefully designed to break me and bring me to heel. 'Rhaine, if what you want is for me never to leave you, then so be it. I'll give you exactly what you want. Even if all I leave behind is my corpse.'