Kaelen's POV
I shouldn't have walked away.
Every urge screamed at me to turn around, to go back to the courtyard where I'd left her surrounded by dragons who wanted her dead. But I couldn't. Not when my hands were shaking. Not when my dragon was clawing at my chest, roaring to protect her.
Protect her. A human. A liar.
The girl who might be here to kill me.
I slammed my fist into the stone wall of my private bedroom, and ice exploded outward, covering half the room in jagged crystals. My dragon howled inside my mind, angry that I'd left our— No. Not ours. She wasn't ours. She was a deal. A treaty duty. Another bride who would die because everyone I touched turned to corpses.
"Your Majesty?"
I spun. Iskra stood in the doorway, her armor still frost-covered from patrol. My aunt, my general, the only family I had left who hadn't been killed.
"Is she dead yet?" I asked bluntly.
Iskra's eyebrows rose. "You've been gone five minutes. Even Dorian isn't that quick." She stepped closer, studying my face. "What happened out there? You looked like you'd seen a ghost."
"I smelled her," I said, the words tasting like confession. "When I grabbed her chin, I smelled lavender and winter weather and something else. Something that made my dragon—" I stopped. Saying it out loud made it real.
"Made your dragon what?" Iskra pressed.
"Wake up." I turned away from her sharp look. "For the first time since Seraphina died, my dragon actually reacted. It wanted to protect her, Iskra. A human. A fake princess who's obviously hiding something."
Silence. Then Iskra laughed—a sound like cracking ice.
"Oh, this is great. This is—" She caught the look on my face and sobered. "Nephew. Do you know what it means when a dragon wakes for someone?"
"It means I'm losing my mind," I snapped. "It means twenty years of isolation have broken something in me. It means—"
"It means she's your mate."
The words hit like a physical blow. "No."
"Yes." Iskra moved to the window facing the courtyard. "Come look at this."
I didn't want to. But I crossed the room anyway.
Below, the girl—Mira, not Vivienne, I could taste that lie on the air—stood frozen while Dorian circled her like a hunter. The rest of the court watched, watching to see what would happen. Some looked hungry. Some looked curious. None looked kind.
And the girl... she was scared. Her whole body shook, but she didn't run. Didn't scream. Just stood there, taking it, like she'd learned long ago that fighting only made things worse.
Something in my chest cracked.
"Who hurt her?" The question came out rougher than I meant. "Before she came here. Someone hurt her badly."
Iskra glanced at me. "How do you know?"
"The way she stands. Like she's trying to take up less room. Like she's apologizing for living. " I'd seen it before in servants, in captives, in people who'd been broken by cruelty. " She's not a spoiled princess. She's—"
A scream cut through the air.
We both moved at once, but I was faster. I shifted mid-leap, my dragon form bursting through the window in a shower of ice and stone. Wings spread, I dove toward the courtyard.
Dorian had grabbed the girl's wrist. Frost was spreading from his fingers, freezing her skin black. She was trying not to scream, biting her lip until it bled.
"Just testing her," Dorian said casually when I landed between them, my dragon form huge enough to block out the purple sky. "Seeing if she's really human. Humans don't survive frost-touch, you know."
I shifted back to human form, my hand closing around Dorian's neck. Ice spread from my fingers, sharp and deadly. "Touch her again, and you'll find out what dragons don't survive."
Dorian smiled even as he choked. "There it is. The famous Frostborne rage. Haven't seen that in years, cousin. Not since—"
"Since you mentioned Seraphina's death around me," I finished coldly. "Careful. I'm in a very bad mood today."
I released him, and he stumbled back, laughing. "This is going to be fun. The King has a new toy, and he's already hooked." His red eyes gleamed. "Wonder how long this one will last before she ends up like the others." The court exploded in whispers.
I turned to the girl. She held her frozen wrist against her chest, tears freezing on her cheeks. But she met my eyes, and in hers I saw something that made my dragon purr.
Defiance. Small, scared, but there. She wasn't broken yet.
"Come," I ordered, extending my hand.
She paused. Smart. My touch had killed before.
"Now," I added more gently. "Unless you want them to finish what Dorian started."
She put her good hand in mine, and the contact sent lightning through my veins. My dragon roared in satisfaction, and I felt frost magic surge between us—not hurting, but healing. The black ice on her wrist melted away, leaving unmarked skin.
The entire court gasped.
Impossible. My frost only destroyed. It never healed.
I pulled her toward the castle door, feeling every eye on us. Iskra fell into step beside me, her face carefully blank.
"My chambers," I told her quietly. "Have the doctors meet us there. And find out everything about this girl. Real name, real family, why she was sent. Everything."
"And if she's an assassin?" Iskra asked.
I looked down at the small hand still gripping mine, at the girl who walked beside me without fighting even though she was clearly frightened.
"Then she's the worst assassin in history," I said. "But I don't think that's what she is."
We reached my private area. Guards opened the doors, and I pulled her inside, away from the watching court. The moment we were alone, she yanked her hand free and backed away.
"What are you?" she asked, her voice shaking but fierce. "You said the binding showed magic in my blood, but I don't have magic. I'm just—" She stopped, like she'd almost said too much.
"Just what?" I moved closer, and she backed up until she hit the wall. "Just a servant? Just a bastard daughter? Just a girl who got drugged and shipped north in her sister's place?"
Her face went white. "How did you—"
"The binding doesn't lie," I said softly. "It showed me pieces. Pieces of truth. You're not Princess Vivienne. You're someone she threw away. Someone she thought wouldn't be missed."
Tears spilled over. "Please don't kill me. My mother—they'll kill my mother if I fail. I know I'm not good enough, I know I'm nobody, but please—"
"Stop." I caught her face in both hands, forcing her to look at me. "Listen to me very carefully. Something impossible just happened out there. My cold magic healed you. It's never done that before. Ever. Which means either you're hiding something massive, or—"
The door burst open.
Iskra stood there, her face grave. "We have a problem. A big one."
"What now?" I didn't free the girl.
"Dorian's calling for a trial by truth-stone." Iskra's voice was tight. "He's saying she's a spy who used blood magic to trick the binding. He wants her tested in front of the full court."
My blood ran cold. Truth-stones exposed everything—every lie, every secret, every hidden truth. If she went before one, the entire court would learn she was a fake.
And the punishment for deceiving a dragon king was death.
"When?" I asked.
"Tomorrow at dawn." Iskra met my eyes. "I'm sorry, nephew. The court has already cleared it. Unless you can show she's your true mate before then, there's nothing you can do to stop it."
The girl made a small, broken sound. "What's a truth-stone?"
I looked down at her frightened face and felt my dragon surge forward, possessive and fierce.
"It's a stone that forces you to reveal your deepest secrets," I said quietly. "And if you lie to it, it kills you."
She stopped breathing. "I can't. If I tell the truth, if they know what I really am—"
"Then we have until dawn," I interrupted, "to figure out why my dragon thinks you're my mate when you're supposedly just human." I released her face and stepped back. "Because that's the only thing that will save you now. If you're my true mate, the court can't touch you. Dragon law."
"But I'm not your mate," she whispered. "I'm just a servant girl who got unlucky."
"Maybe." I moved to the window, watching the court below scatter like hunters who'd sensed blood. "Or maybe there's a reason you survived Dorian's frost-touch when it should have killed you. A reason your blood crystallized during the bond. A reason my dragon woke after twenty years of silence."
I turned back to her, and something in my chest stiffened at the sight of her—small, scared, shaking, but still standing.
Still fighting.
"We have twelve hours," I said. "Twelve hours to find out what you really are. Because tomorrow at dawn, the truth-stone will reveal everything." I smiled without fun. "And trust me, little lie. Whatever lies you're hiding? They're nothing compared to what that stone will tell about me."