Kaida POV
I couldn't stop shaking.
That phoenix had spoken directly into my mind. Its voice still echoed in my skull like broken glass scraping against bone.
Something sleeping in her blood. We're coming for you, little dragon tamer.
My legs finally moved, and I stumbled away from the training grounds. Away from Setsuna's phoenix that now acted completely normal, like it hadn't just threatened to kill me. Away from Ryven's terrified silver eyes.
I needed to think. Needed to breathe. Needed to understand what was happening.
But before I could take three steps, bells rang across the estate.
The summoning bells. Lord Takeshi was calling the entire clan to the great hall.
No. Not now. I couldn't face them right now, not with a monster's voice still rattling in my head.
But servants who ignored summons got whipped. I'd learned that lesson the hard way.
I ran toward the great hall, my heart pounding for completely different reasons now. The phoenix's threat mixed with old familiar fear, creating a sick feeling in my stomach.
The great hall was already packed when I arrived. Hundreds of clan members filled the space—nobles in silk, warriors in leather armor, servants like me pressed against the back walls where we belonged.
I squeezed into a corner behind a pillar, trying to be invisible. My hands still trembled. I pressed them against my stomach, feeling my ribs through the thin fabric. When had I gotten so skinny?
"Attention!" Lord Takeshi's voice boomed.
My father—no, I couldn't call him that anymore—stood on the raised platform at the hall's front. He looked powerful and proud, exactly like I remembered from childhood. Back when he'd smiled at me. Back when he'd called me his "precious daughter."
That man was dead now.
Setsuna stood beside him, practically glowing. And next to her was Kieran Stormwright, the boy I'd loved since I was twelve. The boy who'd held my hand and promised we'd have adventures together. The boy who'd abandoned me the second my awakening went wrong.
"Today is a glorious day for Clan Ashborne!" Lord Takeshi announced. "My daughter Setsuna has agreed to marry Kieran Stormwright, uniting our clan with the powerful Stormwright family!"
The crowd erupted in cheers. I felt each cheer like a slap.
That should have been me. That was supposed to be me.
Setsuna curtsied, her crimson dress catching the light. That dress cost more than I'd earn in five years of scrubbing floors. I'd heard the servants gossiping—it was imported silk with real gold thread.
My own dress had holes in it.
Kieran wrapped his arm around Setsuna's waist, and they looked perfect together. Both powerful. Both talented. Both everything I wasn't.
"The engagement banquet will be held in one week," Lord Takeshi continued. "All clan members will attend to celebrate this union."
One week. I had one week before I'd have to watch them celebrate stealing my entire life.
Then Setsuna's eyes found mine across the crowded hall. Her smile turned cruel.
"Oh, sister!" she called out sweetly. "You're here! Come closer so everyone can see you!"
No. No, no, no.
But people were already turning, looking for me. Hands pushed me forward, forcing me out from behind my pillar. I stumbled into the open space, and suddenly hundreds of eyes were on me.
I looked terrible and I knew it. Soaking wet dress. Bleeding hands. Bruises on my knees. Hair tangled and dirty. Everything Setsuna wasn't.
"You'll serve wine at my engagement banquet, won't you?" Setsuna asked, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "It's the least you can do for your dear sister."
The crowd laughed. Some people whispered. I caught words like "useless" and "pathetic" and "should have been expelled."
My face burned with shame.
"Of course she'll serve," Lord Takeshi said, not even looking at me. "All servants will attend to show the clan's strength and unity."
Servants. He called me a servant in front of everyone.
I searched the crowd desperately for my mother. Lady Yuki stood near the front, but she wouldn't meet my eyes. She hadn't spoken to me in five years. Hadn't even looked at me since my awakening.
I didn't exist to her anymore.
"Well?" Setsuna pressed. "Will you serve at my banquet, or should Father send you to the breeding farms like he threatened?"
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Even by clan standards, threatening the breeding farms was cruel. Women sent there never came back.
"I'll serve," I whispered, my voice barely audible.
"Louder!" Setsuna demanded. "Let everyone hear the useless daughter accept her place!"
Something inside me cracked. Not broke—I'd broken years ago. This was different. This was the moment I stopped caring what they thought.
I raised my head and looked directly at Setsuna. "I said I'll serve your wine. Just like I'll serve at your funeral someday."
Shocked silence filled the hall.
Then Kieran laughed nervously. "She's joking, of course—"
"Am I?" I kept staring at Setsuna, and something must have shown in my eyes because she actually stepped back. "Careful, sister. Your phoenix has been acting strange lately. Possessed beasts sometimes turn on their tamers."
Setsuna's face went pale. "What did you say?"
But I was already running. I pushed through the crowd and fled the great hall, their shocked whispers following me like ghosts.
I ran until my lungs burned. Ran until I reached the only safe place I knew—the archives.
The dusty building was empty and quiet. I collapsed behind a bookshelf in the back corner, the same spot where I'd hidden as a child when things got scary.
That's where I finally let myself cry. Great heaving sobs that hurt my chest. Tears that I'd held back for so long they felt like acid.
I was going to die. Whether from the thing possessing that phoenix or from my own family's cruelty, I was going to die. And nobody except maybe Ryven would even care.
"Kaida."
I looked up. Ryven stood there, his silver eyes intense and worried. Without a word, he sat down beside me on the dusty floor.
He didn't say it would be okay. Didn't make empty promises. Just sat there, solid and real.
I leaned against his shoulder, and he let me cry into his shirt. His arm came around me, and I felt that strange warmth again—the heat that seemed to come from his skin itself.
"I don't understand what's happening," I whispered between sobs. "That phoenix... it talked to me, Ryven. In my head. It said things are coming for me. That something's in my blood—"
"I know," he said quietly.
I pulled back to look at him. "You know? How do you know?"
Ryven's jaw clenched. His eyes flashed silver, brighter than normal. "Because I heard it too. And because..." He took a shaking breath. "Because you need to know the truth before midnight. Before they come for you."
"Before who comes? Ryven, you're scaring me."
He grabbed my shoulders, and his hands were burning hot now. When I looked down, I saw his skin rippling. Saw something black and scaled trying to push through.
"Don't be afraid," he said, his voice layered with something that didn't sound human. "I'm going to protect you. But first, you need to understand what you really are."
"What I am? I'm useless, remember? I have an ability for extinct—"
"Dragons aren't extinct, Kaida." His eyes blazed pure silver now. "We've been hiding for three hundred years. And I'm one of them."
The world stopped.
"You're... what?"
"I'm a Shadow Dragon. 287 years old. And you—" His voice cracked. "You're a dragon rider. The first to awaken in three centuries. And because of that, something ancient and evil is hunting you. It wants to steal your power. And my uncle..." He looked away. "My uncle wants to kill you before you expose our existence."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Ryven was a dragon?
"Prove it," I whispered.
Ryven closed his eyes. His body began to change.
And that's when the archives door exploded inward, splinters flying everywhere.
An old man stood in the doorway, his eyes glowing with the same silver fire as Ryven's. Power rolled off him in waves that made my teeth hurt.
"Step away from the girl, nephew," the old man said. "I gave you until midnight. You've made your choice."
Ryven moved in front of me, his body still half-transformed. "You'll have to kill me first, Uncle."
The old man smiled sadly. "I was afraid you'd say that."
He raised his hand, and silver flames erupted around us.