(Lyra's POV)
"Lyra!" Marina banged on my door harder. "Open up right now!"
I pressed my back against the door, my heart beating so fast it felt like it might explode. This was really happening. I was really back in time, and Marina was about to walk in here with poisoned tea - the same tea that made me sick for weeks in my first life.
"Just a minute!" I called out, trying to keep my voice normal. But inside, my new dragon magic was going crazy. Power buzzed through my body like lightning, making my skin tingle and my eyes burn with golden light.
I needed to test if my memories were real or just a crazy dream.
I closed my eyes and thought about something that hadn't happened yet. In my first life, Marina spilled the poisoned tea on my white carpet and accused me for being clumsy. Then she made me drink the tea anyway, saying it would "calm my nerves."
If I was really back in time, that was about to happen in exactly thirty seconds.
I opened the door.
Marina stood there holding a silver tray with a hot cup of tea and a fake smile. She looked exactly like I remembered - pretty brown hair, green eyes that sparkled with fake kindness, and that perfect princess dress that made everyone think she was so sweet and innocent.
But now I could see something new. Golden threads.
Thin, shimmery lines stretched out from Marina's body like spider webs. Some threads went toward my room, pulsating with red light - those were threads of hate and jealousy. Other threads disappeared through the walls, linking her to people I couldn't see.
This was impossible. I had never been able to see these things before.
"I brought your favorite tea," Marina said, stepping into my room. Her voice was sugar-sweet, but the red threads around her were nearly glowing with evil intentions.
I watched, knowing exactly what would happen next.
Marina took three steps forward, pretended to trip over nothing, and threw the tea toward my white carpet. But this time, I was ready.
I flicked my hand, and golden fire shot out of my fingers. The fire grabbed the falling teacup and turned it to ash before it could hit the ground.
Marina's mouth dropped open. "What... how did you..."
"Oops," I said with a fake smile. "Guess my magic is acting up today."
But inside, I was freaking out. My dragon magic had never been this strong before. In my first life, I could barely light a candle. Now I had just turned solid silver into dust without even trying.
Marina's golden threads turned from red to black - pure fear. "That's... that's impossible, Lyra. Dragon power doesn't work like that."
"Maybe you don't know everything about dragon magic," I said, moving closer to her. The golden threads around her were going crazy now, twisting and wriggling like angry snakes.
I could see more posts now too. Some connected Marina to a dark room in the castle basement where Uncle Marcus was making poisons. Others stretched out to a forest where strange hooded figures were waiting for some kind of cue.
Marina was connected to way more evil people than I had ever thought.
"You seem nervous, cousin," I said, trying my new power. I focused on one of her golden threads and gave it a tiny mental push.
Suddenly, Marina's hands started shaking. She couldn't stop it.
"What's wrong with me?" she gasped, looking at her trembling fingers.
I was doing that. Somehow, I could control people through their golden threads. This was incredible and scary at the same time.
"Maybe you should sit down," I offered, pushing on another thread.
Marina's legs buckled, and she fell into my chair. Her eyes were wide with fear. "Lyra, something's wrong. I can't... I can't move properly."
I let go of the threads, and Marina could move again. She jumped up, breathing hard and looking at me like I was a monster.
"What did you do to me?" she whispered.
"Nothing," I lied. "You just seemed tired."
But Marina wasn't stupid. She could tell something had changed about me. The problem was, I didn't know how much I should share. In my first life, I had trusted her fully. This time, I knew she was going to kill me, but I still needed to figure out exactly how and when.
"I should go," Marina said quickly, backing toward the door. "Father Marcus wants to see you in an hour. Don't be late."
After she left, I sat on my bed and tried to understand everything. The golden strings were still there, even with Marina gone. I could see them stretching through the walls, connecting to every person in the house.
I focused on the threads going toward my father's room. They were weak and gray, which made my heart hurt. In my first life, I never knew why my father got so sick so quickly. Now I could see that someone was draining his life force through these magical links.
Uncle Marcus. It had to be him.
I followed the threads with my mind, tracing them down through the castle floors to the basement. There, in a secret room I had never known existed, I could sense Uncle Marcus working with dark magic. He was making something that smelled like death and poison.
But that wasn't the worst part.
As I watched through the magical threads, I saw Uncle Marcus talking to someone else in the dark. Someone whose voice made my blood turn to ice.
"The princess is getting suspicious," Uncle Marcus was saying. "Marina failed with the tea. We might need to move faster."
"No," said the other voice. A voice I knew very well. "Stick to the plan. Kill the king first, then take her magic. If we rush, we might make mistakes."
I couldn't see the person's face, but I knew that voice. It was someone I had trusted completely in my first life. Someone who had been at my side during my darkest times. Someone I had never suspected of treason.
The voice belonged to Keisha, my best friend since youth.
My hands started shaking as the horrible truth hit me. Keisha - sweet, loyal Keisha who had held me when I cried, who had helped me plan my future, who had promised to always be there for me - she was part of the plot to kill me.
How many people in my life were truly my enemies?
I stood up quickly, my dragon power flaring with anger. Golden flames danced around my body, and I had to force myself to calm down before I accidentally burned down my own room.
This changed everything. If Keisha was working with Uncle Marcus and Marina, then they had been planning my death for years, not months. They had been watching me, studying me, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
But now I had something they didn't expect: the power to see their golden lines of connection. I could trace their entire network of collaborators. I could find out exactly who else was scheming against me.
A new plan started forming in my mind. In my first life, I had been the victim. This time, I would be the hunter.
I walked to my window and looked out at the kingdom I had failed to guard before. This time would be different. This time, I would save everyone I loved and destroy everyone who had wronged me.
But first, I needed to figure out how many people I was really dealing with.
I closed my eyes and reached out with my new magical sight, following the golden threads as far as I could. The network of conspiracy was huge, stretching across the entire kingdom and even beyond its limits.
My heart stopped when I realized how far the threads reached.
Some of them stretched all the way to the nearby kingdom of Valeria. To the Shadow Prince's home. To Kael himself.
The threads linking my enemies to Kael were thick and pulsing with dark energy. They had been planning together for a long time.
Kael hadn't just attacked my country because of war or politics. He had been working with my own family to destroy me from the very beginning.
A knock on my door made me jump.
"Princess Lyra?" It was a servant's voice. "Prince Kael of Valeria has arrived early for the peace talks. He's asking a private meeting with you in one hour."
My blood turned to ice.
In my first life, Kael wasn't supposed to arrive for another month. But now he was here early, just hours after I had returned to the past.
That couldn't be a mistake.
Through my magical sight, I could see new golden threads forming, linking Kael to Uncle Marcus, to Marina, to Keisha. They were all joined together in a web of betrayal that had been years in the making.
But here's what made my hands shake with fear: I could see Kael's threads reaching out toward my room, looking for something. It was like he could sense that something had changed about me.
Did he somehow know I had traveled back in time?
I pressed my hand against my chest, where my new dragon power was burning like a star. The power felt amazing, but it also felt dangerous. Like it was changing me into something that wasn't completely human anymore.
What if coming back to life had done more than just give me a second chance? What if it had turned me into something my enemies could detect?
The servant knocked again. "Princess? Should I tell Prince Kael you'll meet with him?"
I stared at the door, my mind running. In my first life, I had been excited to meet the famous Shadow Prince. I had thought he was beautiful and mysterious. I had even started to fall in love with him before I found out he was my enemy.
But now I knew the truth. Kael was here to kill me, just like all the others.
The question was: should I meet with him and say I didn't know anything? Or should I refuse and make him suspicious?
Either choice could get me killed.
But as I stood there trying to decide, I felt something that made my heart stop completely.
Through the golden threads, I could sense Kael's feelings. And what I found there was the most shocking thing yet.
He was scared.
Not of me, but of something else. Something that had him so scared he was shaking just like I was.
Whatever Kael was afraid of, it was big enough to make the most powerful prince in the world lose his mind with fear.
And somehow, I had the feeling it was related to my return from the dead.
"Tell Prince Kael I'll see him in the garden," I finally said. "In exactly one hour."
As the servant's footsteps faded away, I looked at myself in the glass one more time.
My image looked back at me with eyes that now glowed with golden fire.
I wasn't the same person who had died on that stage. I was something new. Something that even Kael was afraid of.
And in one hour, I was going to find out exactly what that meant.