The first thing I smelled was blood.
Thick. Metallic. Cold.
I opened my eyes to see a cracked stone ceiling above me. Water dripped from somewhere in the dark. My hands were chained together with heavy iron, the skin around my wrists raw and bruised.
This… wasn't my room. This wasn't even my world.
"What the hell…?" My voice came out dry and weak.
A guard in steel armor stood just outside the bars of my cell, staring at me with pure disgust.
"So, the traitor finally wakes."
I frowned. "Traitor? You've got the wrong person."
The guard scoffed.
"Kaien Draven. Second prince of the Veythran Empire. Guilty of plotting to kill your own father, His Majesty the Emperor. Don't pretend you don't know."
Kaien Draven.
That name wasn't mine.
But when I tried to remember who I was, my mind felt foggy, as if my memories were slipping through my fingers.
Before I could argue, a deep, echoing horn shook the prison walls. Every guard instantly stood straight, their faces tense.
"She's here," one of them whispered.
The air seemed heavier.
The main prison doors opened, and a woman stepped inside. She was tall and graceful, wearing a crimson and gold robe. Her long silver hair caught the torchlight, and her golden eyes locked on me with a fierce, unblinking stare.
The guards bowed low. She ignored them completely, her boots clicking against the stone floor as she walked straight toward me.
When she stopped in front of my cell, I could feel the pressure of her presence.
"Kaien…" she said softly, almost like she was speaking to a lover.
"I think you've got the wrong person," I replied.
She smiled faintly, but there was something dangerous in her eyes.
"No. Not in this life."
She knelt down and slipped her hands through the bars to hold my face. Her fingers were trembling, but her gaze was intense, filled with something that felt like… obsession.
"In another life, you died before I could save you," she whispered.
"This time, I will kill anyone who tries to take you from me."
The chains around my wrists shattered into pieces without her even touching them.
And in that moment, I understood, she wasn't here to set me free.
She was here to claim me.