Ryven POV
My scales were showing.
I slammed my hands under the desk and forced them back, watching black dragon scales sink beneath human skin. Pain shot through my arms, but I didn't care. I'd felt worse.
What I couldn't handle was watching Kaida suffer one more second.
Through the archives window, I saw that servant Mira kick Kaida's water bucket, soaking her. Saw Kaida's shoulders shake as she tried not to cry. Saw her scrub floors with bleeding hands while her stomach made sounds I could hear from across the courtyard.
My dragon hearing was both a gift and a curse.
Three days without food. I'd counted. Three days since Lord Takeshi had cut her rations again, and I couldn't do anything about it without exposing what I really was.
A Shadow Dragon. 287 years old. Hiding among humans who'd kill me if they knew the truth.
I'd been pretending to be human for so long that sometimes I almost forgot the weight of wings I couldn't spread, the fire I couldn't breathe, the rage I couldn't release.
Almost.
But then I'd see Kaida getting hurt, and every dragon instinct screamed at me to protect what was mine.
Because she was mine. Had been since she was six years old and snuck into these archives looking for stories about mythical beasts.
"Are dragons real?" little Kaida had asked, her amber eyes full of wonder. "The other kids say they're just legends."
I should have lied. Should have said yes, they're just stories. Instead, I'd spent three hours telling her every true thing about dragons—their honor, their power, their loyalty to chosen mates—disguising it all as "ancient legends."
She'd come back every day after that. And I'd fallen in love so slowly I didn't notice until it was too late.
I watched her grow from a curious child into a beautiful young woman who still believed in goodness despite living in a family of snakes. I watched her be kind to servants when no one else bothered. Watched her rescue injured animals and nurse them back to health in secret.
She had the soul of a dragon rider—brave, compassionate, fierce when needed.
And then came her awakening ceremony.
I'd been standing in the crowd when the awakening stone blazed with dragon fire. When the Oracle announced "Dragon Taming ability awakened," my heart had stopped.
She was meant for my kind. Meant for me.
Dragons mate for life. We recognize our fated ones through soul resonance. The moment her ability awakened, I'd felt it—that pull connecting us, telling me she was mine and I was hers.
I'd almost transformed right there in front of everyone. Almost revealed myself to claim her.
Then everyone started laughing.
"Dragons are extinct!" they said. "Useless ability!" they mocked.
If only they knew. If only they understood that thousands of dragons lived hidden among them, waiting for the day we could stop hiding.
But we couldn't reveal ourselves. Not ever.
The Blood Pact was absolute: any dragon who exposed our existence would be executed along with every human who learned the truth. My uncle Aurelius, leader of the dragon clans, had made that brutally clear.
"One breach kills us all," he'd said. "Humans nearly destroyed us once. We won't give them another chance."
So I'd watched Kaida lose everything—her family, her fiancé, her future—because I couldn't tell her the truth. Couldn't tell her that her ability was the most powerful gift in existence. Couldn't tell her she was meant to ride dragons into battle like the legendary riders of old.
Couldn't tell her I loved her with a dragon's eternal devotion.
Five years of torture. Five years watching her suffer while pretending to be a powerless human scholar.
But today, everything changed.
Today, I'd nearly told her. Nearly said "Dragons aren't extinct" before catching myself.
The look in her eyes—that desperate hope—had almost broken my control.
And then the phoenix spoke to her.
I'd felt it happen. Felt the dark magic pulse from Setsuna's phoenix directly into Kaida's mind. Heard its message through my own dragon senses:
The useless daughter has something we want. Something sleeping in her blood.
My blood ran cold.
They knew. Somehow, our enemies knew about Kaida's heritage.
Because it wasn't just dragon-taming ability she'd awakened. It was dragon rider bloodline—the ancient magic that let humans and dragons bond as equals, sharing power and life.
The humans thought they'd killed all the dragon riders three hundred years ago during the Great Purge. They were wrong. Some rider bloodlines survived, hidden and dormant.
Until Kaida's awakening woke it up.
And now something dark and terrible had noticed.
I ran through the archives, pulling books off shelves with shaking hands. There had to be something here. Some way to protect her without breaking the Blood Pact.
My fingers found the oldest text—a book written in the dragon tongue that humans couldn't read. I flipped through pages frantically until I found it:
The Shadow Bond: A technique allowing dragons to protect their chosen ones without full revelation. Create a partial bond through shared danger. The human will gain dragon abilities without understanding their source.
It was risky. If I bonded with Kaida even partially, our connection would grow stronger. Harder to hide. But it might save her life.
A scroll fell from between the book's pages. I caught it, and my heart stopped.
It was a prophecy, written in my uncle Aurelius's handwriting:
When the lost rider awakens, the ancient enemy returns. They will hunt her through possessed beasts, stealing her power piece by piece until nothing remains. Only a dragon's full bond can save her. But the bond will expose us all.
My hands crumbled the paper's edges.
Possessed beasts. That phoenix was possessed. That's why it could speak in Kaida's mind.
And if the prophecy was right, more would come. They'd keep attacking until they drained Kaida's rider magic completely.
I had two choices: let her die slowly, or bond with her and risk both our peoples' extinction.
Some choice.
A sound made me spin around. My uncle Aurelius stood in the doorway, his ancient eyes glowing with dragon power.
"I felt the dark magic pulse," he said quietly. "They've found her."
"I have to protect her—"
"You'll do no such thing." Aurelius's voice was steel. "The girl is a risk we cannot afford. Her awakening endangers every dragon in hiding."
Horror dawned. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying the kindest thing is a quick death before the enemy drains her painfully." My uncle's expression held no mercy. "I'll handle it myself tonight. She'll never know what happened."
He was going to kill Kaida.
My uncle was going to murder my fated mate.
Rage exploded through me. Scales burst across my skin. Wings tried to rip free from my back. My eyes blazed silver fire.
"You'll have to go through me," I snarled, my voice layered with dragon resonance.
Aurelius raised an eyebrow. "You'd betray your entire race for one human girl?"
"She's not just any human. She's a dragon rider. The first in three centuries. And she's mine."
"Then you've both just been sentenced to death." Aurelius's form began to shift, bones cracking as he started transforming. "I'll make it quick for her sake. You, nephew, will suffer for your betrayal."
He lunged.
I dove out the window, glass shattering around me, and ran for the one place Kaida might be safe.
But as I ran, I heard Aurelius's voice echo in my mind:
You have until midnight. After that, I'm coming for her. And this time, nothing will stop me.