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Alina barely had time to dodge before she joined in, hurling a small tart back at him, both of them dissolving into childish laughter—until the great doors swung open with a forceful thud.

Immediately, Alina straightened in her chair, smoothing her skirts as her mirth died on her lips.

Hagan strode in, clad in his scarlet Red Guard uniform, his posture rigid, hands clasped neatly behind his back. He moved with the effortless precision of a soldier, the warmth he had once carried now replaced with something colder, sharper. Alina scowled at the sight of him.

Gone were the mornings where the three of them had breakfast together, whispering secrets over stolen sweet rolls. Now, he entered not as their childhood friend, but as a soldier, his duty stripping him of the intimacy they had once shared.

He leaned down to whisper something into Ash’s ear.

Alina’s frown deepened as her brother immediately stood.

‘What’s wrong?’

Ash sighed. ‘Mother has requested me.’

Alina placed her serviette onto the table, preparing to rise. ‘I suppose I should have a maid fetch me something formal.’ But before she could move, Hagan’s voice cut through the room, smooth as steel drawn from its sheath.

‘Not you , princess.’

Alina turned to him, arms crossing over her chest. ‘What? ’

‘The queen has requested the prince alone.’

Alina’s lips parted in disbelief. ‘Why?’

Hagan’s expression remained unreadable. ‘Wedding arrangements she wishes to discuss with him.’

Ash gave a curt nod and left swiftly, the door closing behind him with an air of finality.

Alina exhaled sharply, dropping back into her seat, irritation simmering beneath her skin.

Was she not part of this wedding too? Surely there were decisions that required her approval—plans, preparations, matters that concerned her , not just the bride and groom.

Yet she was left here, discarded like an afterthought.

With a huff, she reached for a slice of pear, biting into its tender flesh, the juice bursting against her tongue. She chewed absently, her gaze drifting towards the sea below, the expanse of water visible from her balcony, its surface shimmering beneath the morning light.

‘Why are you still here?’ Alina's voice was cool, detached, as she sat staring at the still waters, refusing to turn and face the man behind her.

‘I wanted to speak with you.’

‘Then speak.’ She lifted the pear to her lips, its juices cool against her tongue, her gaze fixed on the tranquil ripples in the sea ahead. The water gleamed under the morning sun, but the peace it offered was brittle, fragile against the presence that loomed behind her.

That voice. It still held the same deep timbre that once could have unraveled her with a single murmur. Now, it only grated against her nerves, like steel scraping against stone.

‘You ought to be careful of the wyverian prince.’ Hagan’s words were even, but beneath them lurked something darker. ‘What I saw the other day was despicable. He dragged you into the water. If he could force that , what else could he force, princess?’

Alina twisted, fury igniting behind her ribs like fire meeting dry parchment.

‘How dare you insinuate such vile things.’

Hagan’s face remained unreadable, his stance unwavering. ‘You were naked in the water with him.’

‘I was not naked!’ She was almost naked. ‘And whether I was or wasn’t, it is none of your concern. You are no one , Hagan. No one to dictate what I do.’

Something flickered in his dark eyes, something dangerous, something almost cruel. The glimpse was fleeting, gone before she could place it, leaving only unease in its wake.

He stepped closer, the space between them vanishing into tension.

‘He wants you, Alina. I see it in the way he looks at you. He wants to bed you.’ His breath was warm against her skin, his words laced with venom.

‘And when he does—when he’s had his fill—he will discard you like all the rest. But he will never marry you. ’

Alina’s fury crackled through her bones, white-hot and relentless.

‘Well,’ she hissed, jabbing a finger into his chest. ‘That makes two of you, doesn’t it? Neither of you will marry me.’

His hand shot out, iron wrapping around her wrist. His grip tightened, biting into her skin, the pressure laced with desperation.

‘I wanted to marry you, Alina.’ His voice was quieter now, hoarse. ‘I still do.’

She tried to wrench her wrist free, but his grip only held stronger.

‘You’re hurting me. Let go .’

A sudden cough behind her sent a shockwave through the room. Hagan flinched as though burnt, stumbling back from where he had been standing beside her.

Alina stilled.

Her wrist throbbed where his fingers had been wrapped around it only moments ago, the skin burning from his toxic touch. Slowly, she lifted her eyes.

Kai Blackburn lounged against the doorway, his dark, unreadable gaze fixed on them. But there was something else in his expression—something that prowled beneath the surface.

A predator sniffing out its prey.

He did not speak.

He didn’t need to.

His black eyes swept from Alina to Hagan, latching onto the Red Guard like a blade slipping into flesh.

And then he moved. A slow, unhurried stroll across the chamber, his footsteps a whisper on the polished floor. He stopped mere inches from the drakonian, so close his breath must have brushed against Hagan’s skin.

Kai’s lips curled, revealing the flash of sharp, white fangs.

A warning.

A promise.

‘If you ever lay a finger on her again, guard, ’ it was barely above a whisper, yet it sliced through the space between them like the edge of a blade.

Hagan went rigid, ‘I will take my time cutting off each of your fingers, one by one.’ Kai’s voice was silk-wrapped steel.

‘Then, I will move on to the rest of your limbs. And when I am done, when you are nothing but a bloodied, ruined mess, I will feed what remains of you to my wyvern.’

Hagan’s breath hitched, though he did not move.

Kai tilted his head slightly, his whisper turning even softer—almost gentle. ‘I do not care how well-trained the Red Guard claims to be. I am a demon born from darkness, a beast carved from shadows. You touch her again, and I will show you what the afterlife looks like.’

Then—he turned away. Without looking back, he extended his hand towards Alina. A silent offer. But never a command.

She hesitated for only a moment before placing her golden fingers into his pale, waiting grasp.

Kai’s touch was firm, assured, unwavering, as he swept her away from the chamber, away from the man who had once held her heart only to shatter it into a thousand jagged pieces.

‘Thank you,’ Alina whispered as they descended the grand staircase, the air thick with the scent of red roses twining through the gilded railings.

‘You should not allow him to speak to you that way. Or touch you.’ Kai's voice was edged with steel, the remnants of his fury simmering just beneath the surface.

‘I know… It’s complicated.’ She hesitated at the foot of the stairs, suddenly adrift.

The castle was alive with the final frenzy of wedding preparations, servants bustling from corridor to corridor, arms laden with silks and golden-trimmed banners, murmuring anxiously about florals and seating arrangements.

And yet, not a single one of them needed her.

‘Did he hurt you?’ Kai's voice was quieter now, but all the more dangerous for it.

‘No. I’m fine. I promise.’ A lie. The truth was in the absentminded way she rubbed her wrist, as if trying to erase the memory of fingers that had no right to be there.

Kai’s eyes veered to the motion, and his jaw tightened like a blade being sharpened.

‘What shall we do this morning?’

‘What?’ Alina blinked, startled.

Kai’s lethal smile was like the edge of a dagger catching the light. ‘I am not letting you out of my sight today, princess. Not after what I saw in that room. So, think of something we can do together.’

Alina’s chest constricted. ‘You do not have to babysit me. Nothing else will happen, I promise.’

Kai leaned in, close enough that she could feel the warmth of him, his voice dropping into something dangerously soft.

‘Let me put it this way, princess—if I do not stay with you and reassure myself that you are safe, I will follow him . And by the end of the evening, this castle will have one less guard patrolling its halls.’

Alina swallowed hard. Her throat felt dry as sand.

An image stirred through her mind, a place untouched by the weight of duty, of expectations, of memories that cut like broken glass. Without thinking, she seized his hand—cold as the wind before a storm—and pulled him forward.

‘Come along, then. There’s one place I wish for you to see.’

She wove through the halls with hurried steps, the firelight casting their elongated shadows against the stone. Kai followed, silent but watchful, his curiosity evident in the slight arch of his brow.

The moment they breached the castle doors, Alina lifted her chin towards the sky and pointed.

‘There. That’s where we are going.’

Kai’s gaze followed the line of her finger, his dark eyes widening slightly as they landed on the towering cliffs in the distance, their jagged peaks piercing the sky like the teeth of some ancient beast.

‘You want to go up there ?’ Laughter rumbled from his chest, low, rich, intoxicating. A sound that curled around Alina like silk, sending an unfamiliar warmth blooming beneath her ribs.

She wanted to hear it again. Wanted to find things to make him laugh like that.

Kai moved behind her, close but never touching.

And yet…

His breath ghosted along the shell of her ear, and every single hair on her body rose, electrified by the sensation. ‘And tell me, princess. How exactly are we getting there?’

Alina’s lips curled.

‘We fly.’