Chapter 1

Elara's POV

"Let go of me! My baby is coming!"

I clawed at the dragon-bone doorframe, my nails splitting against the carved runes. The contractions hit like lightning—scales flickered beneath my skin, trying to surface, only to be crushed back down by the cold already seeping up from below.

Vance pried my fingers off one by one. No emotion. No hesitation.

"Lord Kael's orders." He dragged me toward the stairs. "The Frost Vault will suppress your dragonflame. Your egg won't hatch. You wait until Lady Celine's egg breaks shell first."

"Are you insane?" Amniotic fluid ran down my legs. "You'll freeze my baby to death!"

"Lord Roman's bloodline takes priority." His voice could've cut steel.

The Frost Vault.

Built from ancient ice-dragon bones, every wall etched with suppression runes that glowed a sickening blue. The air reeked of old blood and dragon marrow—this was where House Veyron executed traitors.

Vance shoved me to the ground. The cold hit my spine like a blade. He pulled out a communication crystal and switched it to broadcast.

"Lord Kael. She's in the Vault. Water broke. The rune array should hold her."

"She's still making a fuss?" Kael's voice came through, tired and annoyed.

Making a fuss?

"Kael!" I screamed at the crystal. "It's me! Our baby is coming NOW!"

"Are you kidding me? Right now?" Irritation dripped from every word. "Celine is about to deliver. Can't you hold it for two hours?"

"Hold it? My dragonflame is already gone—the runes drained everything—"

"You were pretty good at picking your timing when you crawled into my bed." His laugh was ice. "Forgot how to calculate now?"

The memory slammed into me. One year ago. That rainy night—the news of Roman's ambush by the Frost dragons, Kael passed out from the spiked soup, his rage when he woke...

"I was just bringing you a tonic! I didn't..."

"A tonic?" He exploded. "You laced it with Spring Desire! If it wasn't for your damn drug, Roman would never have—"

"Kael... it hurts... I'm scared..."

Celine's whimper drifted through the crystal. Soft. Fragile. Perfect.

And just like that, his voice melted into something I hadn't heard in a year.

"Hey. Don't be afraid. Breathe. The egg's almost here."

"It feels like it can't wait to meet us..." Celine's laugh was a whisper of silk.

"It'll be brave. Just like its father."

Every word was a knife twisting in my chest.

Same situation. Two pregnant women. One got tenderness. The other got a frozen dungeon.

"Kael..." My voice cracked. "My egg needs warmth too... please..."

"Your egg?" He scoffed. "You should be grateful you're still carrying one. Otherwise you'd have been fed to the blood wolves months ago." A beat. "Vance. Give her the Frostbind."

The crystal went dead.

Vance reached into a case and pulled out a syringe filled with ice-blue liquid. The glow pulsed like something alive.

"What is that?"

"Frostbind Serum. It'll keep your egg dormant a little longer."

"No!" I scrambled backward. "That will kill it!"

"It won't die. It'll just... wait." He grabbed my arm with one hand. "You don't understand what Roman meant to this clan. If the old master hadn't forced Kael to marry some no-name half-blood like you on his deathbed—"

The needle pierced my vein.

Ice flooded my bloodstream. Not cold—alive. Like a thousand frozen needles burrowing through every vessel, crawling toward the egg. I could feel the serum wrapping around the life bond between me and my child, squeezing, smothering.

"Lord Roman should never have died." Vance's eyes were full of disgust. "You're a curse on House Veyron. Every last thing that's gone wrong started with you."

He packed up the syringe and left without looking back.

The iron door slammed shut.

The serum took hold fast.

The steady pulse of my egg—that warm, rhythmic heartbeat I'd felt every day for months—stuttered.

Slowed.

Faltered.

I pressed both hands against my belly, curling into myself on the frozen dragon-bone floor. The runes around me hummed with blue light, drinking whatever warmth I had left.

"Baby..." I whispered. "Don't give up. Mama's right here."

Thump.

Weaker.

Thump.

Weaker still.

"Please... please keep fighting..."

Almost nothing now.

I couldn't feel my fingers. Couldn't feel my legs. The only thing I could still feel was that tiny, fading pulse—my baby slipping away from me one heartbeat at a time.

I closed my eyes. Tried to push my dragonflame toward the egg. Nothing. The runes had eaten it all.

I'm sorry, baby. Mama can't even keep you warm.

The tears froze on my cheeks before they could fall.

Time blurred. Minutes. Maybe hours. The cold devoured everything—thought, hope, fight.

I was almost gone when the iron door groaned open again.

Heels. Sharp, deliberate, clicking against dragon bone.

I forced my swollen eyes open.

Kael's sister Nyra stood over me. In her right hand, she dragged a weapon across the ground—a whip braided from frost-dragon fangs, its chain links gleaming with pale, hungry light.

The Frostbone Lash.

She tilted her head and smiled.

"I heard you were making a fuss." She cracked the whip once. The sound echoed off every wall. "Big brother sent me to teach you what 'hold it' really means."