Chapter 2

Elara's POV

The Frostbone Lash came down like a scream.

"AHHH—!" I curled around my belly. "Nyra, please—this is your niece or nephew—"

"Fuck your niece or nephew!" She raised the whip again, her eyes wild. "You killed my eldest brother and stole my second one, you half-blood bitch! You don't DESERVE to carry his egg!"

The second strike caught my shoulder.

My body reacted on instinct—protective scales flickered to the surface, shimmering gold for half a heartbeat. The frost-dragon fangs braided into the lash tore them clean off. Scales and blood sprayed across the frozen floor.

I'd never felt pain like that. Like being skinned alive.

"I didn't kill Roman—"

"SHUT UP!" Her boot slammed toward my stomach. I threw my arms in front of it just in time, absorbing the blow with my forearms. "You think I don't see right through you? Seduce Kael, get knocked up, ride the egg to power?"

Her knee drove into my side before I could breathe. I crumpled, blood foaming at the corner of my mouth.

"His whole life, Kael never looked at another woman." She ground her stiletto heel into my fingers. "Not until you slithered in."

"Ahh—stop—"

"What filthy trick did you use to make Grandfather force him to marry you?" She twisted harder. Something in my hand cracked. "A nobody half-blood with no lineage, no house, no name—waltzing into Veyron like she belongs?"

A contraction ripped through me.

Inside my body, the egg shuddered. Not a healthy pulse. A tremor. Desperate. Weak.

"And you had the NERVE to get pregnant with his baby!" She kicked my stomach again. I barely blocked it. "After Roman died, Kael should've been rebuilding this family. Not chained to a parasite like you!"

I threw everything I had into shielding my belly. My back cracked against the rune-covered wall. My entire spine went numb.

"Nyra... please... I'll leave. I'll leave Veyron. You'll never see me again—"

"LEAVE?" She grabbed a fistful of my hair and smashed my head against the wall. "You destroyed everything between my brother and me, and now you think you can just WALK AWAY?"

Warm blood ran down my forehead. The world went soft at the edges.

She let go. I slid to the floor like something boneless.

She walked to the rune control panel on the wall. Tapped it once. Twice. Three times.

"There. Suppression Level One to Level Three." She inspected her nails. "Can't have Kael seeing you like this. He might go soft."

The cold hit like a freight train.

Whatever ember of dragonflame I had left—that last tiny flicker keeping me and my egg connected—was snuffed out completely. My teeth chattered so hard I bit my own tongue.

"VANCE!" Nyra called toward the door. "Send someone to clean up this mess!"

"Yes, miss."

She looked at me one last time. Licked her lips.

"Enjoy. This is what happens when you try to take what's mine."

The iron door slammed shut.

I lay in my own blood. Every inch of my body screamed. The suppression runes pulsed around me—Level Three now, hungry, relentless—draining heat I didn't have.

I don't know how long I lay there.

The door opened again. Lena, the low-blood half-dragon servant, shuffled in with a bucket and rags. Her eyes found me and her knees buckled.

"Holy Dragon Above... my lady..."

"Lena..." I could barely lift my head.

She dropped to the floor beside me, hands over her mouth, tears already falling. "Your scales... oh gods, your scales..."

"I can't hold on much longer..."

She bit her lip. I saw the war behind her eyes—fear versus something stronger.

"My lady... what can I do?"

"Lena... can you send a resonance signal for me?"

She hesitated. Then nodded.

I gave her a frequency. My father's private channel—one only blood-family would recognize. Her hands shook as she pulled a small communication sigil from inside her dress.

Footsteps outside.

"Lena! You done in there? Lord Kael's coming to inspect!" Vance's voice, impatient.

"A-almost!" She shoved the sigil back into her clothes, pretending to scrub the blood.

Vance stuck his head in, swept the room with dead eyes. "Hurry up."

His footsteps faded.

Lena gripped my hand. "My lady... I'll try. You have to hold on. Promise me."

"Thank you, Lena..."

She gathered her things and rushed out.

The iron door locked behind her.

Cold and pain ate at what was left of me. I held my belly with both hands, pressing, feeling for any sign of life.

But my baby was almost still.

Almost.

Minutes passed. Maybe hours. The cold made it impossible to tell.

Then—a faint scraping sound above my head.

The vent panel in the ceiling shifted. Moved. Slid aside.

Lena's face appeared in the opening, flushed and terrified.

"My lady! Grab the rope—NOW!"

She hauled me into the servant's passage inch by agonizing inch. Every pull tore my wounds open wider. I bit through my lip to keep from screaming.

"Lena... the signal... did it go through?"

"No response!" She crawled ahead of me, dragging me by my wrists. "I sent it three times. Nothing came back. But I am NOT watching you die in that hole!"

My heart sank. But there was no time for grief. Not yet.

Moonlight spilled in from the end of the passage. We tumbled out into the open air and staggered toward the back gate—the one gap in the blood-wolf patrol route.

Night wind hit my face. Volcanic ash and wild grass.

"There! Right there—" Lena pointed into the dark.

Twenty meters. Ten. Five.

"Well, well. Two little worms. Crawled pretty fast, didn't you?"

Nyra's voice floated from behind us.