Chapter 4

Lina's POV

I barely remembered the walk back to my tiny sleeping alcove in the servants' quarters. The narrow space was barely large enough for the thin pallet on the floor and the small wooden chest that held my few possessions, and the stone walls seemed to press in on me as I collapsed onto the rough blanket, my body shaking with exhaustion and pain.

I sat in the darkness for what felt like hours, turning over the same desperate question again and again: Who could make Augustus let me go?

I found no answers. Eventually, I forced myself to move, stripping off my blood-soaked clothes with numb fingers and using the basin of ice-cold water in the corner to clean the worst of the wounds Isabella had left on my face.

Exhaustion finally dragged me under, and I fell into a fitful, dreamless sleep.

The cold woke me as the first gray light of dawn began to seep through the narrow window slit, the pale winter sunlight barely warming the room. I curled up on my pallet, pulling the thin blanket around myself, and whispered the same mantra I'd repeated every morning for the past week: "Three more days. Just three more days, and everything will be better."

I dragged myself upright, splashing more ice water on my face and doing my best to make myself presentable despite the bruises and cuts that marked me as clearly as any brand. My reflection in the small, cracked mirror showed a stranger—a hollow-eyed girl with tangled golden hair and a face painted in shades of purple and red.

I made my way back to the Dragonfire Chamber at precisely six o'clock, as I had every morning for ten years, though today I'd deliberately delayed by fifteen minutes in the desperate hope that Augustus would have already left for his morning council session. My heart sank when I pushed open the heavy doors and found him standing beside the frost-covered windows, fully dressed in his formal black-and-gold robes, his posture radiating cold fury.

I froze in the doorway, my heart stopping in my chest, and immediately dropped into the deepest bow I could manage, pressing my forehead nearly to the floor and keeping my eyes fixed on the marble. "Your Majesty," I whispered, my voice barely audible.

"Two days left after today," Augustus said, his voice as cold and sharp as a blade of ice, and I felt his golden eyes boring into the back of my neck like a physical weight. "Do you think if you just keep avoiding me, you'll make it through safely?"

He paused, and in that silence I heard the unspoken threat hanging between us like a drawn sword. "How naive," he continued, and there was something almost amused in his tone now, something that made my skin crawl. "If I want to keep you here, do you really think you'll be able to leave?"

I said nothing, because there was nothing I could say that wouldn't make things worse. He let the silence stretch for another agonizing moment before I heard his boots cross the floor toward the door. "I'll be back tonight," he said as he passed me, and I didn't dare raise my head to watch him go. "Pray I don't see that pathetic countdown expression on your face again."

The doors slammed shut behind him, and only then did I allow myself to breathe. My hands were shaking as I pushed myself upright and began the familiar routine of maintaining his chambers—opening the windows to let in the frigid morning air, stripping and remaking the massive bed with fresh ice-silk sheets, replacing the spent Flamequell incense with fresh sticks.

The incense was specially crafted to suppress the volatile fire essence that burned within all dragonkin, keeping Augustus's destructive heat from consuming everything in his sleep, and its sharp, medicinal scent filled the room as the new sticks began to smolder in their brass holders.

I moved through the morning tasks like a ghost, my body operating on pure muscle memory while my mind spiraled through increasingly desperate scenarios. After a meager breakfast of thin gruel in the servants' hall, I returned to check the frost array runes etched into the floor around Augustus's bed, replenish the dwindling supply of salve in my personal stores, and count the enchanted magestones that powered the chamber's lighting.

By midday, I was laying out fresh bedding for Augustus's afternoon rest and adjusting the concentration of Flamequell incense when a young servant boy burst through the doors, his face flushed with urgency. "Lina!" he gasped, and I turned my head to catch his words with my good ear. "His Majesty is returning early. Captain Ironclaw said your sister has been kneeling outside the council chamber all morning begging for an audience, and she's made him furious. You should finish quickly and get out before he arrives—"

I didn't wait to hear the rest. My hands moved frantically as I beckoned to Freya and Aria, two newly arrived human slaves who'd been helping me check the dragon-bed for any potential array malfunctions, and together we rushed to complete the final adjustments.

My heart hammered against my ribs as I dropped to my knees, frantically gathering up the glowing shards while Freya and Aria stood frozen in panic. I'd just swept up the last piece when I heard voices in the corridor outside—Augustus's deep, commanding tone giving orders to his guards.

"Move!" I hissed at the two younger thralls, and we scrambled toward the doors, my pulse racing so fast I felt dizzy. We were three steps from freedom when the massive doors swung open, and I found myself face-to-face with the Dragon King himself, flanked by Selas and two other guards.

Augustus's golden eyes locked onto mine, and a slow, cold smile curved his lips—the kind of smile a predator might wear when it had finally cornered its prey.

I immediately stepped back and bowed deeply, pulling Freya and Aria with me as we pressed ourselves against the wall to clear the doorway. My head was bowed low, eyes fixed on the floor, and I kept perfectly still, praying desperately that he would simply walk past us and let this moment end.

But I could feel his gaze on me, heavy and inescapable as a chain, and I knew with sinking certainty that my prayers would go unanswered.