Chapter 4

In the end, my gambit didn't escape Torvin's eyes.

The aphrodisiac poison burned through my veins like liquid fire. I collapsed onto the bed, forcing myself to meet his gaze through the haze of pain, and confessed everything.

I'd made myself bait. Set a death trap for Magnus. Calculated every step—the secluded courtyard, the window when Torvin would be away, even the despicable methods Magnus would inevitably employ.

"Even if I hadn't struck first, Magnus would never have left me alone." My breath came in ragged gasps as I grabbed his hand where it gripped my jaw, my fingers trembling. "In this game of power, the only option is to strike first..."

Torvin loomed over me, pinning me beneath his shadow. He had no memories of my past life. I could never tell him that Magnus had already killed me once before.

He stared down at my flushed, disheveled state. The violence in his eyes gradually receded, replaced by a dark, aching pain.

Silence stretched between us. Finally, he released my jaw and pulled my burning body against his chest.

He exhaled deeply, his voice rough with exhaustion. "Never... do something this dangerous again."

He drew a wool cloak around me, wrapping it tight around my trembling shoulders.

"I am your husband." He pressed his mask against my forehead, his voice heavy as an oath. "Protecting you is my responsibility."

The moment I heard those words, the poison fire inside me seemed to pause. Something in my chest quietly melted, bringing with it a trembling ache and warmth.

The calm didn't last long. Months flew by, and suddenly, we reached the night Phaedra went into labor.

Thunder split the night sky. Rain poured down in sheets. The entire fortress was engulfed in the golden arrays of dragon mages.

They proclaimed it an auspicious omen for the birth of a pure-blooded golden dragon, significant enough to rouse Typhon from his bed. He personally waited outside Phaedra's chambers for his "first pure-blooded grandchild."

How could I possibly miss this spectacle?

I stood in the shadows of the corridor, sneering. With Magnus's tainted bloodline, did he really think he could sire a pure-blooded golden dragon?

The gods weren't blind. Neither was anyone else. The only thing growing were the horns on his head.

It was Phaedra's first birth, and dragon offspring were massive. She screamed all night long.

Her piercing wails penetrated the oak door. Standing by the stone wall, I was dragged back to my past life's nightmare—that night when I too had screamed in despair, bleeding as I gave birth to those nine children doomed to tragedy.

Cold sweat slicked down my back.

At dawn, the screaming stopped, but no infant's cry followed. No one emerged carrying the hatchling.

Typhon finally lost patience and barged through the door.

From inside came a low, suppressed roar.

Then came a silence so complete, so bone-chilling, it felt like death itself.

Soon after, Typhon emerged with an ashen face and issued a gag order.

But rumors always find a way. Word spread that Phaedra had indeed given birth to a golden creature—but it wasn't a dragon at all.

It was a single-clawed golden python.

Even an ordinary golden python, if fed with precious potions and alchemical treasures, had some chance of transforming into a dragon.

But "single-clawed" meant a natural defect, doomed to remain a lowly reptile forever. Worse still, the small python's face bore an ugly, misshapen blood-red birthmark.

The instant Typhon saw it clearly, his face darkened. He swept out without a word, not even bothering to give the creature a name.

When I heard this news, I was cheerfully asking my maid to serve another plate of roasted meat. Revenge, I was learning, had a flavor all its own.

The dragon clan hadn't produced offspring of such inferior quality in over a thousand years.

In my past life, Phaedra and Drakon had borne a white dragon. But in this life, she and Magnus could only produce a deformed golden python.

Whose bloodline was tainted? The answer was crystal clear. Magnus should finally recognize that this wasn't some curse—it was the depravity in his very bones manifesting itself.

This invisible slap struck Magnus's face hard. Yet in this ruthless fortress, the royal court's reaction always proved more lethal than mockery.

The next morning, Typhon immediately began arranging Drakon's marriage while issuing Torvin a death order—I had to conceive a dragon heir within one year.

Once the royal decree was issued, the nobles caught the shifting wind.

Magnus had completely fallen from grace. Typhon had reluctantly moved him from the dungeons to house arrest to await the "pure-blooded golden dragon grandson." Now even that last hope had become a farce.

The "single-clawed golden python" became the court's biggest joke, mockery spreading through every corridor. Enraged, Magnus destroyed the furnishings in his chambers and refused to emerge.

Phaedra's days were equally miserable. Magnus blamed the entire disgrace on her six-tailed fox bloodline, roaring that he would cast out mother and child and remarry.

If not for my father's secret letter, I wouldn't have gone to see her at all. It read: "Go see Phaedra. She is still your sister."

I had no desire to go. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that cold, indifferent look in Phaedra's eyes from my past life as I was bound to the sacrificial pillar. But bound by the prohibition and my father's command, I went.

To my surprise, she was completely ungrateful, her haggard face twisted with venom.

"Tell me, Vespera—has he ever taken off that mask for you?" Phaedra's smile didn't reach her eyes. "There's a reason he keeps it on, you know. That face underneath..."

She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a poisonous whisper. "It's hideous."

Her features contorted with malicious glee. "And you, you mongrel half-breed—you won't birth anything better. Even if you do manage to give birth, so what?"

Her laughter turned shrill. "You're nothing but a blood catalyst for Father! Ha ha ha!"

Blood catalyst? Blood catalyst again!

Before she could continue, Phaedra's laughter cut off abruptly. She clapped her hand over her mouth in horror, as if she'd touched upon some forbidden secret.

Those two words sliced through my nightmares like a blade.

In my past life, when Magnus carved out my heart while I was still alive, he'd been screaming those same words in fanatic frenzy!

Thinking of my nine children who died so miserably in that life, I instinctively clutched my abdomen, my entire body turning cold as alarm bells rang in my mind.

I pressed forward, demanding answers, but Phaedra refused to say another word and threw me out.

Filled with shock and dread, I rushed back to the tower to find Torvin, demanding to know what was going on.

But Torvin avoided my eyes, once again hiding behind that infuriating excuse: "to protect you."

I clutched my abdomen protectively, the fury in my chest finally erupting beyond control.

"Torvin, how much longer are you going to keep lying to me?" I stared hard at that bone-dragon mask.

"I'm pregnant, Torvin."