This Time, I Married the Man He Feared Most

Celeste's POV

The day the Gryphon army marched home in victory, my sister's husband came back safe. My husband, Tobias, died on the ice.

Everyone pitied me, and I believed them. I mourned him for years, handed over every resource the Elven Realm had to offer to Crown Prince Nathaniel, and helped him lock down his claim to the throne.

It took me years to find out the man who came back wasn't Nathaniel at all. It was my "dead" husband, Tobias.

He killed his own brother, stole his face with forbidden magic, all so he could marry my sister Sabrina and make her his queen, official and out in the open.

"Sabrina and I are the real thing. Pretending to be my brother, that was for the good of the kingdom."

They framed me for treason and threw me into the Pit of Judgment. As I burned, I watched the two of them hold each other while the kingdom cheered.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the army came home.

My sister begged me to stop grieving, tears in her eyes. "Nathaniel" swore he'd give me a life of luxury. The old king stood in front of everyone and promised to grant me anything I wanted.

This time, I didn't cry. I chose to remarry without a second thought.

Tobias thought wearing his brother's face was all it took to sit on that throne. What he didn't know was that without me, he never stood a chance of getting there at all.

"Celeste, I'm so sorry. Tobias died protecting the army's retreat. He went down fighting on the ice."

The voice reached me first, sweet and fake, the kind built for an audience.

The burn still lingered somewhere deep inside me, and I shot upright, gasping, drenched in cold sweat. Above me, the ceiling of the Gryphon palace arched high overhead.

I wasn't dead. Or wait, had I been reborn?

I turned my head. My sister Sabrina stood there, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Beside her stood a tall man with a sharp, handsome face. The crown prince of the Gryphon Kingdom, Nathaniel.

Except it wasn't him. It was Tobias wearing his brother's face. My husband.

I remembered this day like it happened yesterday. In my last life, the news broke me. I cried myself sick, then spent half my life mourning a liar, drained every last resource the Elves had to give, and got burned alive for it in the end.

The two of them standing there now were putting on an even better show than last time. One playing grief, the other playing devotion.

The wheel of fate had spun back to this exact moment.

"Celeste?" The old king, Theodore, sat on his throne, his eyes soft with pity. "Tobias was a real soldier. He didn't shame the Gryphon name. I know this is hard on you, child. As your king, I'll grant you one request. Whatever you want, I'll give it to you."

Dozens of nobles in the hall looked at me with pity.

Sabrina took my hand gently. "Celeste, don't take this so hard. Nathaniel made it home safe. That's the one blessing in all this. Don't worry, he'll look after you like you're his own sister."

Tobias watched me, his voice thick with a pity that didn't reach his eyes. "Celeste, Tobias asked me to look after you before he died. Stay here in the palace, behave yourself, and I promise you'll want for nothing."

Word for word, the same thing he'd told me last time.

Too bad I could see straight through him now.

I caught the smugness and calculation still lurking behind his eyes, then smiled. I didn't cry this time. Instead, I pulled my hand out of Sabrina's grip, and her face went stiff.

I lifted my chin and looked straight at Theodore. "You just said you'd grant me anything I asked for. Did you mean that?"

"Of course, child. I swear it on the name of the gods." Theodore nodded, solemn.

Tobias frowned, like he'd caught wind that something was off, and stepped forward fast. "Celeste, if you want to go back to the Elven Realm, I can send my best knights to escort you there myself..."

"No. I'm not going back to the Elves." I cut him off. "Tobias loved me. He told me once that if he ever died out there, he couldn't stand the thought of me spending the rest of my life alone. He wanted me to find happiness again."

The whole hall went dead silent. Everyone stared at me like I'd lost my mind.

I watched the color drain from Tobias's face and said, "So I'm taking the second option. I'm remarrying."

The Gryphon Kingdom only allowed one marriage per lifetime, so the second the words left my mouth, Tobias burst out, "That's insane!"

He was wearing Nathaniel's face, but the fury underneath was pure Tobias. "Tobias isn't even cold in the ground and you're already talking about remarrying? Celeste, have you no shame? Is this how you honor a man who loved you? You should be home mourning him properly!"

Sabrina jumped in right behind him. "Exactly, Celeste. How could you say something like that? It's an insult to Tobias and the whole kingdom!"

I let out a cold laugh. "An insult? If Tobias really loved me, he wouldn't want me burying my whole life in some cold, empty tomb. And Nathaniel, why are you so worked up about this? You act like you understand your own brother better than I do."