Burned by My Fiancé, Reborn to Rule the Dragon Court

SERAPHINA'S POV:

An hour ago, I had collapsed upon hearing the impossible news: my fiancé, Lord Kaelen Sterling, was alive-and had returned home.

Two years ago, Kaelen had ridden to the northern border to join the war. Less than three months later, word came that he had been killed in battle. The fighting at the border was raging more fiercely than ever, yet the man everyone had mourned as dead had suddenly returned without so much as a scar.

"Just a little more, my lady."

Moira's voice was a nervous flutter behind me. Her fingers, cool and trembling, adjusted the gold thread of the dragon-scale embroidery on my skirts.

I stared at myself in the vanity mirror and knew with absolute certainty that I had been reborn.

In my previous life, Kaelen betrayed me. He brought his pregnant mistress, Jacqueline Byrd, into my life, stripped me of everything I had, and eventually imprisoned me in an abandoned estate. While the Beaumont family-the people who had protected me-was brought to ruin because of him, Kaelen and Jacqueline watched me burn alive.

That fire had been the end of Seraphina Croft once.

Not this time.

Now that fate had given me another life, I would never again be the woman who trusted Kaelen, yielded to Jacqueline, or stood helplessly by while the people who loved me were destroyed. This time, everyone who betrayed me, used me, and drove me to my death would pay for it.

"I'm fine, Moira." I placed my hand over hers. My own skin was cold, a deep chill that had nothing to do with the drafty room.

The parlor door slammed open, the sound cracking through the quiet room.

There he stood. Lord Kaelen Sterling. My fiancé. The man who had left me to burn.

He wore a fine tunic of deep blue, the half-blood dragon crest of the Sterling family-a dragon of red and gold-stitched proudly over his heart. His face, handsome and familiar, was arranged in a mask of concern.

"Seraphina," he said, his voice the same rich baritone that had lied to me a thousand times. He strode into the room, ignoring Moira's hurried curtsy. "I heard you fainted. I was so worried."

He reached for my hand.

I pulled back, a sharp, instinctive motion.

The smile on his face tightened for a fraction of a second.

From the shadows behind him, a smaller figure emerged. Jacqueline Byrd. The other face from my nightmares. She was dressed in a simple white gown, the picture of innocence, a harmless little flower.

She glanced at me, her eyes wide and fearful, before shrinking back behind Kaelen's shoulder as if my gaze were dragonfire.

"Seraphina, my love, you must understand," Kaelen began, his voice regaining its aristocratic smoothness. "Jacqueline saved my life on the battlefield. Without her, I would have truly died."

The same words. The exact same script as last time.

My heart didn't ache. It didn't even beat faster. It was a cold, dead stone in my chest.

"So?" I asked. My voice was colder than I expected.

Kaelen blinked, thrown off by my response. "So, I wish for you to accept her. She will live with me, as my woman."

He paused, as if bestowing upon me a great honor. "You, of course, will remain the future lady of the Sterling house. I assure you, her presence will not affect your status."

Jacqueline chose that moment to step forward, sinking into a low curtsy. Her eyes were already welling with tears.

"Miss Croft, I beg of you," she whispered, her voice choked with emotion. "I ask for nothing, only to be allowed to stay by Lord Kaelen's side..."

Moira gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. She couldn't believe a noble lord could say something so shameless to his betrothed.

I laughed.

It wasn't a giggle. It was a raw, mocking sound that echoed unnervingly in the parlor.

Kaelen and Jacqueline stared, bewildered. His brow furrowed. "Seraphina, this isn't funny."

"No, it's not," I said, the laughter dying on my lips. I stood up, my silk skirts whispering against the floor as I walked toward him. "I'm just laughing at how a man can be so utterly without shame."

My gaze flickered past him to Jacqueline. "She saved you on the battlefield?" I let out a cold laugh. "The Sterling forces lost their position and were driven into retreat during that campaign. You vanished for two years while everyone believed you dead, and now you return in the middle of the war with another woman at your side, expecting me to applaud your heroic survival?"

I looked him over slowly. "Forgive me, Kaelen. I'm having trouble seeing the hero in this story."

The color drained from Kaelen's face. "You... What nonsense are you spouting!" he hissed, his composure cracking.

"Am I?" I stopped directly in front of him, close enough to see the panic in his blue eyes. "Then what do you call this? Asking me to house your savior, to share my fiancé? Is this a request, or an order?"

"I am informing you, Seraphina!" he spat, his true colors finally showing. "As my fiancée, you must-"

His words were cut short.

My hand flew up, and I slapped him across the face with every ounce of strength I possessed.

The crack of skin against skin was sharp and final.

The room went silent.

Kaelen staggered back, his hand flying to his cheek. His eyes were wide with disbelief and humiliation. He had never, in his wildest dreams, imagined that the docile, obedient Seraphina would ever dare to strike him.

Jacqueline let out a short scream. "Lord Kaelen! Are you alright? Miss Croft, how could you..."

Moira dropped to her knees, her face ashen.

I flexed my stinging hand. Looking at the treacherous pair before me, I felt no satisfaction. Only the cold, burning resolve of my hatred.

"First," I said, my voice cutting through the silence, each word a shard of ice. "This is the Croft estate. My home. Not your territory. Letting you in was a courtesy, not an obligation."

"Second, my fiancé will be mine in body and soul, or he will be nothing to me at all. The word 'share' does not exist in Seraphina Croft's vocabulary."

My eyes landed on Jacqueline, who flinched. "And you can stop hiding behind those tears. A woman who knowingly crawls into an engaged man's bed doesn't get to call herself innocent just because she lowers her eyes and speaks softly."

I gave her a cold once-over. "You're his mistress, Jacqueline. Nothing more. So don't come into my home begging me to bless your shameless affair. Get out before I have you thrown out."

Kaelen's face cycled from white to red, then to a mottled purple. He pointed a trembling finger at me, his lips moving, but no words came out.

I turned my back on them, returning to my vanity. I smoothed down the embroidered scales on my dress.

"Moira, close the door. See our guests out. Don't let the flies ruin my mood for the ceremony."

Moira scrambled to her feet, her body still shaking. She moved to the door and held it open, gesturing for Kaelen and Jacqueline to leave.

Kaelen stared at my back with pure venom in his eyes. Finally, with a furious whip of his cloak, he stormed out, dragging the still-sobbing Jacqueline with him.

The door clicked shut.

Silence returned.

I looked at my reflection. My eyes were clear and hard. This life, I would not be the lamb led to slaughter.

Revenge starts today.

SERAPHINA'S POV:

With Kaelen gone, Moira hovered near the door, her expression a mixture of terror and concern. She probably thought I had gone mad from the betrayal.

"Leave me," I said softly. "I need a moment alone."

She hesitated, then bowed her head and slipped out of the room, closing the door with a quiet click.

The moment I was alone, the strength I had feigned drained away. My hands clenched into fists, nails digging into my palms. The pain was a welcome anchor, keeping me grounded.

I wasn't mad. I remembered exactly how it had all begun-and exactly how Kaelen had destroyed us.

In my past life, I had trusted him without question. I gave him access to the Croft family's confidence, our connections, even military information that should never have left my father's hands. Kaelen used that trust to steal military secrets and sell them to the king's rival, Prince Damian.

I remembered my family. The great House of Croft, framed for treason, destroyed overnight. My father, beheaded. My brothers, slain in battle. My mother, Eleonora, her already frail body giving out as she coughed up blood upon hearing the news.

By the time I realized what Kaelen had done, there was almost nothing left for me to save.

My dowry, the immense fortune from my mother's Beaumont family, was plundered by Kaelen and Jacqueline. It became the capital they used to climb the social ladder.

Even my stepsister, Cressida, and my stepmother, Lady Elara, had played their part, picking over the last valuable scraps in the Croft estate like vultures.

Kaelen used me. Jacqueline took what belonged to me. Elara and Cressida helped strip the Croft family of whatever remained. And while I had once been too blind to see the trap closing around me, I remembered every face now. Every choice. Every debt.

Before my last life ended, I had sworn that if fate ever gave me another chance, every person who betrayed my family would pay.

Now I had that chance.

And my first move was obvious.

Kaelen had to lose me before he could use me again.

I crossed the room to the writing desk and pulled out the marriage contract binding House Croft to House Sterling. In my previous life, I had treasured that parchment as proof that Kaelen and I had a future. Now I saw it for what it truly was-the first chain he had wrapped around my throat.

I drew one hard line through his name, lit the corner of my own copy over the candle, and watched the contract curl into blackened ash.

The engagement would end today. Publicly. Before Kaelen had the chance to twist it into another humiliation.

I would not be humiliated at the ceremony as Kaelen "reluctantly" broke our betrothal and demanded a fortune in compensation for his "troubles."

This time, I would strike first. I would present the annulment decree before the entire family and end our engagement in front of everyone, leaving Lord Kaelen Sterling with nothing but shame.

I threw open the door. Moira was waiting anxiously outside. She took one look at the ash still clinging to my fingers and the resolve in my eyes, and her own went wide.

"My lady, you..."

"Moira," I cut her off. "Prepare a formal decree of annulment. I will sign it immediately."

Her jaw dropped. "But, my lady, that requires the approval of the head of the house and the elders... To annul it unilaterally, you'll be the laughingstock of the entire nobility!"

"Let them laugh." My voice was calm. "I'd rather be mocked for ending a rotten engagement than spend another day bound to a man like Kaelen Sterling."

Moira didn't understand the depth of my words, but she saw the unshakeable certainty in my eyes.

"I understand, my lady." She stopped arguing and hurried away to do as I commanded. She was my mother's woman, the only one I could truly trust.

I sat back down before the mirror, staring at the young face that held so much hatred.

Kaelen. Jacqueline. Elara. Cressida.

I would spare none of them.

I picked up a tube of lipstick and painted my pale lips a defiant, blood-red.

Tonight's heir confirmation ceremony would be my battlefield.

I would not only reclaim everything that was mine, but I would also protect the person in this family I was most determined to save-my frail, ailing mother.

In my last life, I was powerless to save her. This time, I would not let history repeat itself.

I stood, smoothing my dress. The flames of vengeance burned in my heart, hotter than any fire that had ever consumed me.

SERAPHINA'S POV:

While I waited for Moira to return with the annulment decree, my mind drifted back to the past.

I remembered that Kaelen's desperation to appease me, to bring Jacqueline before me, wasn't just about his twisted sense of love.

It was about my mother's dowry.

That immense fortune, provided by the Beaumont merchant family, was the prize he had coveted all along. According to kingdom law, a noblewoman's dowry was managed by her husband after marriage. By marrying me, Kaelen would gain legal control of it all.

And Jacqueline, that seemingly fragile woman, had used that money in our past life to weave her way through the noble circles, paving Kaelen's path until he caught the eye of the truly powerful Prince Damian.

The thought of Prince Damian sent a jolt of ice through my heart. That man was a nightmare far more terrifying than Kaelen.

Then, a forgotten detail surfaced.

In my final days, locked away in that abandoned manor, a man had come to see me.

He was cloaked and injured, and through the iron bars of the dungeon, he had passed me a piece of bread and a flask of water.

My mind had been clouded with pain and fever, but I remembered his eyes. They were impossibly bright, like stars, and he smelled faintly of snow-dusted cedar.

At the time, I had assumed he was one of Kaelen's men-a guard taking pity on a dying prisoner and risking punishment to give me food and water. I had been too weak to question it.

But now, with my mind clear, the memory felt wrong. Kaelen's men had treated me with nothing but contempt. None of them would have risked his wrath for my sake. And the stranger had been injured himself, his cloak concealing both his face and any crest that might have revealed his identity. Whoever he was, he had not belonged in that manor.

Who was he? Why would he risk his life to help me? The question lodged itself in my mind like a thorn.

A soft knock on the door pulled me from my thoughts. It wasn't Moira; her knock was lighter.

"Sister? It's me, Cressida. May I come in?"

Cressida Croft. My stepmother Lady Elara's daughter. My stepsister. The one who had stabbed me in the back countless times in our past life.

"Enter," I said, my voice flat.

Cressida swept in, dressed in a confection of pink silk that made her look like a doll. Her dress had a clumsy dragon-wing embroidery on the shoulder, a cheap imitation of the emblems worn by true high nobility. She saw me and immediately arranged her face into an expression of deep concern.

"Sister, I heard Lord Kaelen returned... Are you alright? He didn't trouble you, did he?" She glided to my side, reaching for my hand.

Again, I shifted away, avoiding the touch. I didn't want these false people near me.

I remembered with perfect clarity how Cressida had "accidentally" let it slip that Jacqueline was "gravely injured and homeless" after saving Kaelen, preying on my foolish sympathy.

"I'm fine," I replied, watching her pathetic performance.

Cressida seemed surprised that I wasn't confiding in her as I used to. Her eyes darted around the room before she adopted a look of righteous indignation.

"That Jacqueline woman has no shame! A commoner of unknown origins, trying to attach herself to the Sterling family! Don't you worry, sister. Mother and I will stand by you!"

How laughable. In our last life, Lady Elara had paid lip service to helping me while secretly sending word to Kaelen that Cressida was far more gentle and suitable to be the lady of his house.

They were both desperate to climb higher.

"Stand by me?" I looked at her at last, letting my gaze travel slowly over the pink silk and the ridiculous imitation dragon wings on her shoulder. "How touching. Though if Jacqueline disappeared tomorrow, I suspect you and your mother would be far more interested in taking my place than defending it."

Cressida went perfectly still. For one naked second, the concern vanished from her face. Shock flashed through her eyes before she hurriedly covered it with an offended smile.

"Sister, how could you say something like that?"

"Quite easily." I turned back toward the mirror. "You should try being sincere sometime. It requires much less effort than pretending."

Just then, Moira returned, holding a piece of fine parchment-the annulment decree.

"My lady, what you asked for." Moira handed it to me.

Cressida saw the heading on the document and gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Sister! You... you're annulling the engagement? Are you mad?"

I ignored her outburst, took the quill, and signed my name at the bottom: Seraphina Croft.

My handwriting was firm, without a single tremor.

"From this moment, I have no relation to Lord Kaelen Sterling," I declared, handing the signed decree to Moira. "Keep this safe. I will present it to Father myself at the ceremony."

Cressida stared at me as if I were a monster. She couldn't comprehend it. An unmarried woman who had broken her own betrothal would be an outcast in noble society.

But she didn't know that I simply didn't care.

"You... you'll live to regret this," Cressida stammered, before turning and fleeing the room.

I watched her go. She was rushing to tell her dear mother, no doubt.

Good. I wanted them all to know.