Reborn to Ruin My Cheating Dragon Husband and Claim My Cursed Warlord

Alys Mercer POV:

"Do you truly think putting on a spectacle like this will make me jealous, Alys?"

Jaheem Bradley's voice drifted through my skull like poisonous smoke, each word sharpening the agony behind my temples. Once, I had loved that voice enough to surrender everything for it. Now, it made me want to tear out his throat.

I forced my eyes open.

The first thing I saw was not the suffocating crimson canopy above my bed, but a man's striking face hovering over mine. A forged-iron mask covered its upper half, concealing most of the mottled black scales spreading from his right temple toward his eye-the mark of the soul-devouring curse. Yet it could not hide the commanding line of his jaw, his finely shaped lips, or the storm-gray eyes now veined with blood.

Kael was braced over me.

His forearms were planted beside my shoulders, holding his weight rigidly away from me. Every muscle beneath his dark shadow-guard tunic strained with restraint, sweat glistening along his throat as he fought for each ragged breath.

Yet he had not touched me.

Even half-mad with poison, he was still fighting himself to protect my honor.

"Your Highness," Kael rasped. Blood darkened his lower lip where he had bitten through it to remain conscious. "Forgive me. The wine was drugged. I cannot-"

A violent wave of heat rolled through my lower abdomen, cutting him off. My pulse hammered beneath my skin, and the scent of arctic pine and molten gold pouring from his overheated dragon core made every nerve in my body tighten.

I recognized the poison instantly: an aphrodisiac brewed into fermented dragon crystal wine.

And I recognized this bedchamber.

Jaheem stood at the foot of the bed, watching us with a familiar, condescending smirk. Two servants hovered beyond the open doors, their pale faces carefully arranged into shock. They were not witnesses who had stumbled upon a scandal. They had been brought here to create one.

Jaheem was my lawful husband, though he possessed neither the blood nor the stature to stand beside me. I was the First Princess of Althea, heir to the pure golden dragon-god bloodline; he was merely a half-blood dragon from a declining vassal house. Blinded by love, I had used a royal decree to marry beneath my station, granting the Bradley family access to my title, wealth, and southern territories.

For three years, Jaheem had refused to consummate our marriage while keeping his beloved Kayden Steele in the finest wing of my estate. Tonight, he had drugged both Kael and me, planted the barely conscious guard in my bed, and arrived with witnesses to destroy my reputation.

"Only three years of an empty bed, and the great First Princess is already desperate enough to drag a hideous guard beneath her sheets," Jaheem said. His gaze slid contemptuously over the scar visible beneath Kael's mask. "If you wanted to provoke me, you could have chosen someone less revolting. Your lack of taste humiliates me as your husband."

Kael's already pale face went bloodless. His arms trembled harder, but he kept himself suspended above me, refusing to let even an inch of his body fall against mine.

Jaheem mistook my silence for fear.

"Sign the petition elevating Kayden as my secondary consort," he continued, "and I may persuade these servants to forget what they saw tonight. Refuse, and the Elder Council will hear every filthy detail by sunrise."

Memory returned like a blade driven through my skull.

I remembered this night-and understood that fate had returned me to the moment Jaheem first tried to ruin my honor for Kayden.

In my first life, this manufactured scandal had forced me to grant her an official title. From there, the Bradley family stripped away my authority piece by piece until Jaheem locked the fortress gates behind me, abandoned me to the rebel dragons in the Dragon Graveyard, and looted my dowry before my corpse was cold.

In this life, I would take back every honor they had stolen.

Jaheem Bradley would repay blood with blood.

"Kael," I said. "Move aside."

Shame flashed across his face. "Your Highness, I am trying. My body will not-"

I placed one hand against the center of his chest. His dragon core thundered beneath my palm, wild enough to shake his entire body.

"I know you will not hurt me," I said. "Use my strength."

He stared at me for one stunned heartbeat, then forced himself off the bed and dropped heavily to one knee. His hand cracked the carved bedpost as he fought the poison, but he kept his body turned away from the servants, shielding me from their view.

Jaheem gave a derisive laugh. "How touching. The scarred cur even knows how to obey."

A roar ripped through my chest.

My dragon soul tore through the fog in my veins.

I seized the heavy dragon-scale cloak from the bedside chair and wrapped it around my shoulders. My bare feet struck the icy marble floor as I crossed the room.

Jaheem's smirk faltered.

"Alys, what are you-"

I swung my right hand with everything I had.

The crack of my palm across his cheek echoed through the bedchamber. Pure, searing golden dragonfire erupted from my fingertips on impact, igniting the collar of his armor instantly.

Jaheem shrieked like a slaughtered pig. The overwhelming pressure of my pure-blood dragon-god heritage slammed into his chest, sending him flying backward through the carved wooden screen. The timber splintered as he crashed onto the cold flagstones.

"Alys!" he gasped, frantically slapping at the golden flames eating through his doublet. "Are you out of your mind? You used royal dragonfire on me!"

I stepped over the broken wood and looked down at him.

"Jaheem Bradley," I said, my voice dropping to a dead freeze. "Who gave a vassal dog permission to speak my name?"

His face drained of color beneath the soot and the red handprint burning on his cheek. His half-blood instincts made his limbs tremble beneath my aura, but his petty pride forced him to bare his teeth.

"I am your lawful husband! You were caught in bed with another man, yet you dare attack me? Without the Bradley family holding your southern borders, the Elder Council will strip your fiefdom by morning!"

"You poisoned the First Princess of Althea and planted a man in her bed." I flicked my thumb, letting a tiny spark of golden flame dance across my nail. "Be grateful I have not burned you alive before the witnesses you so thoughtfully brought me."

The two servants beyond the door collapsed to their knees.

"Guards."

Four royal guards in black dragon-scale armor stormed into the room. Their halberds crossed over Jaheem's neck, pinning him face-down against the floor. The two false witnesses tried to flee, but another pair of guards seized them in the corridor.

"Let me go!" Jaheem spat against the stone. "You jealous, vindictive bitch! Lock me up if you want, but you will never make me choose you over Kayden. I would rather watch this palace burn than share your bed again!"

"Drag this piece of filth out of my sight," I said. "Confine him and the servants separately. No one speaks to them until I conduct the interrogation myself."

The guards hauled Jaheem away. His screams faded down the vaulted corridor.

The bedchamber fell into silence.

Kael remained on one knee beside the bed, his head bowed as he awaited punishment. Only the violent rise and fall of his chest betrayed the poison still burning through him.

Then the rest of my memories struck.

Kael.

No. Callen Hart-the undefeated war lord of the North who had hidden his identity for four years to guard me from the shadows. The man who had taken ten thousand dragonfire arrows for me and destroyed the entire Bradley house after my death.

He had loved me enough to set a kingdom on fire, while I had never once looked back at him. This time, I would protect Callen Hart. I would never let him bleed for me again.

"Come here."

He obeyed, lowering himself before me. I slipped one finger beneath the edge of his iron mask and tilted his face upward.

He stiffened. "My face is grotesque, Your Highness."

"Your face does not offend me." My thumb brushed the iron beside his scarred cheek. "Besides, after waking with you above me in bed, it is far too late for modesty."

Heat rushed visibly to the tips of his ears. His storm-gray eyes dropped to my lips for one treacherous heartbeat before he forced them away.

I withdrew my hand and ordered him to guard my door until dawn. He bowed and retreated without another word, but the chaotic heat roaring through his dragon core followed him into the corridor.

I turned toward the vanity table.

Beside the brass mirror lay our vassal marriage contract, sealed with the red wax of the Elder Council, and Jaheem's petition demanding that Kayden Steele be recognized as his secondary consort.

I lifted the petition and held one corner above the candle flame.

The fire devoured Kayden's name first.

I watched the parchment curl into black ash between my fingers.

Tomorrow, the entire Bradley lineage would bleed for every drop they stole.

Alys Mercer POV:

The morning sun cut through the gray mist over the courtyard, casting long shadows across the towering stone monument of the First Dragon.

The royal physician had delivered an antidote before dawn. It had quelled the worst of the aphrodisiac's heat, and I had burned the remaining poison from my blood with dragonfire. Kael, I was told, had remained outside my door all night and forced the drug into submission with the sheer power of his own dragon core.

I adjusted the crimson sleeves of my dragonfire-patterned gown, the golden circlet resting firm against my brow. Clara and two other handmaidens followed three paces behind as I descended the broad marble stairs.

In the center of the flagstone square, Jaheem was pinned against an iron-banded post by two black-armored guards. His armor had been stripped, leaving only a torn linen shirt, yet he continued to spit at the stone.

"Touch me again and I will have your heads!" Jaheem roared. "When Alys comes to her senses, she will execute every one of you peasants!"

Outside the perimeter of the spears, a woman in a plain flaxen dress fought against the perimeter line. A red cord woven from foreign fibers was tied around her wrist, and a cheap bronze pin marked her as a commoner under Bradley patronage.

"Let him go!" Kayden screamed, her voice shrill as she pushed against the heavy iron shields. "You primitive brutes! Don't you know anything about human rights? You can't just lock people up without a fair trial!"

I paused at the top of the terrace, watching her thrash against the guard line.

Kael materialized half a step behind my right shoulder. His hand rested flat on the pommel of his broadsword, his gaze locked onto Jaheem like a predator selecting a throat to crush.

"Silence him," I murmured.

Kael did not draw his blade. He simply released a fraction of his northern pure-blood pressure across the courtyard. The air grew instantly heavy with the chill of freezing iron.

Jaheem choked, his jaw snapping shut as the weight crushed the breath from his lungs.

I walked down the steps. With every heel strike against the stone, I let my pure-blood dragon-god aura unfurl. The grooms, the footmen, and the lower-tier knights around the courtyard dropped to their knees, their heads pressed flat against the flagstones in instinctive terror.

Jaheem looked up, his pale hazel eyes widening in panic before he forced a desperate, arrogant grin onto his face.

"Alys," he wheezed, straining against the post. "You have made your point. You threw your tantrum last night. Apologize to me now, and I will overlook this disgrace."

Kayden broke through the stunned line of servants and shouted toward the stairs. "Princess! Love is equal! You cannot use feudal tyranny to force Jaheem to stop loving me! True love cannot be bound by your barbaric laws!"

I did not spare her a glance.

I stopped three paces in front of Jaheem, pulling the heavy dragon-skin parchment from my sleeve.

Jaheem's eyes lit up with vile satisfaction. "So you finally brought the revised contract? Good. Put Kayden's name under the official secondary lineage, and we will return to the estate together."

I looked into his eyes.

A brilliant, white-gold flame ignited on my right thumb.

Before the eyes of every knight and servant in the courtyard, I touched the flame directly to the Elder Council's sacred wax seal.

"Alys! What are you doing?" Jaheem screamed, thrashing wildly against the post.

The thick dragon-skin parchment turned to ash in less than three seconds, the golden smoke drifting upward past the claws of the First Dragon's statue.

"By the blood of the First Dragon," I spoke in the ancient, resonant tongue of Dragon Speech, my voice carrying across the entire courtyard like rolling thunder. "I, Alys Mercer, declare the vassal contract between myself and the half-blood Jaheem Bradley severed and void."

Absolute dead silence fell over the square.

Jaheem's face turned the color of damp chalk. "You... you cannot do this! The Elder Council will strip your royal allowance! You will have nothing!"

"That is no concern of yours," I said coldly. "You are no longer a royal consort. You are a disgraced vassal trespassing on royal grounds after assaulting the First Princess."

I turned my back on him, my heavy train sweeping the stone.

"Dragon Guards!"

"Hail!" Thirty armored men slammed their spears against their shields in a single, deafening crash.

"The criminal Jaheem Bradley has committed high treason against royal blood," I commanded. "By the law of the Dragon Court, forty strikes of the black iron staff. Execute it now."

Two burly guards stepped forward, hauling Jaheem onto the wooden punishment bench and locking his wrists into iron rings.

"No! Alys! Stop them! I am of noble blood!" Jaheem shrieked, his composure shattering into frantic pleas. "You cannot beat a knight!"

I did not look back. "Strike."

The heavy iron staff came down with a sickening thud against his lower back.

Jaheem let out a guttural howl that tore through the morning air.

Behind me, Kael stood rigid. Through the cold air, I could feel the fierce, triumphant surge of his dragon aura vibrating in sync with my own.

Kayden screamed, dodging past a stunned squire and throwing herself directly over Jaheem's bloody back.

"Stop! You monsters!" she cried, spreading her arms over his body. "If you want to kill him, kill me first!"

The guards halted their staves in mid-air, looking to me for orders.

I turned around slowly, looking at the commoner girl shielding the man who had ruined my previous life.

Alys Mercer POV:

Kayden lay draped across Jaheem's shredded tunic, tears streaming down her pale face as she glared up at the terrace.

"Princess, I know you hate me because Jaheem gave his heart to me!" she yelled, her voice trembling with self-righteous drama. "If you must punish someone, punish me! Do not torture him with this medieval savagery!"

A few of the younger palace squires shifted uncomfortably in the back row.

I walked toward the punishment bench, the hem of my crimson gown brushing against the coarse gravel.

"Punish you?" I stopped three feet away, staring down at her. "What makes you think a dragonless stray is worthy of my attention?"

"Love knows no rank!" Kayden snapped, biting her lip. "Where I come from, all humans are equal! You are no better than anyone else just because you were born with golden blood!"

"This is Althea," I said, my voice cutting through her words like an iron blade. "This land is governed by the breath of the First Dragon, not the delusions of a beggar."

I turned my eyes to the chief bailiff standing beside the bench.

"Bailiff. What is the penalty under Dragon Court Law for a dragonless commoner disrupting a royal execution?"

The bailiff dropped to one knee, his armor clanking. "Death by sacred flame, Your Highness. Or the severing of both feet."

Kayden's jaw slackened. The righteous color drained from her face in an instant. Her hands began to tremble violently against Jaheem's bloody ribs.

"Did you hear that?" I asked her quietly. "Will you move yourself, or shall I have the guards remove your feet before throwing you into the street?"

Kayden scrambled backward so fast she scraped her palms raw against the stones.

Jaheem reached out a bloody hand, clutching her ankle. "Alys! Do not touch her! Take it out on me!"

"How noble," I sneered. "Since you are so eager to bear her burdens, her crime of obstructing the court shall be answered upon your back."

I looked at the executioner. "Add twenty strikes to the sentence. Proceed."

The heavy thud of iron against flesh began again, accompanied by Jaheem's piercing wails.

Kayden sat curled on the dirt, her hands pressed over her ears, trembling like a leaf in a storm.

Before the thirtieth strike could land, the sharp clatter of iron-shod hooves echoed from the outer gates.

A carriage bearing the Bradley crest skidded to a halt at the edge of the square. A young woman in an ostentatious silk gown adorned with cheap fire-ruby earrings kicked the door open and rushed down the steps.

"Stop! Stop this at once, you filthy dogs!" Gwyn Bradley screamed, charging into the courtyard.

She saw her brother covered in blood on the wooden bench, her face turning crimson with rage. She marched straight toward the dais, pointing a manicured finger at my face.

"Alys! You madwoman! How dare you lay a hand on my brother!"

"Impudent!" Clara barked, stepping forward to block her path.

"Out of my way, servant!" Gwyn shrieked, raising her palm to strike Clara across the face.

Clara was faster.

She caught Gwyn's wrist mid-air, twisted it downward, and delivered a brutal, resounding backhand across Gwyn's cheek.

The crack of the slap rang across the stones.

Gwyn spun from the force and collapsed hard onto her side, her ruby earring flying off into the dirt.

"A half-blood brat of a vassal house dare speak the First Princess's name?" Clara looked down with cold disgust. "Learn your place."

Gwyn clutched her swelling cheek, tears of shock filling her eyes. "You... a common handmaiden struck me? My mother will have you flayed alive!"

I took a step toward her. The golden light in my irises pulsed, locking her onto the ground with pure bloodline weight.

Gwyn shrank back against the stones, whimpering.

Before I could speak, a massive shadow fell over me.

Kael stepped directly between Gwyn and me. His broad shoulders blocked her hateful glare, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, a mountain of silent, lethal menace.

"The morning wind is sharp, Your Highness," he said in a low, gravelly rasp.

He unfolded a heavy golden dragon-scale cloak and draped it gently over my shoulders.

I gathered the fur trim against my collar. The clean scent of arctic cedar and dark ember smoke drifted from the fabric, cutting through the stench of blood in the courtyard.

Down the avenue, a second carriage-twice as large, decorated with gilded iron and heavy velvet-pulled through the main gates.