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.