Ashen was on his way to his wife’s room when a soft rustle of silk stopped him mid-stride. Breilla emerged from a side alcove, her gown a deep crimson that clung to her curves like spilled blood.

Her eyes gleamed in the torchlight. "My Lord," she breathed, stepping into his path. "I have been waiting. We need to talk... about the medics that can save her."

He halted, jaw tightening. The voice in his head stirred faintly, a silken whisper. "Yeah.. she is the right one." He shook it off, stepping aside. "Not now, Breilla. Lumina is waiting. Tell me tomorrow."

She moved with him, her hand brushing his arm, warm and insistent.

"It can’t wait. One wrong word and it’s lost. Come to my room just for a moment." Her fingers lingered, tracing a slow circle on his sleeve.

Ashen felt a faint prickling at his wrist where her nail grazed his skin, but he dismissed it as imagination. He pulled away, heart pounding with the need to reach Lumina.

"I said no." His voice was low, edged with warning. He turned to continue down the hall, but she followed, her steps light, with her hips swaying in that calculated grace she knew unsettled him.

"Please," she murmured, voice dropping to a velvet purr. "For Lumina. You married me for this, remember? Don’t throw it away now."

The words hit like a hook making him pause at the junction leading to his wife’s wing.

The voice returned in his head again, "She is yours. You know the power to claim her." His head swam suddenly, a wave of heat flooding his veins.

Only then did he get it, the prick from her nail was a drug laced in her perfume or skin. It coiled through him, heavy and sweet, making his thoughts blur at the edges. He gripped the wall, breathing hard. "Breilla... stay back."

But she didn’t instead she closed the distance, pressing close enough that her breath warmed his chest.

"You are fighting so hard, my Lord. Let me help. The medicine is ready, but you must repay the debt first. I am your woman too." Her hands slid up his arms, slow fingers digging into the muscle.

The drug surged, his body responding against his will as heat pooled low, vision tunneling. "She is yours. Take her. Sleep with her. The power is yours."

He tried to push her away, but his arms felt leaden. "No... Lumina..." The name was a lifeline, but the voice roared over it.

"She offers what your wife cannot. Claim what is owed." His head swirled, thoughts fracturing.

Breilla’s lips grazed his throat, hot and wet, and he staggered, back hitting the wall. She followed, pressing her body against his, hands working the laces of his tunic open with expert precision.

"Feel it," she whispered, her mouth trailing fire down his collarbone. "You want this. Your body knows." She rocked against him, thighs parting to straddle one of his legs, her boobs soft and insistent against his chest.

The drug made everything hazy, his skin hypersensitive, every touch igniting sparks he couldn’t extinguish. He gripped her hips instinctively, fingers digging in, but horror clawed through the fog. "Control. You must control." Sweat beaded on his brow as he fought, muscles trembling, the voice screaming victory in his skull.

Breilla sensed the weakening. She doubled her efforts kissing his neck with open-mouthed hunger, sucking marks into his skin, one hand slipping lower to palm him through his trousers, stroking with bold.

"Let go, Ashen," she moaned against his ear. "I can make you forget the pain. She will never know. This is our secret." Her hips ground against him, her scent flooding his senses.

He groaned, lowering his hands sliding up her back despite himself. The voice triumphed "Take her. She is yours."

For a moment, he was lost... lips crashing down on hers in a brutal, drug-fueled kiss, hands roaming, pulling her closer."

She gasped in triumph, arching into him, whispering filthy promises that made his blood roar.

Then, like a crack of lightning, clarity pierced through. He wrenched back, grabbing Breilla’s neck in a vice grip, fingers locking around her throat. "I told you," he snarled, voice guttural with fury, "to hand me the medic. Do not act foolishly like this."

Breilla’s eyes widened, hands clawing at his wrist. She couldn’t breathe, her face flushing red, but his eyes burning with rage held no mercy.

"You drugged me?" He squeezed harder, her struggles weakening, the drug still warring in his veins but his will now a steel blade.

The only thing that stopped him from crushing her windpipe was the sudden, piercing wail of the alarm bell echoing through the keep like a cry.

Ashen’s head snapped toward the sound. He shoved her away violently she slammed into the wall, gasping and coughing, sliding to the floor in a heap of crimson silk.

He staggered out of there, the drug still clouding his edges but fury burning it away.

In the corridor, he drew his dagger a wicked blade of dragon-forged steel, and without hesitation, drove it into his own thigh. Pain exploded, white-hot and clarifying.

Blood welled hot down his leg as he twisted the blade, gritting his teeth.

"Get out of my head," he growled to the voice, to the drug, to himself. The agony cleared the haze, leaving only raw, bleeding resolve.

Ero burst around the corner, face pale, sword half-drawn. "My lord! We can’t find the princess."

Ashen’s world tilted. "What?" He yanked the dagger free, blood spraying, and pressed a hand to the wound. "How the heck is she missing from her room? Didn’t I tell you to protect her at every single cost you have?"

Ero shook his head, hands trembling, a bad feeling twisting in his gut like a knife. "I don’t know, my lord. The wards were intact. She... she vanished."

Ashen stumbled upright, blood soaking his boot, the stab wound throbbing in time with his racing heart. "What does the alarm mean?"

Before Ero could answer, the door to the nearby chamber flew open. Aria burst in, eyes wild, face streaked with tears. "Ashen... What the heck is happening? Why did Lumina leave?"

He stared at her, confusion cutting through the pain. "What do you mean, why did Lumina leave? Lumina is supposed to be in her room. How come she’s out of the territory?"

Stella’s voice cracked. "Excuse me... I should be the one asking you that question. Because right now, as we’re speaking, Lumina is back in her realm."

The words landed like a hammer to the chest. Ashen froze, the world narrowing to a single, shattering point.

Everything dawned on him in a sickening rush Breilla’s hands on him, her body pressed close, the kiss he had returned in that drugged haze. Lumina must have seen.

She must have come looking for him, slipped past the guards with her celestial tricks, and witnessed the betrayal. His stomach churned, bile rising.

" Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." The thought looped, frantic and agonized. She saw me. She misunderstood and must have thought I chose her.

Pain lanced through him, sharper than the dagger wound, a soul-deep agony that made his knees buckle. He clutched the wall, breath coming in harsh gasps.

"She saw me... with Breilla. Oh goodness, she misunderstood. Damn it, help me.. I can’t look at her. She warned me I should have controlled myself! Fuck!"

The words tore from him in a broken torrent, voice raw with self-loathing and terror. His hands shook as he raked them through his hair, blood smearing his temple. The realization crushed him at once. Lumina, his light, his reason, fleeing because of his weakness.

Tears stung his eyes, but he blinked them back, fury and despair warring in his chest. "I failed her. Again."

Another alarm shattered the moment, deeper and more urgent. Serena dashed from the chamber without another word, vanishing into the chaos. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Ashen pushed off the wall, ignoring the fire in his thigh, and staggered toward the source of the bells the grand hall where the alarms converged.

He burst into the hall just as the fight erupted. Alexis and Adam clashed in the center, swords ringing, faces twisted in rage. A swarm of unknown men shadow-cloaked assassins with glowing runes on their blades poured from the side doors, attacking from all sides.

Ashen’s eyes locked on his father, King Aden, fighting at the front with his aide. Before Ashen could charge forward, an assassin lunged, blade piercing straight into the king’s chest. Blood sprayed, dark and hot. The king staggered, hand clutching the wound, eyes wide with shock.

Rage ignited in Ashen like dragon-fire. He roared, the sound inhuman, and surged forward. His body shifted mid-stride bones cracking and reforming, skin rippling into obsidian scales laced with molten gold.

Wings burst from his back, massive and leathery, tail lashing as the full dragon form took him a towering beast of muscle and flame, eyes burning like forge coals.

He unleashed hell as Claw raked through the assassins, tearing bodies in half with casual brutality. Fire erupted from his maw, engulfing three men in an inferno that left only charred bones.

He snatched another from the air, crushing him in his jaws before spitting the remains aside. In the next few minutes, the hall filled with the scent of scorched flesh and terror.

Adastood in shock staring at Ashen in shock, with his blade flashing, but when Ashen’s gaze turned on him, the prince faltered.

"No... no!" Adam screamed, backing away as Ashen’s tail swept a group of attackers into the wall.

Adam turned and fled through a shattered window, vanishing into the night.