Chapter 3

The next few days were a nightmare.

Kaelen moved me out of the servants' quarters and into a room right beside his own. He called it needing a "personal attendant" available at all hours. In truth, I was never more than a wall away from him now.

Lumi: Personal attendant? He just wants to smell you all day. Dragons are so possessive it's honestly kind of cute.

That was exactly the problem. Every hour beside him was another hour for the aura to slip loose. A dragon didn't have to search for the truth. He only had to breathe.

So I stopped eating in front of him. I stopped letting him stand close. I flinched every time he reached for me — and I watched a small, puzzled crease form between his brows each time I did.

One afternoon he was locked in a war council, and I was sent to the gardens to gather herbs. For the first time in days, I could breathe.

Then a sharp pain tore through my stomach.

I gasped and dropped to my knees in the dirt. A faint golden light pulsed out from under my hands. Once. Twice. Bright enough to see in full daylight.

Pip: Uh oh — baby's hungry, it's leaking dragon aura! Cover it, cover it!

I clamped both palms over my belly, willing the light down. Too late.

"So. It was you."

I froze.

Vexia stepped out from behind a rose bush. Her beautiful face had twisted into something ugly.

"I felt it from across the garden." She came toward me slowly. "A dragon's aura. Pouring out of a wingless little half-sprite."

"My Lady, you misunderstand—" I scrambled backward through the dirt.

"Shut up." A whip of green magic snapped into her hand and cracked against the ground beside me. "You crawled into his bed. You spread yourself under the King like the gutter thing you are."

She seized my chin, her nails biting into my skin, and forced my face up to hers.

"When he learns you're carrying his bastard, he will kill you himself. Dragons keep their bloodlines pure. You are a stain on his."

The tears came before I could stop them, because she was right. I had heard it from his own mouth. Crush her into dust. Feed her to the wyverns.

"But I won't make him dirty his hands," Vexia whispered, smiling. "I'll scrub the stain out myself."

She raised the whip.

"Hey."

A heavy boot crushed the rose bush flat. A shadow fell across both of us.

Vexia's whip vanished. "Your Majesty! I was only—"

"Get out." Kaelen didn't look at her. He didn't blink. His eyes were fixed on me — my white face, my hands, the place my hands were still pressed.

Vexia ran.

Kaelen closed the distance and knelt in the dirt in front of me. His hand came up and hovered over my stomach. Not touching. Just close.

He felt it. The aura. His own magic, alive under my skin.

His eyes went wide. The red in them flared and shook.

"You..." His voice broke on the word. "It was you."

I shut my eyes and waited for him to snap my neck.

"Please," I sobbed. "Please don't kill me."

Kaelen grabbed my shoulders. His grip was tight, almost desperate.