I Rose From Ashes to Leave You

I was Seraphina, born with the power of the Phoenix, and I loved the wrong man.

On my wedding day, just as I adjusted my veil, I heard the grand doors crash open.

I turned. Valerie Thorne stood in the doorway of the floral atrium, gripping a dagger with the sharp tip pressed tight against her throat. She trembled violently, her eyes locked on the man at the end of the aisle.

"Nathaniel, if you dare marry her, I will die right here in front of you!"

Nathaniel Ashworth, my fiancé, gave her a fleeting glance.

"Then do it."

Valerie’s hand shook. The blade dug into her flesh, oozing a thin line of blood. She waited, desperate for Nathaniel to say, "Stop this."

Three seconds later, she closed her eyes.

She collapsed, bringing down a towering trellis of white roses with her. The crimson blood bleeding into the pristine petals was blindingly harsh.

After the wedding, Nathaniel smoothly secured his position as the heir.

A year later, his father died suddenly, leaving him with absolute control over the family. On the night of his celebration, he handed me a poisoned drink. As I collapsed onto the floor, my insides burning, I asked him why. He merely kicked me aside.

"If you hadn't insisted on marrying me, Valerie wouldn't have died. This is what you owe her."

I turned to ashes in excruciating agony, only to crawl back out of them.

The second time, he wanted to see the true strength of the Phoenix fire. He deliberately provoked a Dark Wizard. To save him, I burned my life away. When I dragged myself out of the soot, he stood a short distance away, holding up his phone.

"It really is powerful," he noted. Then, he turned and walked away.

The third time, he wanted to know if Phoenix tears could truly heal scars. He drugged my wine and sent me to a dark underground club. The filthy hands and tongues of those men... Weeping in despair, I set myself ablaze. That single tear was used to erase the old scar on his face.

By the time I woke from the ashes once more, I had returned to my wedding day.

It was the same floral atrium. Valerie gripped the dagger to her throat.

"Nathaniel, if you don't choose me, I will die!"

In this life, Nathaniel didn't say, "Then do it." His face paled drastically, and he sprinted toward her without a second of hesitation.

It turned out, I was the disposable one all along.

I stood alone on the red carpet. The ancient voice in my mind rang out again: "You have paid back everything you owed them. A Phoenix is not meant to be caged."

I looked up. Nathaniel had already handed the white roses to Valerie, his eyes brimming with tenderness.

Edmund—Nathaniel’s father—stood up from the guest seats and roared, pointing a furious finger at his son.

"You will only marry Seraphina in this lifetime! You must marry her today!"

I knew exactly why. Nathaniel’s grandfather hadn't taken me in out of the goodness of his heart. Every three years, on the night of the Blood Moon, the demonic seal beneath the estate required the power of the Phoenix to suppress it. The Phoenix bloodline could be passed down to the next generation, and they desperately needed that lineage to maintain the family’s survival. This was always a transaction: I helped them suppress the demon, and they gave me a place to live. Once of age, I could have simply left. I never had to marry anyone.

Yet, at sixteen, I had stupidly fallen in love with Nathaniel. I knelt outside his grandfather’s door for three days and three nights just to secure this marriage.

He forgot. He didn't just forget—he broke me, costing me my life three separate times.

Nathaniel turned back, looking at me with pure disgust.

"She’s just a bird raised by our family. If she didn't possess a few tricks, would she even be fit to be the lady of the house? Father, if you don't mind, just take her as your mistress."

Furious, Edmund slapped him across the face hard enough to crack the silence.

"Bastard! Marrying her is the only way to keep our family safe. She is the very reason we are still alive!"

I looked at Nathaniel. This was the man I had spent three lifetimes loving. We had lived under the same roof since we were young, growing up together. Whatever sweet promises he made to me in the garden back then, he had long forgotten.

I would never love him again.