The infirmary smelled like herbs and secrets.
I sat beside Kade's cot, the dim light from the lantern above flickering across his bare chest. Bandages wrapped tight around his ribs, already soaked with hints of red, but his breathing had steadied. For now.
I shouldn't have been there. Not with Lucian pacing just outside the door like a caged king waiting for a war.
But I couldn't move. Not yet.
His fight—his pain—was all because of me.
Kade's fingers twitched against the sheets, and my gaze snapped to his face. His brows furrowed like he was caught in a dream, haunted by something darker than pain. I reached out without thinking, brushing a stray lock of hair from his forehead.
He didn't wake.
But he whispered.
"Raven…"
My heart did an awkward little cartwheel.
I pulled my hand back like I'd been burned. "You're dreaming. Don't say my name like that…"
It felt dangerous. He felt dangerous.
And yet, I didn't leave.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway, boots crisp and authoritative Lucian.
The door creaked open just enough for his silhouette to fill the frame. Tall, controlled, commanding as ever. His eyes swept the room and landed on me. For a second, everything else disappeared. The bandages, the blood, the war outside these walls.
Just his gaze, locked with mine.
And rage simmering just beneath it.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, voice like silk over glass. "He's a rogue. You're mine."
Mine.
The word hit like a storm,fierce and full of unspoken things.
I stood, spine stiffening. "He saved my life. Twice."
Lucian stepped inside, slow and lethal. "He's a threat. That thing didn't attack randomly. Rogues never do."
My jaw clenched. "That thing had my name drawn in blood outside the cabin. I think this is bigger than Kade."
Lucian's eyes flickered. Just for a second. But I saw it the hesitation. The truth he wasn't saying.
He stepped closer, and the air shifted. His scent was rich spiced wood and something ancient, something royal. It made my knees weak and my instincts coil tight inside me.
"You don't understand what's at stake, Raven," he said, low. "You think this is just about bloodlines and rebels, but it's not. You're waking up. And when you do, everything changes."
My heart pounded. "Then tell me. Stop circling the truth like I'm too fragile to handle it."
He stared at me for a long, tense beat.
Then, he did the last thing I expected.
He lifted his hand to my cheek, brushing his thumb across my skin like I was something precious. Forbidden.
Our breath tangled in the space between us.
"Because if I tell you," he murmured, "you'll never look at me the same way again."
I should've pulled away.
Lucian's hand on my cheek was too soft, too intimate, too... wrong. But I didn't move. Not even when his eyes searched mine like he was trying to memorize every fault line on my soul.
"You think I'm scared of the truth?" I whispered.
His thumb stilled. "I think you don't know what you are."
That stopped me cold. "Excuse me?"
Lucian dropped his hand, backing away like the contact had been a mistake. "You've felt it, haven't you? The pull. The way your senses are sharpening. Dreams you can't explain. Your blood is… waking."
He said it like it meant something. Like I meant something.
I blinked. "What are you talking about?"
Lucian glanced toward the cot where Kade still lay unconscious. "There's a reason that rogue came after you. A reason why he knew how to find you. You're not just a girl who stumbled into the wrong forest."
A laugh clawed its way out of me, short and hollow. "Then what am I?"
He stepped forward again, slower this time. "You're royal. Not by name,by blood. Buried, cursed, hidden. But not gone."
I stumbled back, hitting the edge of a table. "No. That's not possible."
"It is. You're the lost bloodline, Raven. The one we thought was erased generations ago."
I shook my head. "No. My family,my mother was human. I was normal until I came here."
Lucian's voice was quiet, dangerous. "That's what they wanted you to believe."
For a moment, I couldn't breathe. My pulse thundered in my ears. Everything I thought I knew about myself cracked open, spilling a truth I hadn't asked for.
I looked at Kade again, unconscious but alive. "And Kade? Where does he fit into this?"
Lucian's jaw tightened. "He shouldn't be near you. That's what the mark means. He's your undoing."
"The tattoo?" I asked, stunned.
Lucian nodded. "The serpent eating its own tail. It's not just a rogue mark—it's a prophecy. That his path leads to the destruction of a royal."
"Of me," I whispered.
Lucian's gaze was fire and grief all at once. "That's why I can't let you fall for him."
A beat of silence. Then two.
I straightened. "And you think I've fallen for you?"
His smile was tragic. "You did once. Before your memories were sealed."
That hit like a blade to the gut.
"What?"
Lucian moved closer, so close I could see the storm behind his icy eyes. "There's a reason your blood woke the night we met. A reason you burned when I touched you. Because this isn't our first life, Raven."
He reached into his coat, pulled out a thin silver locket, and placed it gently in my palm. It was old. Familiar.
"Open it."
My hands trembled as I unlatched the clasp.
Inside—two tiny portraits. One of Lucian. The other… of me.
A girl with the same eyes. Same scars. Different era.
I staggered back, breath caught in my throat. "No…"
Lucian's voice was a whisper, more memory than sound.
"You loved me once, Raven. Enough to die for me."
The locket slipped from my fingers, clinking against the stone floor.
And then from behind me*
Kade groaned.
Kade's groan cracked through the room like thunder over still water.
I spun around just as his eyes fluttered open—stormy green, clouded with pain butlocked straight onto mine. "Raven…" he rasped.
He tried to sit up, winced, and collapsed back with a hiss. I was already at his side, grabbing a damp cloth, dabbing at the sweat on his brow like the moment with Lucian hadn't just shattered my entire sense of reality.
"You're okay," I murmured, trying to steady myself. "You're alive."
His eyes never left my face. "That thing... it was after you."
"I know," I whispered, swallowing hard.
Kade's jaw tightened. "Lucian won't protect you. He'll use you."
"I can protect myself," I said, voice sharper than I meant. "I'm not just some girl caught in a war."
He looked at me then like he saw me. Not the lost girl from the woods. Not the pawn in some royal power game. Just... me. And his gaze softened.
"No," he said. "You're not. You never were."
Behind me, Lucian's voice sliced through the room like cold steel. "You're awake. How inconvenient."
I turned, heart sinking.
Lucian stood in the shadows, posture coiled, expression unreadable but his eyes? They were pure fire. Watching Kade like he was something unworthy breathing my air.
Kade struggled to sit up again. "If you think I'll just lie here while you whisper poison in her ear"
Lucian stepped forward, slow and deadly. "You've always been a mistake waiting to happen."
"And you've always been a tyrant hiding behind tradition," Kade snapped.
I stood between them before the sparks turned to flames. "Enough! This isn't about you two marking territory"
"But it is," Kade said, looking straight at me. "Don't you feel it? The pull? The way your blood burns when we're close?"
Lucian's voice dropped into something rough and primal. "She felt it with me first."
Oh no.
No no no.
This wasn't happening. Not like this.
"I'm not a prize in some pissing contest," I said, shoving them both back with a glare. "I don't belong to anyone."
Kade's hand curled around mine. "Then choose, Raven. Not because of fate. Not because of blood. But because you want to."
Lucian's voice was velvet-coated ruin. "If she chooses wrong, she dies."
I froze.
"What did you say?"
Lucian didn't blink. "If the bloodline bond breaks without completion… the cursed blood burns itself out. You die, Raven. That's the price."
Kade's breath caught.
"You knew this," Lucian said, eyes flicking to Kade. "Didn't you? That you could kill her just by loving her."
Silence fell, heavy as ash.
Kade's grip loosened.
Lucian stepped forward, closer than close. "You don't have time to be confused anymore. Choose."
My heart pounded.
Because in that moment, torn between the alpha who remembered loving me in another life...
And the rogue with a mark tied to my death…
I had no idea who I truly was
Only that either choice might destroy me.