The Prince’s Gift

Seraphina’s tears came faster than snowfall.

“My lady, I should not complain,” she whispered, twisting her sleeves. “But the lower maids dislike me. They say I dress above my station. They hide my winter cloak and laugh when I shiver.”

In my last life, those words would have ignited my anger.

I would have snapped at her for pretending to be pitiful.

I would have told her a maid who wore silk had no right to complain about cold.

Then she would have cried to my father.

And I would have lost again.

This time, I set down my comb.

“How bold of them.”

Seraphina blinked.

I turned to my attendant.

“Send my order. Every maid who insulted Seraphina loses half a month’s wages.”

Seraphina’s lips parted.

Surprise first.

Then satisfaction.

She lowered her head quickly, but I still saw the little smile she tried to hide.

In my last life, I hated that smile.

This time, I enjoyed it.

A fish only bites when it believes the bait is food.

I opened my jewelry box.

“If you were wronged in my courtyard, I should compensate you.”

I lifted several hairpins and laid them on the dressing table.

Pearl.

Jade.

Silver.

Plain little things fit for a favored maid.

Then, deliberately, I placed the phoenix tassel pin among them.

Gold wings. Ruby eyes. Tiny chains that chimed when touched.

Prince Kael had given it to me during last year’s Winter Hunt.

Everyone in court knew it.

Seraphina’s gaze locked onto it at once.

Of course.

She had always wanted what was mine.

My father’s love.

My title.

My fate.

My fiancé.

A hairpin was nothing.

“Choose one,” I said.

Her fingers hovered.

“My lady, this one is too precious.”

“Do you like it?”

Her eyelashes trembled.

“Yes.”

“Then take it.”

I stood and personally placed the phoenix pin in her hair.

It looked beautiful against her dark curls.

Too beautiful.

Too obvious.

Seraphina stared at herself in the mirror, turning her head left and right.

“My lady, do I really look all right?”

“You look perfect.”

Perfectly doomed.

She left my room wearing Prince Kael’s gift.

The moment the door closed, the Demon Eye stirred inside me.

Its voice scraped across my thoughts like bone against stone.

“You should have torn her throat out.”

I poured myself tea.

“And waste such a useful knife?”

The eye pulsed.

“You hate her.”

“Yes.”

“Then kill her.”

I looked toward the snowy garden.

“Death is mercy. I am no longer merciful.”

The Demon Eye laughed.

A deep, ugly sound only I could hear.

I ignored it and began planning.

To survive, I needed to hide the demonic energy inside me.

The Silvermoon Temple would soon test every noble child’s divine veins. If the priests discovered the Demon Eye, I would be burned before Seraphina even had the chance to steal my fate publicly.

There was only one artifact capable of masking demonic power.

The Aether Chalice.

It belonged to Silvermoon Temple.

It could purify darkness into holy light.

With a few alterations, I could make it do something better.

Not purify me.

Disguise me.

I needed a way into the temple.

Fortunately, I knew someone who visited it often.

Prince Kael Draven.

My fiancé.

My murderer.

His mother had once been the temple’s Second Elder. She died shortly after giving birth to him, and Kael visited Silvermoon Temple every year to honor her spirit.

In my last life, I learned this from Seraphina.

After she had already become his beloved.

I almost laughed at the memory.

Even the secrets of my fiancé had reached me through the girl who stole him.

Very well.

This time, I would use him first.

That afternoon, I told my mother I wished to visit Prince Kael.

Mother looked surprised but pleased.

“You two have been distant lately,” she said. “It is good for an engaged couple to speak more.”

I lowered my eyes.

“Yes, Mother.”

I did not tell her that the man she hoped would protect me had once killed me.

I did not tell her that I no longer believed in protection.

I brought Seraphina with me to the palace.

Partly because I wanted Kael to see the phoenix pin in her hair.

Partly because I wanted to know when fate would begin pulling them together.

The palace gates opened beneath a gray winter sky.

I stepped down from the carriage.

Then froze.

Prince Kael himself was waiting for me.

Not a servant.

Not a guard.

Him.

He wore a dark cloak trimmed with silver fur. Snow dusted his black hair. His face was paler than I remembered, but his eyes—

His eyes were wrong.

They were not cold.

They were not distant.

They looked at me like a man seeing a ghost return from the grave.

“Mira,” he said.

My fingers tightened beneath my sleeves.

Behind me, Seraphina stepped down.

The phoenix tassel chimed in her hair.

Kael heard it.

His gaze moved to her.

For one second, the air between us went still.

He saw the pin.

He knew it was his gift.

In my last life, this would have been the moment his attention shifted to her.

The moment fate began.

Instead, Kael looked back at me.

“Are you cold?” he asked softly.

I stared at him.

What game was this?

I smiled.

“A little, Your Highness.”

Pain flashed across his face when I called him that.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

Perhaps I was not the only one who remembered dying.