Ryophlira POV

I held my composure. Despite the suffocating weight of the whispers following me, despite the burning, judgmental eyes of the court ladies staring at my disheveled state, I kept my posture with perfection those classes were paying off, I stepped out of the dressing room.

I marched straight into the private parlor that had been reserved for our family. Inside, the heavy atmosphere was stifling. Mother was sitting gracefully on a chaise, casually reading a high-end fashion magazine, her lady in waiting behind her. Ari was kneeling directly in front of her on the carpet, her head bowed low in a posture of absolute submission.

Mother didn’t even look up from the page. "I was young once, Ryophlira," she murmured, her voice dripping with an icy, knowing calm. "Did you really think I wouldn’t know what was going on in that stall?"

"Fine," I snapped, the defensive wall around my chest fracturing. "Since everything is out in the open, I don’t have to hide this anymore."

Reaching deliberately into the structured lace of my bodice, I pulled out the heavy gold and emerald crescent ring. I slid the twisted band firmly onto my finger. Then, using the back of my hand, I aggressively wiped at my neck and collarbone, rubbing away the heavy layers of powder until the dark, bruising hickeys Yue-Senn had left on my skin were completely exposed to the room.

Mother closed the magazine with a sharp, echoing snap. She stood up, her eyes narrowing as she locked onto the marks. "So... this is why you had literal murderous intent toward your sister in the corridor. "

I let out a heavy, sigh, running a hand through my hair. "I didn’t mean to lose control earlier. But it wasn’t him, Mother."

Mother’s brow arched, her posture turning skeptical. "And how would you know that?"

"Because he said it wasn’t him."

"And you trust that arrogant man?"

"Right now, I do," I said, my voice hardening with absolute conviction. I looked Mother dead in the eye. "I have to trust my husband. Trust is the only way that this arrangement is going to work, or we will end up destroying each other from every side."

Without waiting for her approval, I walked over to Ari, reaching down to grab her hands and gently helping her stand up from the floor. Mother watched us, letting out a long, weary sigh as she shook her head. "I don’t know where I went wrong with raising you girls."

Suddenly, a deep, mocking voice carried cleanly through the open windows from the street, slicing through our conversation.

"I don’t remember scheduling an audience with the crown prince on a crowded public street."

My eyes widened. I immediately spun on my heel and headed straight for the door, Ari and Mother following closely behind.

"Ryophlira, stop! We need to get this dress appointment done!" Mother called out, but I was already throwing open the parlor doors.

The front of the bridal shop was crowded, court ladies, children and attendants pressed against the glass windows to watch the spectacle outside.

"Step aside," I commanded.

The crowd instantly parted, clearing a path for me. I pressed my hands against the glass, my breath catching as I looked through the window. Standing outside was my brother and Yue-Senn. Sensing my gaze, Yue-Senn tilted his head back, a slow, wicked smile pulling at his lips as if he knew exactly which pane of glass I was standing behind.

"When it involves my sisters, I don’t give a damn about schedules," my brother rumbled outside. He took his hands out of his pockets, stepping directly into Yue-Senn’s personal space until they were looking dead into each other’s eyes.

That was enough. "We are going out there," I barked, marching straight through the boutique entrance and onto the street, Mother and Ari flanking my sides.

"Step back," Mother commanded as we approached, her voice a sharp warning to my brother. But he didn’t move an inch, his deep purple eyes still locked onto the Yue-Senn.

Seeing the muscle in my brother’s jaw twitch, I lunged forward. I grabbed Yue-Senn’s large, calloused hand, digging my fingers into his palm, and pulled him back with my full strength, holding nothing back to separate the two men.

My brother’s gaze snapped down to me, a harsh scowl crossing his face. "Ry, what are you doing protecting this northern bastard?"

"Watch it," Mother warned him, her eyes flashing.

As I pulled Yue-Senn back, my eyes caught something horrific One of our royal guards was standing over two bubbling, shifting piles of thick, black liquid that looked exactly like ink.

"What is that?" I pointed, my voice laced with a sudden, sharp question.

"Two of the guards that brought you guys here," my brother stated coldly, crossing his arms.

Without a second thought, I whipped around to face Yue-Senn, "you did this?!"

"Yes," Yue-Senn replied smoothly, completely unfazed by my anger.

The sheer irritation and adrenaline exploded within me. Iattacked.

The stone street beneath my feet shattered as I launched forward with enough force to crack fortress walls. My fist tore through the air, aimed directly for Yue-Senn’s jaw.

THOOM!

The impact echoed like a cannon blast.

Yue-Senn’s forearm snapped up at the last second, catching my strike. The shockwave exploded outward, rattling windows and sending loose stones skipping across the street.

I didn’t give him time to recover. Father hadn’t raised weak daughters. I twisted on my heel and drove a vicious spinning kick toward his ribs. Yue-Senn ducked.

The kick missed by inches.The air pressure alone split several nearby banners in half.

I landed and immediately followed with a barrage of strikes.

Punch.

Elbow.

Knee.

Kick.

Each blow came fast enough to blur.Each one capable of crushing steel.Yue-Senn gave ground for the first time.

Block.

Block.

Deflect.

Parry.

Every impact sent tremors racing through the street.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The earth fractured beneath our feet.

Cracks spread through the stone roads like spiderwebs.

Gasps erupted from the gathered crowds.

As I spun into another attack, the heavy gold lace of my sun gown caught around his boot.

RIIIIIP!

The sound echoed through the entire square.Several layers of expensive fabric tore apart instantly. My brother immediately burst into booming laughter. Mother pinched the bridge of her nose.

Ari looked moments away from dying from embarrassment.

I, however, had reached a level of fury beyond humiliation.I launched myself at Yue-Senn again. This time, I aimed to break something. My fist rocketed toward his face.

Then everything changed. Yue-Senn stopped moving. Not because he couldn’t keep up.

Because he no longer needed to.

His expression became frighteningly calm.

Without taking his eyes off the shadows pooling across the street, he extended his left hand.

Darkness answered.

The black liquid coating the ground suddenly trembled. Then rose. Thousands of strands of living shadow slithered upward like serpents emerging from an abyss.

At that exact moment my fist reached him.

His right hand moved.

CRACK!

His fingers closed around my wrist.

The force of the collision created a shockwave powerful enough to blast dust and debris outward in every direction.

Yet he didn’t move.

Not even an inch. Me too, pulled? nothing. It felt as though I was trying to move a mountain.

The glow in his eyes intensified.

Around us, the shadows writhed

The pools of darkness surged upward, twisting into humanoid forms.

Armor appeared first.

Then flesh.

Then weapons.

The two royal guards reformed piece by piece before everyone’s eyes. The darkness became skin. The void became bone.

Life returned.

The guards gasped sharply, stumbling forward as air filled their lungs once more.

Completely restored. Completely alive.

Silence fell over the square.

I stared. The guards stared. Even Mother looked surprised. Yue-Senn slowly turned his gaze toward me. His hand still held my wrist effortlessly.

"That’s enough!" Mother yelled.

A sudden, violent shockwave of her own magic rippled outward, causing the literal ground beneath our feet to shake. I pulled my hand out of Yue-Senn’s grip, stumbling back a step as I looked at him with pure, unadulterated hate burning on my face.

"Don’t you dare lay a hand on my people ever again," .

"Your people are my people too, Princess," Yue-Senn countered, a dark, arrogant chuckle escaping his chest as he adjusted his cuffs. "I do as I please, when I please, with them."

Mother stepped heavily between us, "I think you have forgotten your place, King of the North. Marriage to my daughter does not mean you escape death by my hands."

Yue-Senn didn’t back down an inch. He gaze with terrifying indifference.

Mother took a deep, stabilizing breath, forcing her temper down. "You need to return to where you were before coming here, Lord Yue-Senn. I will temporarily forget the little stunt you pulled with Ryophlira in the dressing room, and I will overlook the guards. But make no mistakes—if I catch you near her again before the wedding day, I will make that death threat a reality."

She stepped forward, casually brushing his shoulder as if there were dust on his shirt, though there was absolutely none.

My brother slouched, looking between us with a wicked grin. "What about these big hickeys on Ry’s neck, Mom? Or the ones on Aiyolistra?" He reached over, using his massive height to playfully but firmly pull my ear "busy."

"Ow! Let go of me!" smacking his hand away.

He laughed, swatting back at me, and within seconds, the crown prince and princess of the realm were childishly smacking each other’s hands in the middle of the capital street.

Mother touched her forehead, a massive migraine clearly forming, and turned a lethal glare toward us. We both instantly froze, dropping our hands to our sides.

"He said he didn’t touch Aiyolistra," Mother declared, her voice firm and final. "Ryophlira believes him, and I trust her judgment. As for Ryophlira’s neck... I don’t think she would allow him that close to her if she didn’t like it."

My face violently turned an unbelievable shade of red.

"Now take your man and leave, Lord Yue-Senn," Mother ordered, turning her back. "Both of you get your ass back in that shop right now. I am tired of this."

Mother stormed back into the boutique, her heavy silks flaring. Ari gave us a panicked look and immediately ran after her. Yue-Senn turned his head, his eye trying to peer through the glass doors to watch me walk away, but his view was instantly cut off.

Mother’s chief lady in waiting stepped into his line of sight. She was a ghost of a woman, moving with an eerie, supernatural speed that defied the eye, and she didn’t move a single inch unless Mother explicitly commanded it.

Yue-Senn let out a low sigh, turning toward his servant. "Let’s go, Ki-ri. I am in the mood for a walk."

Before Yue-Senn turned the corner of the avenue, he caught my eye through the crowd and gave me a slow, deliberate wink.

"Get your ass in here!" Mother’s voice bellowed from the interior of the boutique.

Frustrated, embarrassed, and completely out of patience, I raised my gold crystalline heel and delivered a sharp, brutal kick directly into my brother’s kneecap.

"Fucking—hell, Ry!" he howled, hopping on one foot.

I didn’t look back. I gathered up the ripped, heavy gold lace of my skirts and ran straight back into the bridal shop.

But as the glass doors shut behind me, a cold, sickening realization settled into my stomach. If he didn’t give the marks to Aiyolistra then who did