Yue-Senn Tokio Kageyama POV

The silence she left behind was louder than the screaming match that had preceded it.

I stared at the closed doors, the ghost of her heat still lingering in the air. Most royals performed power like a stage play scripted, stiff, and hollow.

But Ryophlira? She carried power like a hidden dagger. You didn’t see it until it was already at your throat.

"Well," my uncle muttered, finally exhaling as he slumped into a chair. "She certainly has the Vhaelor blood. I feel like I just sat through a hurricane."

King Vhaelor didn’t smile. He looked like a man who had just realized his youngest daughter wasn’t a liability anymore.

"She is not easily controlled," Vhaelor warned, his eyes narrowing at me.

"Good," I answered. "I have enough puppets in my own court. I need a Queen who can survive the North, not one who will wilt at the first frost."

I pressed a hand discreetly against my side, my ribs were screaming. King Vhaelor hit like a beast, and his wife, the Dragon Queen, was even worse. Seeing the scribe finally putting his pen down I knew the contract was done. I didn’t care what terms she wanted. I would sign anything if I can have her 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Well it looks like the contract is done ," I said, my gaze returning to the door. "And I will sign the agreement in blood."

The room went deathly quiet.

"A blood contract?" Queen Yarovirah asked, her violet eyes flashing. "You’d bind your soul to her terms?"

"Yes."

I didn’t just want an alliance. I wanted her. And in the North, if you want something dangerous, you bind it to you so tightly that the world would have to break to separate you. I wave over the scribe to place the contract in front of me.

I sliced my palm without flinching. The sting was a welcome distraction from the dull ache in my chest.

"I, Yue-Senn Tokio Kageyama, accept these terms," I spoke the words into the silence of the room. As my blood hit the parchment, the ancient symbols began to glow with a dark, rhythmic light.

Blood for blood. Soul for soul.

The West thought they were selling me a problem. They didn’t realize they were giving me the only person capable of helping me burn their world to the ground.