Cassian's POV
The stranger's soul mark glowed identical to Lyanna's.
My dragon went absolutely wild.
I shifted before I could think, red scales exploding across my skin, flames building in my throat. This bastard—whoever he was—had just claimed MY mate. Mine. The word thundered through my brain like a war drum.
"Cassian, don't!" Lyanna's words cut through the rage.
I didn't listen. Couldn't listen. I threw myself at the gray-haired man with everything I had. My claws aimed for his throat. My fire would turn him to ash. He'd touched what belonged to me, marked what was MINE— He disappeared.
One second he was there, the next I crashed into empty air. I spun, searching, my dragon vision cutting through the darkness.
"I don't want to fight you, Prince." His voice came from behind me. "We have bigger problems."
I whirled. He stood twenty feet away now, lightning crackling around his hands. Storm dragon. Rare. Dangerous. And completely unafraid of me.
"You have a soul bond with her," I snarled. "That makes you my problem."
"Boys!" Seraphine's laugh echoed through the backyard. "How sweet. Fighting over the mix like she's a prize to be won. But she's MY prize now."
Her shadows had wrapped around Lyanna while we were busy. They covered her like chains, squeezing tighter. Lyanna struggled but couldn't break free.
The stranger moved first. Lightning burst from his hands, shredding through Seraphine's shadows. Lyanna fell free, breathing.
I should have been happy. Should have thanked him.
Instead, I wanted to rip his throat out for touching her.
"We need to leave," the stranger said, helping Lyanna to her feet. His hand on her arm made my view go red. "More shadow things are coming. I can feel them."
He was right. I could sense them too—dozens more, maybe hundreds, closing in from all directions. Seraphine had prepared for this. She'd been hunting Lyanna since the omen revealed itself.
"The tower," I heard myself say. "My private tower. The wards will hold them."
"Your tower?" Lyanna looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "You want me to hide in your bedroom while your fiancée tries to kill me?"
"She's not my—" I stopped. Technically, Seraphine was my fiancée. The betrothal was signed. The wedding was planned. "It's the safest place in the house. The wards are keyed to royal blood. She can't break through them."
"And what about him?" Lyanna motioned to the stranger. "Is he invited to your tower too?"
The jealousy in her voice made my dragon purr despite everything. She cared. She was angry about it, but she cared.
"Everyone who wants to live should come," the stranger said simply. "Because those shadow things will kill anyone they find. Hybrid, dragon, human—doesn't matter."
He was right. Already I could hear screaming from the fair. The shadows had reached the harmless people celebrating in the courtyard. People who had nothing to do with predictions or soul bonds or Seraphine's madness.
"Fine." I changed fully to dragon form. "Get on. Both of you."
Lyanna stared at my spread wing like it might bite her. "I've never ridden a dragon before."
"First time for everything, mate." The stranger jumped onto my back without pause, then reached down to help Lyanna up.
Watching him touch her, help her, made me want to throw him off mid-flight.
But I didn't. Because he was right—we had bigger problems.
I launched into the sky just as shadow creatures poured into the courtyard. Below, palace guards fought furiously. Fire and steel against moving darkness. We were losing.
"This is insane," Lyanna whispered, her arms wrapped tight around the stranger's waist. She should be holding me. "Everything was normal three days ago. I was just reading scrolls and minding my own business."
"The gods have terrible timing," the stranger agreed.
I flew faster, pushing my wings harder. My tower rose from the palace's highest point—isolated, secure, warded with magic older than the Five Kingdoms themselves. My secret sanctuary where no one came unless I invited them.
I'd never invited anyone before.
Well, that wasn't quite true. I'd invited plenty of women over the years. But never past morning. Never to stay. Never for anything except sexual pleasure that left me feeling emptier than before.
This was different. Everything about Lyanna was different.
I landed on the tower's balcony and shifted human. Lyanna and the man climbed down, and I hated how natural they looked together. How his hand steadied her. How she leaned into him without thinking.
"Inside," I growled. "Now."
The tower door recognized my blood and opened. We stumbled into my rooms just as something massive slammed against the wards outside. The whole tower shook.
"Those wards better be as strong as you claimed," the stranger said.
"They'll hold." I hoped. "Nothing gets through royal magic."
"Except apparently shadow magic strong enough to create an army." Lyanna moved to the window, careful not to touch the glass. Below, the house burned. "She's destroying everything because of me."
The pain in her voice cracked something in my chest. I wanted to hold her. Wanted to promise her everything would be okay. Wanted to kiss away the tears on her face.
But the stranger got there first.
"Hey." He turned her gently to face him. "This isn't your fault. You didn't choose to be marked by destiny."
"I didn't choose any of this," she whispered. "Not the soul mark. Not the power. Not..." Her eyes found mine. "Not him."
The words hurt more than they should have.
"We should talk about the elephant in the room," the stranger said. "Or rather, the two soul marks. Because I felt my bond activate the moment I saw her, and I'm betting yours did too, Prince."
I didn't answer. Couldn't say out loud what my dragon had known from the start—that Lyanna was mine in ways that went deeper than logic or reason.
"I don't have a soul mark," I said finally. "I'm not marked."
Lyanna's head snapped up. "What?"
"Check his arms," the stranger offered quietly. "Soul marks always show on the forearms. Both partners carry matching marks."
Lyanna crossed to me slowly. Her eyes asked permission. I nodded, unable to speak.
She pushed up my sleeves.
Nothing. My skin was unchanged. No golden runes. No glowing marks. Nothing.
"I don't understand," Lyanna breathed. "The prophecy said fire has taken me. You're fire. You're—"
"Not your soul mate," the stranger finished gently. "I am."
The words hit like a physical blow. My dragon roared in denial, but the truth was right there on their arms. Matching marks. Chosen by the gods.
And I had nothing.
"That's impossible," I said. "I feel the link. I feel—"
"Obsession," the stranger interrupted. "Possessiveness. Desire. But not the soul relationship. That's something different. Something deeper."
"You don't know anything about what I feel!"
"I know you're engaged to another woman." His silver eyes met mine steadily. "I know you're going to marry her in four weeks. Soul mates don't do that."
He was right. Gods help me, he was right.
"I don't love Seraphine," I said desperately. "The marriage is political. It's—"
"Still a choice," Lyanna said softly. "You're still choosing her over me."
Before I could reply, before I could explain—something exploded through the tower wards.
Impossible. Nothing should be able to break through royal magic. But Seraphine stood in my rooms, surrounded by shadows, smiling like a cat who'd caught a mouse.
"Did you really think ancient wards could stop me?" She laughed. "I've been planning this for months, my darling prince. I know every flaw in your defenses."
Behind her, shadow things poured through the broken wards.
But worse—much worse—was what I saw in her hand.
A crystal bottle filled with black liquid.
"Do you know what this is?" Seraphine asked sweetly. "It's called Soulbreaker. Very rare. Very illegal. One drop destroys soul bonds forever."
Lyanna gasped. The stranger moved in front of her protectively.
"You can't," I said. "Soul ties are sacred. Breaking them is punished by death."
"Only if someone survives to report me." Seraphine's smile widened. "Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to force this poison down your little hybrid's throat. Her soul bond will break. Then I'm going to kill her storm dragon mate. And finally, you and I are going to get married as planned, with no prophecy to threaten us."
"No!" Lyanna screamed.
The stranger's hands filled with lightning. "Over my dead body."
"That can be arranged." Seraphine raised the bottle.
And from somewhere deep in my tower—from the oldest, most banned part of my private chambers—I heard a voice I'd never heard before. Ancient. Female. Terrifying. " The third bond wakes. Fire and Storm and Shadow, all tied to one soul. The true prophecy starts now."
The tower floor cracked open beneath our feet.
We fell into darkness, into old magic, into something none of us understood.
And the last thing I saw before the world went black was a fourth soul mark bursting to life on Lyanna's skin.