Lyanna's POV
"No," I said through Seraphine's mouth. "Absolutely not. I'm not stealing someone's entire life."
But even as I spoke, I felt the dark magic coiling around my thoughts like silk. Whispering. Tempting. You deserve this. You deserve power. You deserve respect.
The Shadow King smiled like he could hear my internal battle. "The mix hesitates. How brave. But tell me, girl—when Prince Cassian announced his betrothal, where was that nobility? Where was that fairness?"
The words hit their goal. I remembered that day with clear clarity—watching from the balcony as Cassian crowned another woman. The way my heart had broken. The way I'd run, pregnant and scared, into the wilderness.
"That's different," I managed.
"Is it?" The Shadow King circled me slowly. "Or is the only change that now you have the chance to take back what was stolen? To become the princess everyone said you'd never be?"
"Don't listen to him," Cassian said quickly. His eyes found mine—my real eyes in the body he'd once loved. "Lyanna, this isn't you. You're not evil enough to trap someone in a life they don't want."
"Like you trapped me?" The bitter words slipped before I could stop them. "Three months of promises. Three months of making me believe I mattered. Then you threw me away for a political union."
"I never meant—"
"It doesn't matter what you meant!" My voice—Seraphine's voice—cracked with feeling. "Intent means nothing. Actions are everything. And your actions told me exactly what I was worth."
Silence fell heavy in the chamber.
Kieran spoke carefully. "Lyanna, I understand you're upset. I understand you want payback. But becoming her won't heal you. It'll just make you angry and twisted like—" He looked at my real body. "Like she is."
"I'm right here," Seraphine snapped from my body. Her voice—my voice—sounded small and desperate. "And I'm not weird. I'm practical. There's a difference."
"Is there?" Kieran challenged. "Because from where I stand, your 'practicality' involved trying to murder an innocent woman."
"There are no innocent women in the palace." Seraphine's laugh was hollow. "Only survivors and corpses."
The truth in those words made my chest tight. Because she wasn't wrong. The castle had always been a battlefield. I'd just been too dumb to see it.
The Shadow King cleared his throat. "Touching as this therapy session is, I need an answer. Do we have a deal, hybrid-wearing-my-daughter's-skin? You keep that body, she keeps yours, and everyone walks away alive?"
I looked at my real body—at Seraphine stuck inside it, eyes wide with fear. I could feel her fear through the soul bond. Feel how much she hated being useless, being trapped, being seen as weak.
We really were copies of each other.
"If I say no?" I asked.
"Then I kill that body to free my daughter's soul." The Shadow King's face held no mercy. "And if her soul doesn't return to the right vessel... well, souls can be stubborn. She might just die forever. A risk I'm willing to take."
"Father!" Seraphine gasped.
"You were never my favorite child anyway," he said lightly. "Too soft. Too desperate for love. I have three other children who understand power better."
The words destroyed something in Seraphine's face. I felt it through our bond—the final crack in her already broken heart.
And suddenly I understood. She wasn't evil. She was drowning, and she'd learned that the only way to live was to drag others down first.
Just like I was learning right now.
"I accept your deal," I heard myself say. "Under one condition."
The Shadow King raised an eyebrow. "You're in no position to negotiate."
"Actually, I am." I lifted Seraphine's hands, letting shadow magic dance between her fingers. It reacted to my Primordial power like it had been waiting for me. "Because I can feel this body's promise. I can access magic your daughter never could. I'm more important to you as Lady Seraphine than she ever was."
Pride flashed across the Shadow King's face. "Name your condition."
"My real body—the one your daughter now wears—goes free. Completely free. No tracking spells, no assassination efforts, no political schemes. She gets to live in peace."
"And why would you protect her?" the Shadow King asked. "She tried to kill you."
"Because she's me," I said simply. "Just the version of me that survived in a crueler world. She deserves a chance to be something better."
Tears streamed down my real face. Seraphine stared at me with something like wonder.
"Deal," the Shadow King said. "Now seal it in blood before you change your mind."
He produced a knife from nowhere. I took it with shaking hands—Seraphine's hands, I had to remember. These were my hands now.
I cut my palm. Dark blood welled up, mixed with shadow power.
Seraphine cut her palm—my palm—and our blood met in the space between us.
The soul links flared blindingly bright. Fire, storm, and dark all screamed at once. Magic crashed through the room like a tidal wave.
When my eyesight cleared, the bonds had changed.
The shadow mark now glowed steady and strong—fully accepted. The storm mark pulsed with Kieran's steady presence. But the fire mark—the one linking me to Cassian—had split in two.
Half stayed on my current arm. Half emerged on Seraphine's current arm.
"What does that mean?" Cassian whispered.
"It means," the Shadow King said with dark delight, "that the fire bond wasn't soul-deep after all. It was recognition of Primordial power. And now that power has been split between two people, so has the bond."
Horror crashed through me. "So neither of us is his real mate?"
"Neither of you ever were." The Shadow King laughed. "The fire link was always false—a trick of magic recognizing magic. How deliciously sad."
Cassian's face went pale. "That's not possible. I felt—"
"Obsession. Possession. Hunger." The Shadow King waved dismissively. "Dragon kings are so predictable. You smell power and tell yourselves it's love."
"That's not true," Cassian said desperately. His eyes met mine—except they weren't mine anymore. They were Seraphine's eyes. "Lyanna, I—"
"Don't." The word came out cold. "You don't get to say my name. You don't get to look at me with those lying eyes and pretend you ever cared."
"I did care! I do care!"
"Then why are you looking at her?" Kieran asked quietly.
We all turned to look. Cassian's gaze had moved to my real body—to Seraphine-in-Lyanna's-skin. He'd been talking to me in Seraphine's body, but his eyes kept seeking out the familiar face, the familiar smell, the familiar everything.
He didn't love me. He'd loved my look. My weakness. The way I'd looked at him like he was something special.
All things Seraphine could give him now.
"I need to leave," I said, my voice hollow. "Before I burn this entire palace down."
"You can't leave," the Shadow King said. "You're Lady Seraphine now. You have tasks. Responsibilities. A wedding to plan."
The words hit like ice water.
"Wedding?"
"To Prince Cassian, of course." The Shadow King smiled. "In four weeks. The Continental Alliance expects it. And now that you're wearing my daughter's face, you'll marry him in her place."
"No," I whispered. "I won't—"
"You will. Because if you don't, I'll hunt down every mix in the Five Kingdoms and kill them. Starting with your mom."
My heart stopped. "You're bluffing."
"Am I?" His smile widened. "Test me, girl. See what happens when you cross the Shadow King."
I looked at Cassian. At Kieran. At my real body wearing Seraphine's terrified face.
I was trapped in a life I'd stolen, forced to marry the man who'd destroyed me, linked to souls I didn't understand.
"I accept," I whispered.
The Shadow King nodded, pleased. "Good. Now, let's talk your first duty as my daughter. There's a certain forecast we need to bury. And a certain body we need to disappear."
He pointed at my real body—at Seraphine.
"Wait, you promised—"
"I promised she could live in peace." His grin turned aggressive. "I never said where."
Guards grabbed Seraphine. She screamed, fought, begged. But they dragged her toward a door I hadn't noticed before. A door that radiated old, terrible magic.
"Where are they taking her?" I asked.
"Somewhere she can't interfere." The Shadow King turned to leave. "Welcome to the family, girl. Try not to fail me like the last one did."
He disappeared, taking his guards and his prisoner with him.
I stood in Seraphine's body, wearing Seraphine's power, stuck in Seraphine's life.
And the door they'd taken my real body through began to scream.