Celeste POV
"Stop!" I scream, jerking away from Damian's grip.
Kael moves faster than my eyes can follow. One moment he's at the door. The next, his hand is wrapped around Damian's throat, lifting him off the ground like he weighs nothing.
"She said no," Kael says coldly. The bottle of love poison falls from Damian's hand and shatters on the floor. Red liquid spreads like blood across the wood.
"How... how did you..." Damian chokes out, grabbing at Kael's hand.
"Go back to sleep, Celeste," Kael says without looking at me. "You never saw me here. This never happened."
His green eyes flash with strange light, and suddenly my head feels heavy. My knees buckle. The last thing I see before darkness takes me is Kael's silver hair shining in the moonlight.
When I wake up, I'm in my bed. Morning sunlight streams through my window.
Was it a dream? It had to be. Kael couldn't have been in my house. That's impossible.
But when I check my father's study later, the file on shifters is exactly where I left it, hidden in the drawer. And there's a faint smell of something sweet and medicinal—the love poison that broke on the floor.
It was real. All of it.
Damian tried to force me to drink poison. And Kael saved me.
But how? And why?
I don't have time to figure it out because Helena says that the Selection Ceremony has been moved up. "Due to imperial scheduling," she says with a tight smile. "It's this afternoon instead of next month."
My heart races. This afternoon. I have hours, not weeks.
Vivienne squeals with excitement. "Finally! I can't wait to bond with my shifter."
Father looks worried. "Celeste, are you prepared? Have you decided what kind of shifter you want?"
"Yes, Father," I say quietly. "I know exactly who I'm choosing."
The Selection Hall is bigger than I remember. My first time here, I was so scared and excited I barely noticed anything except Damian's smile.
Now I notice everything.
The way aristocrats whisper and judge. The way shifters watch us from their cages with hope or anger or fear. The way the whole thing feels like a fair where people buy pets.
It makes me sick.
Vivienne's name is called first. She practically floats to the center of the hall, loving all the attention. She stops in front of a cage holding a beautiful butterfly shifter with wings like painted glass.
"I choose you," Vivienne states dramatically.
The butterfly shifter changes into a pretty girl with rainbow hair. She kneels before Vivienne, and power sparks between them as the bond forms.
Everyone claps. Vivienne smiles.
I want to laugh. A butterfly. Useless and showy, just like her.
More names are called. More lords choose wolves and foxes and bears. Safe picks. Expected picks.
Then I hear it: "Lady Celeste Ashford."
My heart pounds as I walk to the center of the hall. Every eye is on me. I can feel Damian watching from the crowd, his amber eyes burning into my back.
He thinks he knows what I'll do. He thinks I'll choose him like I did before.
The Selection Master points to the cages. "Choose wisely, Lady Ashford."
I don't look at the wolves or foxes. I don't look at Damian, who positions himself clearly where I can't miss him.
I walk past all of them.
The crowd whispers, confused. Where is she going?
I head toward the darkest part of the hall, where a single cage sits covered in black cloth and warning symbols. Red sigils glow slightly around it, magic meant to contain something dangerous.
"Lady Ashford, wait—" the Selection Master calls out.
I yank the black cloth off.
Inside the cage is a massive snake with scales like silver moonlight. His body is coiled and strong, easily as thick as a tree trunk. His head is the size of my chest, with fangs I can see even though his mouth is closed.
But it's his eyes that steal my breath.
Emerald color. Ancient. Intelligent.
The same eyes that saved me last night.
"No!" Father yells from the crowd. "Celeste, step away from that cage immediately!"
The Selection Master rushes toward me. "Lady Ashford, that shifter is cursed! Everyone who has picked him has died! You cannot—"
"I choose him," I say clearly, my voice carrying through the silent hall.
For a moment, nobody moves. Nobody breathes.
Then the snake shifts.
His massive body shrinks and changes, becoming a tall man with silver-white hair and pale perfect skin. He's even more beautiful than his picture in the file—and more frightening.
Kael gets out of the cage. His green eyes never leave mine.
The Selection Master backs away. The crowd gasps and whispers. Someone screams.
Kael walks toward me slowly, like a predator approaching food. When he reaches me, he drops to one knee.
"You chose me," he says, his voice like silk and ice. "Do you know what that means, little master?"
"Yes," I whisper.
His lips curve into a smile that's both beautiful and dangerous. "No. You really don't."
He takes my hand, and the moment our skin touches, power bursts through me.
This isn't like the gentle friendship other nobles describe. This is lightning and fire and ice all at once. I feel Kael in my mind, my heart, my very soul. And I can feel him feeling me too—all my memories, all my pain, all my secrets.
He knows. He knows everything.
About my death. My return. My payback.
Everything.
Kael's eyes widen, and for the first time, I see something other than cold calculation in them.
I see shock. Recognition. And something that looks almost like... relief?
"Impossible," he breathes. "You're—"
The hall doors burst open with a huge BOOM.
Imperial guards flood inside, their guns drawn. At their lead is a woman in royal purple clothes, her crown marking her as someone incredibly important.
"Stop the ceremony!" she orders. "That bond must be broken immediately!"
Kael's hand tightens on mine. "Too late, Your Highness. The tie is complete."
The woman's face goes pale. "Do you have any idea what you've done, Lady Ashford? You've just bonded yourself to the most dangerous creature in the five countries!"
"I know exactly what I've done," I say, though my heart is beating so fast I might faint.
The woman looks at me, then at Kael, then back at me. "No. You couldn't possibly know. Because if you did, you would never—"
"Tell her," Kael interrupts, his words sharp. "Tell everyone the truth you've been hiding for three hundred years."
The entire hall goes silent.
The woman in the crown looks like she might be sick. "We cannot discuss this here."
"Then we'll discuss it in your throne room," Kael says coldly. "Because Celeste deserves to know exactly what—and who—she just bonded herself to."
He turns to look at me, and his green eyes are glowing now, actually glowing with power.
"I need to tell you something, Celeste," Kael says softly. "I'm not just a cursed snake shifter. I'm—"
An arrow whistles through the air and embeds itself in Kael's chest.
He staggers, blood blooming across his shirt. The arrow is black, covered in patterns that make my eyes hurt to look at.
Poison. Magic drug meant to kill shifters.
Kael falls to his knees, and I catch him. His weight nearly pulls me down.
"No!" I scream. "Help him! Someone help him!"
But the guards are backing away, not helping. The nobles are running for the doors. Even the queen woman looks frozen.
Kael's hand grabs my wrist weakly. "Celeste... listen... I'm not going to die... but you need to know... I'm not what you think..."
His eyes start to close.
"Don't you dare!" I shake him. "Stay awake! Tell me what you are! Tell me the truth!"
Kael's lips move, barely a whisper: "I'm the Serpent King. And you... you're my mate from three hundred years ago. You died saving me. And now... you're back..."
His eyes close. His body goes limp in my arms.
And I realize with fear that the arrow came from somewhere in the crowd.
Someone just tried to murder my bound shifter right in front of everyone.
Someone who doesn't want me to learn the truth about who—or what—Kael really is.