Reborn to Ruin My Cheating Dragon Husband and Claim My Cursed Warlord

Alys Mercer POV:

"Do you truly think putting on a spectacle like this will make me jealous, Alys?"

Jaheem Bradley's voice drifted through my skull like poisonous smoke, each word sharpening the agony behind my temples. Once, I had loved that voice enough to surrender everything for it. Now, it made me want to tear out his throat.

I forced my eyes open.

The first thing I saw was not the suffocating crimson canopy above my bed, but a man's striking face hovering over mine. A forged-iron mask covered its upper half, concealing most of the mottled black scales spreading from his right temple toward his eye-the mark of the soul-devouring curse. Yet it could not hide the commanding line of his jaw, his finely shaped lips, or the storm-gray eyes now veined with blood.

Kael was braced over me.

His forearms were planted beside my shoulders, holding his weight rigidly away from me. Every muscle beneath his dark shadow-guard tunic strained with restraint, sweat glistening along his throat as he fought for each ragged breath.

Yet he had not touched me.

Even half-mad with poison, he was still fighting himself to protect my honor.

"Your Highness," Kael rasped. Blood darkened his lower lip where he had bitten through it to remain conscious. "Forgive me. The wine was drugged. I cannot-"

A violent wave of heat rolled through my lower abdomen, cutting him off. My pulse hammered beneath my skin, and the scent of arctic pine and molten gold pouring from his overheated dragon core made every nerve in my body tighten.

I recognized the poison instantly: an aphrodisiac brewed into fermented dragon crystal wine.

And I recognized this bedchamber.

Jaheem stood at the foot of the bed, watching us with a familiar, condescending smirk. Two servants hovered beyond the open doors, their pale faces carefully arranged into shock. They were not witnesses who had stumbled upon a scandal. They had been brought here to create one.

Jaheem was my lawful husband, though he possessed neither the blood nor the stature to stand beside me. I was the First Princess of Althea, heir to the pure golden dragon-god bloodline; he was merely a half-blood dragon from a declining vassal house. Blinded by love, I had used a royal decree to marry beneath my station, granting the Bradley family access to my title, wealth, and southern territories.

For three years, Jaheem had refused to consummate our marriage while keeping his beloved Kayden Steele in the finest wing of my estate. Tonight, he had drugged both Kael and me, planted the barely conscious guard in my bed, and arrived with witnesses to destroy my reputation.

"Only three years of an empty bed, and the great First Princess is already desperate enough to drag a hideous guard beneath her sheets," Jaheem said. His gaze slid contemptuously over the scar visible beneath Kael's mask. "If you wanted to provoke me, you could have chosen someone less revolting. Your lack of taste humiliates me as your husband."

Kael's already pale face went bloodless. His arms trembled harder, but he kept himself suspended above me, refusing to let even an inch of his body fall against mine.

Jaheem mistook my silence for fear.

"Sign the petition elevating Kayden as my secondary consort," he continued, "and I may persuade these servants to forget what they saw tonight. Refuse, and the Elder Council will hear every filthy detail by sunrise."

Memory returned like a blade driven through my skull.

I remembered this night-and understood that fate had returned me to the moment Jaheem first tried to ruin my honor for Kayden.

In my first life, this manufactured scandal had forced me to grant her an official title. From there, the Bradley family stripped away my authority piece by piece until Jaheem locked the fortress gates behind me, abandoned me to the rebel dragons in the Dragon Graveyard, and looted my dowry before my corpse was cold.

In this life, I would take back every honor they had stolen.

Jaheem Bradley would repay blood with blood.

"Kael," I said. "Move aside."

Shame flashed across his face. "Your Highness, I am trying. My body will not-"

I placed one hand against the center of his chest. His dragon core thundered beneath my palm, wild enough to shake his entire body.

"I know you will not hurt me," I said. "Use my strength."

He stared at me for one stunned heartbeat, then forced himself off the bed and dropped heavily to one knee. His hand cracked the carved bedpost as he fought the poison, but he kept his body turned away from the servants, shielding me from their view.

Jaheem gave a derisive laugh. "How touching. The scarred cur even knows how to obey."

A roar ripped through my chest.

My dragon soul tore through the fog in my veins.

I seized the heavy dragon-scale cloak from the bedside chair and wrapped it around my shoulders. My bare feet struck the icy marble floor as I crossed the room.

Jaheem's smirk faltered.

"Alys, what are you-"

I swung my right hand with everything I had.

The crack of my palm across his cheek echoed through the bedchamber. Pure, searing golden dragonfire erupted from my fingertips on impact, igniting the collar of his armor instantly.

Jaheem shrieked like a slaughtered pig. The overwhelming pressure of my pure-blood dragon-god heritage slammed into his chest, sending him flying backward through the carved wooden screen. The timber splintered as he crashed onto the cold flagstones.

"Alys!" he gasped, frantically slapping at the golden flames eating through his doublet. "Are you out of your mind? You used royal dragonfire on me!"

I stepped over the broken wood and looked down at him.

"Jaheem Bradley," I said, my voice dropping to a dead freeze. "Who gave a vassal dog permission to speak my name?"

His face drained of color beneath the soot and the red handprint burning on his cheek. His half-blood instincts made his limbs tremble beneath my aura, but his petty pride forced him to bare his teeth.

"I am your lawful husband! You were caught in bed with another man, yet you dare attack me? Without the Bradley family holding your southern borders, the Elder Council will strip your fiefdom by morning!"

"You poisoned the First Princess of Althea and planted a man in her bed." I flicked my thumb, letting a tiny spark of golden flame dance across my nail. "Be grateful I have not burned you alive before the witnesses you so thoughtfully brought me."

The two servants beyond the door collapsed to their knees.

"Guards."

Four royal guards in black dragon-scale armor stormed into the room. Their halberds crossed over Jaheem's neck, pinning him face-down against the floor. The two false witnesses tried to flee, but another pair of guards seized them in the corridor.

"Let me go!" Jaheem spat against the stone. "You jealous, vindictive bitch! Lock me up if you want, but you will never make me choose you over Kayden. I would rather watch this palace burn than share your bed again!"

"Drag this piece of filth out of my sight," I said. "Confine him and the servants separately. No one speaks to them until I conduct the interrogation myself."

The guards hauled Jaheem away. His screams faded down the vaulted corridor.

The bedchamber fell into silence.

Kael remained on one knee beside the bed, his head bowed as he awaited punishment. Only the violent rise and fall of his chest betrayed the poison still burning through him.

Then the rest of my memories struck.

Kael.

No. Callen Hart-the undefeated war lord of the North who had hidden his identity for four years to guard me from the shadows. The man who had taken ten thousand dragonfire arrows for me and destroyed the entire Bradley house after my death.

He had loved me enough to set a kingdom on fire, while I had never once looked back at him. This time, I would protect Callen Hart. I would never let him bleed for me again.

"Come here."

He obeyed, lowering himself before me. I slipped one finger beneath the edge of his iron mask and tilted his face upward.

He stiffened. "My face is grotesque, Your Highness."

"Your face does not offend me." My thumb brushed the iron beside his scarred cheek. "Besides, after waking with you above me in bed, it is far too late for modesty."

Heat rushed visibly to the tips of his ears. His storm-gray eyes dropped to my lips for one treacherous heartbeat before he forced them away.

I withdrew my hand and ordered him to guard my door until dawn. He bowed and retreated without another word, but the chaotic heat roaring through his dragon core followed him into the corridor.

I turned toward the vanity table.

Beside the brass mirror lay our vassal marriage contract, sealed with the red wax of the Elder Council, and Jaheem's petition demanding that Kayden Steele be recognized as his secondary consort.

I lifted the petition and held one corner above the candle flame.

The fire devoured Kayden's name first.

I watched the parchment curl into black ash between my fingers.

Tomorrow, the entire Bradley lineage would bleed for every drop they stole.