Chapter 3

Ayla POV:

"Your Highness, please! This is the Scarlet Flower Pavilion's forbidden top-tier suite! The guest inside might be a high-ranking Dragon Lord..." the brothel madam's trembling voice pleaded from the corridor outside.

"Get out of my way! Even if it's a Dragon Lord, anyone who dares hide my runaway fiancée dies tonight! Blast it open!" Kamden's arrogant roar cut her off completely.

With an ear-splitting explosion, a blast of high-grade red-gold dragonfire blew the heavy oak door into splinters, sending wood chips and dust flying across the dark carpet.

I took a deep breath. Instead of ducking behind the curtains, I spun around, gripped my steel scalpel in a reverse hold, and planted my feet squarely in front of the black-wood dragon bed.

Kamden strode over the shattered threshold. His ornate dragon-patterned gold armor gleamed under the hallway's dragon-core lamps, and behind him marched a dozen Royal Dragon Guards gripping long spears tipped with dark-red Dragonslayer Gold.

His pale-gold eyes swept the room and locked onto me. Taking in my ripped, unpatterned dress and tangled hair, his face twisted with pure disgust and rage, his fists clenching at his sides until his knuckles cracked.

"Ayla! You shameless, cold-blooded bitch! You actually dared to sneak into a brothel behind my back to sleep with some wild man!" Kamden pointed a shaking finger right at my nose.

Camille poked her head out from behind his armored shoulder. The pale-pink waterdrop mark painted between her eyebrows made her look fragile and innocent as she covered her mouth, her eyes instantly brimming with tears.

"Sister... how could you do something so filthy? His Highness the Crown Prince has been so kind to you, yet you threw away your honor..."

I let out a cold laugh and rolled my eyes, my gaze slicing across her fake face.

When I was young,I had spent years swallowing Camille’s poison and Kamden’s contempt.

"Camille, save those disgusting tears for someone stupid enough to buy them. You know better than anyone who drugged my ale and hired those mercenaries tonight."

Kamden took a furious step forward, his face flushing red.

"Shut your mouth! How dare you slander Camille when you're caught red-handed! Guards! Seize this whore and the bastard on that bed and execute them on the spot!"

Six towering Dragon Guards stepped forward in unison, leveling the lethal, blood-red tips of their Dragonslayer Gold spears straight at my throat.

I didn't back up an inch. I simply stood my ground, spine straight, and let a faint, mocking smile curve my lips as I met Kamden's glare.

"You dare?" I asked, my voice calm and deliberate, more a challenge than a question. "The man on this bed is an innocent nobleman with nothing to do with us."

"Innocent? Anyone who touches a woman engaged to me dies tonight!" Kamden laughed arrogantly, completely oblivious to the fact that the temperature in the room was dropping fast enough to frost the floorboards.

I simply folded my arms and waited, serene as still water, for Kamden to finish digging his own grave.

Right as the front guard's spear tip came within inches of my neck, a large, calloused hand reached out from behind me and rested lightly on my shoulder.

His skin was freezing cold, yet his grip carried an undeniable force as he yanked me backward, pulling me safely behind his broad back.

"Who gave you the guts to touch what's mine on my own turf?"

A low, icy voice thick with murderous intent echoed through the spacious room.

The man stepped slowly out of the shadows of the bed curtains, his torn dark-gold scale-patterned robe hanging loosely over his broad shoulders and bare, scarred chest like a god of death waking from the abyss.

Kamden froze for a second. Because the suite was dark, he couldn't see the man's face clearly, though the sheer weight of that voice made him flinch.

His princely arrogance quickly took over again, and he sneered.

"Playing games in the dark? Kill him!"

The Dragon Guards roared and charged forward, the Dragonslayer Gold tips of their spears glowing with fatal red light.

The man in front of me didn't even lift a finger. He simply raised his eyelids, and those icy red-gold dragon pupils blazed in the dark like twin suns.

A terrifying wave of pure-gold bloodline pressure erupted from his body like a tidal wave, tearing through the room in a split second.

The two guards leading the charge didn't even have time to scream before the invisible force slammed into their chests and sent them flying backward into the hallway stone pillars, coughing up mouthfuls of blood.

Every single dragon-core lamp along the walls flickered wildly under the crushing pressure and shattered into pieces one after another.

The arrogant smirk on Kamden's face froze solid. His knees knocked together uncontrollably as the half-blood dragon soul inside him whimpered in absolute terror beneath the suppression of a pure-blood Dragon-God descendant.

Staring wide-eyed into those blazing red-gold pupils, Kamden finally recognized the chiseled, ice-cold face emerging from the shadows.

Behind him, Camille let out a piercing shriek, her legs giving out completely as she collapsed onto the splintered wood, her delicate makeup twisted in horror.

The man looked down at them from above, the corner of his mouth curling into a cruel arc.

"Kamden, did you just say you wanted to execute me?"