Chapter 2

Aiyana POV:

Caro clutched her heavy velvet skirts and stumbled up the marble steps to the burning doorway, the cerulean Brow Scale on her forehead flickering wildly with panic.

"Gideon! My son! Smash the door down, don't let the fire touch him!"

She waved her red-lacquered fingernails in the air, losing all her usual poise as First House Madame. Four Perimeter Vanguard guards—warriors who normally rode bone-crusher sharks outside the city bubble to stop abyssal demons from puncturing our dome—stepped forward in pearl-shell armor and swung a massive basalt battering ram at the phosphor-lit stone doors.

Standing hidden behind a shadowed pillar, I watched the guards heave.

With a deafening boom, the vine-carved stone doors tore off their hinges and crashed inward, sending up a cloud of black smoke. Caro, her husband Brody Glass, and dozens of Inner Atoll wedding guests surged toward the threshold.

Everyone expected a tragedy, but as the air-current vents sucked the smoke away, the scene inside made several noblewomen gasp.

The flames had only burned the outer doorframe. On the wide coral bed, Gideon was stark naked, clutching a sea-silk quilt over himself and the woman beneath him like a pair of startled volt-rays. The hall fell dead silent save for the low hum of the Hydrosun overhead, every eye fixed on the shredded female undergarments littering the floor.

"Gideon... what are you doing? Is that lowborn Aiyana under there?" Caro's voice trembled as she tried to pin the blame on me to save face.

Gideon poked his sweaty head out, his eyes darting across the crowd. "Mother... fire... someone yelled fire..."

"Even with a fire, how dare you rut in broad daylight before the vows! You have disgraced House Glass!" Brody roared, his face livid as he assumed the woman was me.

Under the stifling quilt, the woman squirmed for air, revealing light chestnut hair and a tear-streaked, delicate face.

A Countess in the front row pointed a shaking finger. "That isn't Aiyana! That is Minister Gould's adopted daughter, Cristal Burks!"

Caro froze as if struck by lightning. Her proud son was bedding his fiancée's sister in the bridal chamber on his wedding day.

"No... it isn't what it looks like... Darling, save me..." Cristal clutched the quilt to her chest, tears spilling down her cheeks as she played the victim.

"Shut up, you shameless counterfeit!" Caro lunged forward and swung her heavy crystal-bracelet-clad wrist, slapping Cristal across the face.

"Mother, don't hit her!" Gideon shoved Caro back and shielded Cristal in his arms. "She is pregnant! She is carrying my child!"

The hall erupted into chaos as nobles whispered and sneered openly. Caro swayed on her feet, while Brody pointed a trembling finger at his son, speechless with rage.

I stepped out from the pillar's shadow, my white sea-silk gown glowing under the blue coral lamps. The crowd parted automatically until I stood at the shattered threshold, looking down at the naked pair on the bed.

"It seems my bridal chamber is a bit crowded."

Gideon's face drained of color. "Aiyana... listen to me, she seduced me..."

Cristal stared at him in disbelief before clutching her stomach and wailing. "Aiyana, I didn't mean to! Gideon and I truly love each other!"

"Truly in love?" I laughed coldly and held up my bare right hand, devoid of even a bronze betrothal ring. "Your love is so noble that you had to conceive a bastard on my wedding sheets. You make me sick, Gideon."

I untied the cheap silver seashell token from my waist—the shabby betrothal gift Gideon had tossed me—and whipped it straight at his face.

The sharp shell sliced his forehead, drawing a line of blood. "I, Aiyana Gay, annul this betrothal before the entire court!"

Caro shrieked, pointing at me. "You wild bastard from the Outer Shoals, what right do you have to annul anything? It's your fault for failing to keep your man!"

I snapped my head toward Caro, my cold glare making the First Madame flinch half a step back.

"My right? I am the trueborn blood of House Gould, while your son is a rutting beast who cannot keep his breeches on!"

Leaving Caro choking on her fury, I lifted my hem and strode toward the opposite end of the corridor. I had no intention of leaving House Glass in disgrace. Ahead lay the estate's most sacred forbidden ground—the Sea Burial Sanctuary of Corbin Glass, the fallen High Lord of Tides. Before his supposed death, Corbin had been the empire's supreme military commander, wielding absolute authority over its elite merfolk cavalry legions and the defense of every realm.

By the time I reached Corbin Glass's mourning hall, a far better plan had already taken shape in my mind.

If House Glass insisted on holding a wedding today, I would give them one—just not with Gideon.