Chapter 2

Kaitlin Ratcliff POV:

Stepping away from the window, I walked across the room and pulled open the master bedroom door. Out in the corridor, broken blue-and-white porcelain shards glinted under the dim glow of the wall-mounted dragon crystal lamps.

Addisyn Whitaker, Dashawn's spoiled younger sister, stood with her hands on her hips, pointing angrily at several trembling Dragonless maids.

"You clumsy, cold-blooded trash! Are you blind?" Addisyn shrieked, lifting her silk-shod foot to kick a kneeling maid right in the chest.

"Stop," I said.

My voice was quiet, but it cut right through the drafty stone hallway.

Addisyn froze with her foot in the air. Turning her head to see me, she did not lower her leg; instead, a mocking sneer twisted her painted lips.

"Well, look who crawled out of her room," Addisyn jeered, crunching across the broken porcelain as she walked toward me. "My brother just brought home a woman carrying his royal dragon heir, and a barren, cold-blooded hen like you still has the nerve to act like the lady of the house?"

On the floor, the maids buried their foreheads against the cold stone, terrified that this hot-tempered half-blood dragon would burn them alive to vent her anger.

I stood my ground, my gaze sweeping over her velvet gown, which was illegally embroidered with golden dragonfire patterns.

"Since you know I am the lady of this keep, why haven't you curtsied?" I asked, tilting my chin up slightly.

Addisyn laughed as if she had heard the funniest joke in the realm. Lunging forward, she shoved her pointed finger almost against the tip of my nose.

"Curtsy to you? You're nothing but a merchant's foster daughter reeking of copper coins!"

Slap!

I swung my right arm with all my strength, striking her hard across the face.

My palm stung from the impact. The force of the blow snapped Addisyn's head to the side, and a bright red handprint swelled across her left cheek.

Dead silence fell over the corridor. The kneeling maids gasped softly, their eyes wide with disbelief. Under Dragonreach law, a Dragonless person striking a dragon-born noble was a crime punishable by death.

Addisyn clutched her burning cheek, stunned for two seconds before letting out an ear-piercing scream.

"You hit me! I'll burn you to ashes with my dragonfire!"

Red scales sprouted along her neck as a ball of orange-red flame flickered to life in her right palm—the weak fire of a low-tier dragon-kin.

I did not take a single step back. Instead, I stepped right up to the heat of her palm and looked coldly into her eyes.

"Go ahead and burn me," I said evenly. "The second your fire touches my dress, I will cut off your five-hundred-gold monthly allowance."

The orange-red flame in her palm sputtered and died as if doused with ice water.

Addisyn bit her lower lip so hard it turned white. Tears of humiliation pooled in her eyes, but she slowly lowered her hand. She was a parasite raised on my gold; without my money, she could not even afford her cosmetics.

Hurried footsteps echoed from the stairs. Dashawn stormed back down the hall with a dark face, while Beryl trailed behind him, dabbing at her dry eyes with a handkerchief.

"Kaitlin! Have you lost your mind?" Dashawn roared, spotting the red handprint on his sister's face.

I turned toward him, casually shaking out my sore wrist. "I am teaching your sister the rules of this keep."

"Beryl is pregnant and freezing in the side wing, yet you are out here beating my family?" Dashawn yelled, trying to pin the blame on me.

"Pregnant?" I let out a cold laugh, my gaze shooting past him to lock onto Beryl. "Since she carries the Commander's bloodline, we certainly cannot be careless."

I paused, watching Beryl's shoulders stiffen before I spoke again.

"I demand an immediate Dragon Blood purity test for the child."

Every noble house used a hollow dragon crystal needle to draw fetal blood and verify a child's lineage. Because Beryl's womb held a dead fetus rotted by cold poison, a single prick of that crystal needle would expose her lie on the spot.

All color drained from Beryl's face.

"No! That's impossible!" Beryl cried out. Catching herself, she quickly slumped against the wall and clutched her belly. "Dashawn, the dragon crystal needle is too harsh. Our baby is too weak to survive the test..."

Dashawn fell for it immediately, stepping in front of her like a shield. "Are you trying to murder my unborn child, Kaitlin?"

"Too scared to take the test?" I looked at them as if they were two circus clowns. "Fine. Keep her in the side wing. Without my written order, she won't get a single grain of rice from this keep's kitchen."

Turning my back on their furious glares, I walked into my bedroom, bolted the door, and sat at my desk to write a secret letter about the Red Earth Dragon Tomb.