Chapter 34: _ I Met Raice

"Wait."

A first-year near the back frowned, squinting at me. "Isn’t that her?"

The surrounding girls turned. "Who?"

"The girl from the Concourse."

The girl’s eyes widened. "The one who talked to Raice Ignis-Dominus."

That was the fuel the noble girls who wanted to hate my audacity needed.

A few people, even the men, gasped. "That girl?"

"The one who insulted him?"

Before I could even understand what was happening, another voice rose from the crowd. A voice I recognized.

"No way."

My stomach sank. The dragon girl from the dorm corridor stepped forward with her friends.

"Oh, you don’t recognize her?" She smiled. "This isn’t some mysterious noble girl."

Her gaze swept over me. "This is the dragonless trench rat everyone has been talking about."

The words stung this time, and it wasn’t because I didn’t know what I was... I did—I have in fact, never doubted it... but because I knew exactly what that word meant here.

In front of him.

A murmur spread.

"Wait... she’s the one in the latest rumors? The one Raice spoke to?"

"The same girl?"

"And she’s dragonless?"

The admiration vanished. The curiosity became entertainment. And suddenly, I wasn’t a mysterious noble girl anymore.

I was a spectacle. A mistake. A thing everyone had permission to judge.

The trance that had propelled my feet forward dissolved and I instantly became aware of what I was doing.

Oh, stupid stupid you, Elira.

This wasn’t even why we were here. Tobin could be in a corner watching me make a fool of myself right now. However, when I lifted my head and glanced at the halted trio just a few feet in front of me.

The uncertainty the boy had planted in me eight years ago took control yet again.

I took another step forward...

... and my legs gave out instantly. I hit the polished floor hard, the air barking out of my lungs as a sickening crack echoed through my ankle.

Pain shot up my leg like liquid fire.

Laughter instantly rippled through the front rows.

Telekinesis.

Someone in the crowd had just used their ability to trip me in front of the entire realm. A cheap, cowardly trick meant to drag me back down to the dirt where they thought I belonged.

Gritting my teeth against the searing agony in my ankle, I pushed my palms against the floor, struggling to force myself up. My dress was tangled, my hair messy, and my hands trembled.

To the room’s collective shock, Prince Remus immediately stepped forward, his hand extending to help me up.

Before his fingers could touch mine, one of his stepsisters—I couldn’t tell if it was Vaela or Veyra—beat him to it. She reached down, took my hand with an almost motherly gentleness, and pulled me to my feet.

A wave of astonished gasps traveled through the hall.

A dragon royal helping a markless commoner?

But as she pulled me close, her face leaned right past my cheek. Her grip tightened until my knuckles bruised.

"You should be careful." Her fingers tightened around mine as she whispered. "There are people in this room who would destroy you for less than what you just did."

She paused.

"And if you dare to stand before him again, I will be one of them."

Then she let go with a sweet smile, stepping back as if she had just performed an act of pure grace.

I stood petrified, my heart pounding. I had just made a lethal enemy out of a royal dragon, and I didn’t even know which sister had threatened my life.

I wasn’t sure I knew what I had done to warrant such an amount of hatred either.

Remus stared at me for one long second. He didn’t say a word. He simply turned his back, stepping past me as if the entire exchange had never happened, and led his procession straight toward the elevated thrones.

I was left standing alone in the middle of the main aisle, unkempt, bleeding through my stocking, and thoroughly humiliated.

How could he just walk away?

No. How could I dare to interrupt the walk of a Dragon Prince?

What the hell was wrong with me from the moment I stepped into the ballroom?

Then the doors groaned open a second time.

If the room had burst into excitement for Remus, it turned completely dead for the man who stepped inside. My knees nearly gave out all over again, pure terror knotting my stomach so violently I choked back a gasp.

It was Raice Ignis-Dominus.

Unlike Remus, who looked like a pristine deity, the Fae Prince looked like he had just crawled out of a battlefield. His white formal shirt was half undone, dark bruises marred his sharp jawline, and his white hair—which looked like it had been styled hours ago—was completely ruined, tossed and messy as if he had been frantically running his hands through it for hours.

He walked with an erratic sway, looking almost drunk on exhaustion.

Where Remus brought heat and authority, Raice brought an unnatural chill that made the chandeliers flicker with violet light.

Whispers exploded into terrified murmurs.

"Is that Prince Raice??"

"He never attends the Gala..."

"Did he come because of the markless girl?"

"Sun god, someone call the wardens, he’s going to massacre the room!"

Every instinct inside me screamed at me to run, to hide, or crawl under the nearest table. But the fear paralyzing my limbs was so profound I couldn’t move a single muscle.

Raice didn’t head for the elevated thrones. He walked straight down the center carpet, his silver-violet eyes locking onto me like an apex predator zeroing in on cornered prey.

He didn’t stop until he was standing directly in front of me.

He closed the distance so fast, so aggressively, that he paused mere millimeters from my face—close enough that the tip of his nose almost brushed mine.

I could smell moonflower scent on him, mixed with some sort of herbal root.

"Found you," Raice rasped, his cold breath fanning over my lips as his violet eyes burned into mine.