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"You're bleeding."
I froze. Kael stood three feet away, close enough I could smell steel and rain on him. His hand came up. I jerked back.
"Don't."
"Hold still." His thumb caught my chin before I could twist away. He tilted my face toward the window light. His other hand pressed a folded cloth to the corner of my mouth. "You bit through your lip."
I hadn't noticed. The phoenix fire always left me raw inside, like I'd swallowed glass. I tasted copper now.
"I'm fine," I said.
He didn't let go. His thumb was warm against my jaw. Too warm. I could count the beat of my pulse where his skin touched mine.
"You fainted in the courtyard," Kael said. "The physician says you haven't eaten in two days."
"I wasn't hungry."
"That's not an answer."
I met his eyes. Gray, like winter sky before snow. He was watching me the way he'd watch an enemy scout—looking for the lie.
"Why do you care?" I asked.
His hand dropped. He stepped back, put the bloodied cloth on the table between us. "You're my fiancée. If you collapse before the wedding, people will say I'm mistreating you."
"And that would damage your reputation."
"It would complicate things," he said. "Eat. Sleep. Stop looking like a prisoner."
"I am a prisoner."
He almost smiled. Almost. "Then look like a willing one."
I wanted to throw something at his face. Instead I walked to the window, put distance between us. My hands were still shaking. The phoenix mark on my collarbone burned under my dress.
"Why did you agree to this marriage?" I asked. "You hate Ashveil."
"I don't hate anyone."
"You killed three hundred of our soldiers last year."
"I did my job," Kael said. His voice didn't change. "Your father sent untrained conscripts to die on my walls. That's not hate. That's poor strategy."
I turned around. He was leaning against the table now, arms crossed. He looked tired. I hadn't noticed that in the other loops. Maybe I'd never looked close enough.
"You didn't answer my question," I said.
"Neither did you."
We stared at each other. The air felt too tight, like the moment before thunder breaks.
"Fine," I said. "I agreed because my father would have killed me if I refused. Your turn."
Kael's mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. "I agreed because the Seven City Alliance needs a treaty. Marrying you keeps the peace for three more years."
"Until the next war."
"Until the next war," he agreed.
Honest. He was being honest. That was new. In sixteen loops he'd never told me the truth about anything.
"So you don't want to marry me," I said.
"I don't want to marry anyone." He pushed off the table, came closer. "But I'd rather marry someone who's smart enough to hate me for the right reasons."
My breath caught. He stopped two steps away. Close enough I had to tilt my head back to hold his eyes.
"And what are the right reasons?" I asked.
His hand came up again. Slower this time. He touched the corner of my mouth where I'd bitten through. His thumb came away red.
"I've killed you before," Kael said quietly. "With my sword. Through the heart. You were wearing white."
The room went cold.
I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. The phoenix fire roared up inside me, sudden and violent, but I shoved it down. If I burned now he'd see. He'd know.
"What did you say?" My voice came out steady. I don't know how.
Kael blinked. His expression shifted—confusion, then something sharper. He looked at his hand. At the blood on his thumb.
"Nothing," he said. He stepped back fast, like I'd burned him. "I didn't say anything."
"You just said—"
"I said you should eat." His voice went flat. Command voice. The one he used on soldiers. "Dinner is in an hour. Wear something appropriate."
He turned toward the door.
"Kael."
He stopped but didn't look back.
"Why did you really agree to marry me?" I asked.
His shoulders tensed. For three long seconds he didn't move. Then he spoke without turning around.
"Because if you stayed in Ashveil, they would have sent you to die on the front line," he said. "This way you live."
The door closed behind him.
I stood there. Stared at the space where he'd been.
He remembered. He actually remembered. Not everything—maybe just fragments, flashes, the way I remembered dreams. But he'd seen it. Felt it. He knew he'd killed me.
And he'd brought me here to keep me alive.
I sat down hard on the bed. My hands were still shaking. The phoenix mark throbbed like a second heartbeat.
This changed everything. If Kael was starting to remember the loops, then the timeline was shifting faster than I thought. In the last reset, he hadn't remembered until two weeks in. This time it had been two days.
The loops were compressing. Or I was running out.
I pressed my palm against my collarbone, felt the heat under my skin. The phoenix fire had grown stronger every time I died. Hotter. Harder to control. Sooner or later I wouldn't be able to hide it.
Sooner or later I wouldn't be human enough to care.
I stood up. Walked back to the window. Ironfate Fortress spread out below me, all dark stone and iron gates and soldiers on the walls. Somewhere down there, Lya was gathering information. Mapping guard rotations. Finding the vault where they kept the war plans.
I had three weeks until the wedding. Three weeks to steal what I needed and get out before Kael's memories solidified. Before he put me on trial again.
Before he executed me in front of the entire Alliance and I woke up screaming in Ashveil for the eighteenth time.
Unless.
I touched the corner of my mouth. It was still bleeding. I could taste copper and salt.
He'd wiped the blood away. He'd told me I should have eaten. He'd married me to keep me alive.
Maybe there was another way.
Maybe this loop, I didn't steal the plans. Maybe I made him give them to me. Maybe I made him fall so hard he'd betray his own city before he'd let me die again.
It was a stupid plan. Dangerous. The kind of thing that only worked in the romance novels Lya used to smuggle into the palace.
But I'd died seventeen times already. Stupid was all I had left.
I turned away from the window. Started going through the wardrobe they'd stocked for me. Kael said to wear something appropriate.
I pulled out a dress the color of blood.
An hour later, I walked into the dining hall. Kael was already there, standing by the head of the table. He looked up when I entered.
His expression didn't change. But his hand tightened on the back of the chair.
"You're late," he said.
"You said an hour." I crossed the room, let him see the dress, the way it moved. "It's been an hour."
"Sit."
I didn't. I stopped on the other side of the table, one hand on the chair back. Close enough to talk. Far enough to run if I needed to.
"I want to make a deal," I said.
Kael raised an eyebrow. "What kind of deal?"
"You keep me alive. I keep you alive."
"I'm not the one in danger."
"Yes, you are." I leaned forward. Let him see I meant it. "There's a war coming. Bigger than the skirmishes on the border. Your fortress is the key. Whoever controls Ironfate controls the eastern pass."
"I know that."
"Then you know your enemies aren't just outside your walls," I said. "They're inside them. Close enough to put a knife in your back when you're not looking."
His eyes narrowed. "You're talking about Varen."
I was. Varen Ironfate, Kael's second-in-command. In eleven loops, Varen had been the one to expose me. In three loops, he'd been the one to kill me after Kael refused. In one very bad loop, he'd staged a coup and killed us both.
"I'm talking about anyone who thinks they'd do your job better," I said.
Kael was silent for a long moment. Then he walked around the table. Stopped in front of me. Too close again.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.
"Because you said you married me to keep me alive." I met his eyes. "I'm returning the favor."
His hand came up. I thought he was going to touch my face again. Instead he caught my wrist, turned my palm up. Looked at it.
There was a burn mark across my palm. Thin, precise. The shape of a sword hilt.
I hadn't noticed it before. It hadn't been there this morning.
Kael went very still. He pressed his thumb against the mark. I felt heat spike through me—not the phoenix fire. Something else. Something that came from him.
He let go fast. Looked at his own palm.
The same mark. Thin red line across his skin, like he'd gripped a burning blade.
"What is this?" His voice was low. Dangerous.
I didn't answer. Couldn't. Because I didn't know.
The loop had never done this before.
Kael grabbed my hand again. Held it up next to his. The marks matched perfectly.
"What did you do?" he asked.
"Nothing. I didn't—"
"Don't lie to me." His grip tightened. Not enough to hurt. Enough to keep me there. "I've been dreaming about you for weeks. Every night I see you die. Every night I'm the one holding the sword. And now this."
He pushed my hand against his chest. I felt his heartbeat through his shirt, fast and hard.
"Tell me what you did," he said.
I looked up at him. At his eyes, gray and cold and furious.
At the burn mark on his palm that matched mine.
At the way he was looking at me like I was the answer to a question that had been killing him.
"I didn't do anything," I said quietly. "You did. You brought me here. You saved me."
"That doesn't explain—"
"Maybe it does." I pulled my hand free. Stepped back. "Maybe the universe is tired of watching you kill me. Maybe it's trying something new."
Kael stared at me. The burn mark on his palm was glowing now. Faint red light, like embers.
Like phoenix fire.
"What are you?" he asked.
I smiled. It felt sharp. "Your fiancée. You said so yourself."
I turned and walked toward the door. My heart was slamming against my ribs. The phoenix mark on my collarbone burned hot enough to scar.
"Seraph."
I stopped. Didn't turn around.
"If you're lying to me," Kael said, "if this is some kind of trick—"
"Then what?" I looked back over my shoulder. "You'll kill me?"
His jaw tightened.
"You've done it before," I said. "Twelve times. I'm still here."
I walked out before he could answer.
Behind me, I heard something hit the wall. Glass breaking. Kael's voice, low and vicious, saying a name I didn't catch.
I kept walking. Down the hall. Around the corner. Into the shadows.
Then I pressed my back against the cold stone and tried to breathe.
The burn mark on my palm was still glowing. Warm. Alive.
I'd lied. I had done something. I just didn't know what.
But the loop had changed. The rules had shifted.
And for the first time in seventeen deaths, I wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
Footsteps. Coming fast. I pushed off the wall, started moving.
"Seraph!"
Kael's voice. Closer than it should be.
I ran.
I made it to the east corridor before he caught me. His hand closed around my wrist, spun me around. My back hit the wall. He caged me in, one hand on either side of my head.
"Stop running," he said.
"Stop chasing me."
"I can't." His voice was rough. "Every time I close my eyes I see you dead. Every time I wake up I feel the sword go through you. And now you're here. Alive. With my mark on your hand."
I looked up at him. His pupils were blown wide. His breathing was uneven.
"I don't know what this is," he said. "But you do. So tell me."
I should have lied. Should have played dumb.
Instead I said, "You've killed me twelve times. I've killed you twice. We've betrayed each other, saved each other, and watched each other die. And every time the loop resets, we do it again."
Kael went very still.
"You're insane," he said.
"Maybe." I held up my hand. Showed him the glowing mark. "But you're marked now. Which means you're in the loop too."
He stared at the burn. At me. At his own hand.
"That's impossible," he said.
"You remember killing me," I said. "Don't you?"
He didn't answer. Didn't need to. I could see it in his eyes.
"This loop is different," I said. "You're waking up. Which means we have a choice. We can do what we always do—betray each other, die, reset. Or we can try something new."
"Like what?"
I met his eyes. "We work together. We figure out how to break the loop. We both live."
"And if I don't believe you?"
I smiled. "Then I guess I'll see you in the next loop."
I ducked under his arm. Started walking.
I made it three steps before he spoke.
"What do you need?"
I stopped. Turned around.
Kael was still standing against the wall. His hand was pressed over his heart. The burn mark glowed through his fingers.
"What?" I said.
"If we're doing this," he said, "if we're working together—what do you need?"
I stared at him. At the most dangerous man in the Seven Cities, offering to help me.
Offering to trust me.
I should have felt relieved. Triumphant.
Instead I felt terrified.
Because this was new. This had never happened before.
And I had no idea what came next.
"I need access to your war vault," I said.
His expression went cold. "Why?"
"Because someone in this fortress is selling your battle plans to Ashveil," I lied. "And I need to figure out who before they get us both killed."
Kael studied me for a long moment. Looking for the lie.
I kept my face blank. My heartbeat steady.
Finally, he nodded.
"Tomorrow night," he said. "Midnight. I'll take you there myself."
"Why?"
"Because if you're telling the truth, I need to know." He pushed off the wall. Came closer. "And if you're lying—"
He caught my chin. Tilted my face up.
"—I'll know that too."
His thumb brushed the corner of my mouth. Where I'd bitten through.
Then he let go. Stepped back.
"Eat something," he said. "You look like you're dying."
He walked away. I watched him go.
When he turned the corner, I looked down at my hand.
The burn mark was still glowing. Brighter now.
I pressed it against my chest. Felt my heart slam against it.
Tomorrow night. Midnight. The war vault.
I'd done it. I'd gotten what I needed.
So why did it feel like I'd just made the worst mistake of all seventeen loops?
Behind me, something moved in the shadows.
I spun around.
Varen Ironfate stepped into the light. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword.
"That was an interesting conversation," he said.
My blood went cold.
"How long have you been standing there?" I asked.
He smiled. "Long enough."