Kaida POV
The bucket of dirty water hit my face before I saw it coming.
"Oops!" Mira, the head servant, stood over me with an empty bucket and a cruel smile. "The useless one should clean that up too. Along with the rest of the phoenix stables."
Cold water dripped down my face and soaked through my already-torn dress. The other servants laughed. I didn't look up. If I looked up, they'd see the tears mixing with the water, and I'd already given them enough entertainment today.
My name is Kaida Ashborne. Five years ago, I was the golden daughter of the most powerful beast-taming family in Aeloria. Now I scrub their floors and sleep with the stable beasts.
I grabbed my brush and kept scrubbing the stone floor. My knees ached. My stomach growled so loud that Mira laughed again.
"Still hungry? Maybe if you weren't so useless, your family would actually feed you." She kicked my water bucket, spilling it across the floor I'd just cleaned. "Start over. And if it's not perfect, you don't eat tonight either."
She walked away, her laughter echoing through the stables.
I stared at the spilled water spreading across the stones. Three days. That's how long it had been since I'd eaten a full meal. My father—no, Lord Takeshi, because he made it clear I couldn't call him father anymore—had cut my food rations again. "Resources are for family members who contribute to the clan," he'd said last week, not even looking at me.
I'm still his daughter. I'm still family.
Aren't I?
My hands shook as I started scrubbing again. The rough brush tore at my already raw palms, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out. Crying made it worse. Crying made them laugh harder.
Through the stable windows, I could see the training grounds where my sister Setsuna practiced with her phoenix. The massive bird was beautiful—all crimson and gold flames, spreading wings that could block out the sun. Every move Setsuna made was perfect. Every command the phoenix obeyed instantly.
She was everything I wasn't.
"One day, that'll be me," I whispered to myself, even though I knew it was a lie. "One day, I'll have a beast too. One day, they'll see I'm not useless."
But who was I kidding?
Five years ago, during my awakening ceremony, everything fell apart.
I could still remember every horrible detail. The entire Ashborne clan had gathered in the great hall—hundreds of people in their finest clothes, watching as sixteen-year-old me stepped up to the awakening stone. My father stood proud beside me. My mother smiled. Kieran, my fiancé, squeezed my hand and whispered, "You'll be amazing."
I believed him.
I placed my hands on the stone, and power exploded through me. The stone blazed with crimson and gold flames—dragon fire. The Oracle's ancient voice rang out: "Dragon Taming ability awakened!"
For one perfect second, I thought I'd made them proud.
Then someone laughed.
"Dragons?" Lord Chen from the neighboring clan snorted. "Dragons went extinct three hundred years ago!"
More laughter. Confused whispers. My father's hand dropped from my shoulder like I'd burned him.
"This is a mistake," my mother said, her voice cold. "Test her again."
They tested me three more times. Same result. Dragon Taming ability. The rarest gift in history. And completely, utterly useless.
Because dragons were dead. Gone. Wiped out in the Great Purge centuries ago.
I'd awakened the power to tame creatures that didn't exist anymore.
Kieran let go of my hand. I watched him step back, his face showing disgust. "I can't marry someone with a useless ability," he announced right there in front of everyone. "The Stormwright clan needs strong heirs."
He proposed to Setsuna three months later. She'd awakened Phoenix Taming—powerful, rare, valuable. Everything I wasn't.
My father erased my name from the family registry that same night.
Now here I was, five years later, scrubbing floors while my sister lived the life that should have been mine.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," I muttered, scrubbing harder. "You're alive. That's enough."
But was it? Was just surviving enough when every day felt like dying slowly?
Movement caught my eye. I looked up at the archives building across the courtyard and saw him—Ryven. He stood at the window, watching me with those strange silver eyes that always seemed sad. His dark hair fell across his face, and even from this distance, I could see his jaw clenched tight.
Ryven was the only person who'd stayed after my awakening. Everyone else abandoned me—my parents, my friends, even the servants who used to bow to me. But Ryven, the quiet scholar who worked in the dusty archives, still treated me like a person.
He was the only one who still said my name kindly.
I gave him a small smile, trying to tell him I was okay. I wasn't okay, but I didn't want him to worry. He worried too much already.
Ryven's expression darkened. His hands pressed against the window glass, and for a weird second, I thought I saw something shimmer across his skin. Like scales. Like—
No. I was seeing things. Hunger did that sometimes.
"Kaida!" Lord Takeshi's voice boomed across the courtyard. My whole body went cold.
My father—Lord Takeshi—never came to the stables. Never spoke to me unless he had to. This couldn't be good.
I scrambled to my feet, my wet dress clinging to my legs. Lord Takeshi strode toward me with Setsuna beside him. My sister looked perfect as always, her crimson dress matching her phoenix's flames. She wore the jade bracelet that used to be mine—my mother's gift, taken and given to the "worthy daughter."
"Father," I said, bowing my head. He hated when I called him that, but I couldn't stop myself. Some part of me still hoped...
"Don't call me that." His voice was ice. "Servants don't have fathers. They have masters."
Each word stabbed like a knife.
Setsuna smiled sweetly. "Sister, we have wonderful news! Kieran and I are getting married next week. Isn't that exciting?"
My heart stopped.
Married. Next week. The boy I'd loved since childhood was marrying my sister, and they came here just to tell me?
"Congratulations," I whispered, because what else could I say?
"You'll serve wine at the engagement banquet," Lord Takeshi said. It wasn't a question. "All servants will attend to show the clan's strength. Wear something appropriate. Not these rags."
He looked at my soaked, torn dress with disgust.
"I don't have anything else," I said quietly. "You took all my clothes and gave them to—"
"Then borrow something from the other servants." He turned away. "And Kaida? If you embarrass this family at the banquet, I'll send you to the breeding farms in the north. At least there you'd be useful producing workers."
Terror shot through me. The breeding farms were where they sent female prisoners and slaves. Women went there and never came back.
"I understand," I choked out.
Setsuna leaned close as they walked past. "Try not to cry during my speech, sister. It's so embarrassing when you do that."
They left me standing there, shaking.
The breeding farms. He'd threatened me with the breeding farms.
I couldn't breathe. My chest hurt. The world spun, and I grabbed the stable wall to keep from falling.
A hand touched my shoulder.
I spun around and found Ryven standing there. He must have run from the archives. His silver eyes blazed with fury I'd never seen before.
"He can't do that to you," Ryven said, his voice rough and strange. "I won't let him."
"You can't stop him." Tears finally spilled down my cheeks. "Nobody can. I'm nothing, Ryven. I'm worse than nothing."
"You're not." He grabbed my shoulders, and his hands were burning hot. "Kaida, listen to me. You're not useless. Your ability isn't useless. Dragons aren't—"
He stopped suddenly, his eyes going wide like he'd said something terrible.
"Dragons aren't what?" I asked.
Ryven's expression changed. He looked scared. Actually scared. "Nothing. Forget I said anything."
"Ryven—"
"Meet me in the archives at midnight," he said quickly, glancing around like someone might hear. "I need to tell you something. Something important. Something that could change everything."
My heart pounded. "What are you talking about?"
"Midnight. Come alone. Don't tell anyone." He squeezed my shoulders once, and I felt that strange heat again. "Promise me, Kaida. This is important."
"I promise, but—"
Screams erupted from the training grounds.
We both spun around. Setsuna's phoenix was going wild, breathing fire in every direction. Tamers scattered, shouting. The phoenix's eyes glowed wrong—too bright, too red.
"That's not normal," Ryven breathed.
The phoenix shrieked, and the sound made my bones hurt. Then it turned its burning eyes directly toward me.
And smiled.
Beasts don't smile. They can't smile.
But this phoenix smiled like it knew something terrible, and then it spoke directly into my mind with a voice like breaking glass:
The useless daughter has something we want. Something sleeping in her blood. We're coming for you, little dragon tamer. And when we take it, you'll wish you'd died with your kind three hundred years ago.
The phoenix's voice cut off. It returned to normal, cooing softly while Setsuna patted its head, completely unaware anything had happened.
I stood frozen, my mind screaming.
That phoenix had spoken to me. In my head. And it had called me "dragon tamer" like that meant something.
Like dragons weren't extinct after all.
I looked at Ryven. He'd gone pale, staring at the phoenix with pure terror in his silver eyes.
"Midnight," he whispered. "We don't have much time. They know about you now."
"Who knows? What's happening?"
But Ryven was already running back toward the archives, leaving me standing there with one horrifying thought:
Something was hunting me.
And somehow, it was connected to my "useless" dragon-taming ability.