"Thanks, but no thanks." I shifted, the floor creaking beneath me like a warning.
"Your dowry is sizeable. You stand to gain much from this union, dear girl." The attendant smiled, but steel was beneath it, the kind of patience reserved for stubborn children.
"Dowry?" A sharp laugh burst from my lips before I could catch it. "My money is spoken for."
My parents relied on it. Siblings, too. I wasn't some heiress playing pretend. I was broke as a joke and it was way past funny.
Still, maybe this was part of the act. Soo-yeon always went all out, convinced my obsession with financial security wasn't healthy or ladylike. She even teased that I was in a relationship with my bankbook.
She wasn't entirely wrong.
"Soo-yeon," you can come out now. I don't know what kind of historical reenactment or game this is, but I'm not playing along anymore. I turned.
Two guards blocked my path.
The unease sharpened into cold realization. This wasn't larping.
The woman didn't waver. "You misunderstand, child. This is not a game."
I searched for another possible explanation, because as far as hallucinations were going, this one was pretty good.
For a flicker of a second, I wondered if I lay passed out in a sunny courtyard somewhere.
Instead, the air thickened, pressing down on me. No hidden cameras. No laughing, Soo-yeon. Just the silence that stretched out far too long.
"Well, {beep}." I said at last. Either I was crazy or I had time travelled to another realm.
A smooth and amused chuckle emitted from the man who had arrived last. "What strange words from such a wild creature," he mused.
I turned to face my supposed groom.
His smile was lazy, his dark eyes gleaming with something close to satisfaction. He looked like he considered the deal done.
"Sir, don't you know it's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding."
His lips curled. "Bad luck is for the weak."
He stepped closer, and the guards tensed not at me, but at him. "I have been observing you all day."
My stomach twisted. Any other man, I would have reported to the authorities.
Instinct told me he wasn't just a man, any more than the men before me were men. They carried themselves with the authority of someone who never heard the word no. They had power. Real power.
The kind that comes from being dangerous.
"Regardless." I quelled the quiver in my voice, clasping my hands behind my back to hide the tremor. "This is a custom of my family. My lineage. Scram. I've got a train at six and work at seven. This wedding needs to wrap up quickly. I want pictures."
A sharp intake of breath from the attendant came from behind me. "Lady, please cease your disrespect. You have no idea who you dare offend." Her voice barely above a whisper.
I glared at him like I could kill him where he stood.
A flick of his index finger released us, as a wry smile appeared on his face. "This rabbit amuses me very much. Please continue with the preparations. "
The woman exhaled, relief stark on her face.
The moment of exhilaration for her, was a punch in the ol' kisser for me.
Women weren't supposed to need permission from anyone and certainly not from the likes of him. Mr. Broody, too sexy for his britches and all that exposed chest.
A nod of deference, and a deep bow conveying utmost respect rippled through the woman who would lead me away.
She bowed like we had escaped a fate worse than death.
She motioned for me to follow her deeper into the chamber to a set of ornate doors with large cogs for locks. With some effort, several of the female attendants opened the door.
The air smelled of parchment and incense, the flickering torchlight casting strange shadows. Wooden trays displayed books and scrolls of great interest to me.
As the women lit the torches deeper into the room, my eyes widened.
A treasury so vast I felt faint. I traced a finger over a bracelet, expecting it to crumble. It didn't.
"Lady, have you seen this?" The attendant gestured toward a gown spread across a cushion.
Dragon scales shimmered in the fabric, embroidered in gold. The matching headpiece loomed above it, heavy with authority.
I shuddered. The ghostly faces I had glimpsed before swam in my mind. Something cold and ancient stirred at the edges of memory.
"I think I'll pass on the dragon look," I murmured.
Instead, a garment was stretched out over a wooden dummy. Embroidered with reds and golds burning like fire. A phoenix stretched across the fabric, its talons clamped around a dragon's throat.
"This one," I said.
The attendant hesitated, a guarded look flitting across her face. Eyes sweeping to the floor. "You are certain?"
"Absolutely. This is the one."
Something flickered in her gaze. Softer, almost reverent.
She nodded, then turned, retrieving a set of scrolls. Aged. Regal. Each bearing a phoenix crest.
My pulse quickened. "What are those?"
She hesitated. "They are… yours."
Their weight settled in my hands, smooth parchment tingling against my skin. The crest—unfamiliar, yet familiar under the tracing of my fingertips.
The suitor who had been silent chuckled behind me. "How fitting."
I turned. "You seem awfully invested in all this. What's in it for you?"
His gaze traced the scrolls and then the phoenix gown, his expression calculating and satisfied.
"I believe in securing what is mine," he said.
"You don't even know me."
"Don't I?" He stepped closer, his presence pressing against mine. "You worship wealth because it does not betray you. You think money is safer than love." He tilted his head, amusement dancing in his gaze. "We are not so different, you and I."
My breath caught. How wrong could he be? I didn't care about money, I cared what money could do for those I cared for. "Let me guess," I said, voice tight. "You think you're doing me a favor."
"I know I am." His smile sharpened. "You want power that doesn't abandon you? Wealth that doesn't fail you? Stand at my side."
The air between us crackled.
"If the wealth and power belongs to you... Is it truly mine?" I challenged, as I walked around the room looking at the rest of the items.
A strange glimmer caught my eye behind a silk screen. The room narrowing into a sharper focus. Statues loomed in the corners, guardians frozen in marble guarded a treasure that surpassed every item in the room.
My breath hitched, catching in my throat.
A single hairpin.
Delicate. Elegant. A phoenix with long, sweeping tassels of hammered gold.
I reached for it, heart pounding.
I knew this hairpin.
It was mine.
It had always been mine.