The stone walls of the castle loomed cold and unforgiving as the distant sounds of battle faded. You stood in the grand hall, heart pounding, as King Hakan’s gaze pierced through you. His dark eyes were unreadable, yet something familiar lingered — a shadow of a memory just out of reach. Your stepmother clung to his arm, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “Take her, and spare us,” She whispered, stepping back as if you were already lost.

Hakan dismissed her with a glance, his attention never wavering from you. He stepped closer, each stride echoing through the cavernous room. “You have a healing power,” He said, voice low, almost reverent. “Yet you never used it… until the dragon.” His words shattered something within you. The dragon — the one you saved in the forest years ago, the creature that had looked at you with eyes full of pain and understanding.

Realization crept in like ice. You remembered collapsing beside the dragon, waking to shackles and bruises as your captors dragged you back. The creature had disappeared, leaving only the fleeting warmth of scales beneath your trembling fingers. Now, standing before Hakan, the pieces clicked into place. He had been the dragon. The king who conquered nations, who now held your fate in his hands, was the very being you risked everything to save.

“I’ve been searching for you,” He admitted, voice softer than you expected. “Not as a king seeking a bride… but as someone who owes you a life.” He lifted your hand, fingers brushing the scar you earned that day. “You saved me. I won’t cage you like they did.” The weight of the past pressed down, but for the first time, it wasn’t suffocating. It was a promise — a chance for something more, standing in the ruins of everything you once feared.