Chapter 1
Prologue
When a star falls in love, it is doomed to fall. It simply doesn’t know how much that love will truly cost.
How much of itself it will have to give away. How much light it will have to extinguish.
How much are we really willing to sacrifice for a love that, in the end, may not even have meaning?
That star was me.
I gave my soul and my heart to the one who promised to hold them in his palms like the most fragile light. But he shattered them. Broke them. And locked me in his golden cage.
It was always dark there—dark in a way that doesn’t fade even when you close your eyes. My soul had long since stopped shining. And just when I was ready to surrender completely to the shadows, I saw light. Not soft or comforting—it blazed. Burned. It was wild, like a fire that cannot be tamed.
That light burned my cage to ashes. And I began to fall again.
Odre Raison had never planned to attend Harburg Academy, a place meant for supernatural beings. With only twenty-five percent fae blood, she was more human than fae—too weak for ancient powers, too different for the ordinary world.
She was nothing.
Her quiet life was shattered the moment the Dragon King announced a direct fate-binding ceremony with the Spring Fae Princess, Eraya. It was meant to be the greatest event of the year—a political union that could end centuries of tension between species.
Everyone watched the broadcast. Except Odre.
Her heart was still bleeding from the collapse of a three-year relationship. A love that was meant to be eternal had fallen apart quietly and painfully. So the king’s engagement meant nothing to her.
But fate had other plans.
During the ceremony, the air trembled. Magic spiraled out of control. The sacred circle meant for Princess Eraja flared with blinding light—and instead of her, standing before the Dragon King was… Odre.
She didn’t even have time to breathe.
In an instant, she was transported thousands of kilometers to the sacred site—a place where fate itself chooses its pairs. An ancient mark ignited beneath her feet, binding her life thread with the king’s.
Not the princess.
Not the chosen one.
Her.
Now Odre is forced to attend Harburg Academy—a place where the most powerful supernatural beings are trained—and find a way to break the bond that could destroy not only her, but the Dragon King himself.
Because the ties of fate are not a gift. Sometimes, they are a curse.
But there is another problem.
How is she supposed to stay away from a captivating, dangerous king whose gaze burns hotter than fire… and who, it turns out, is far more connected to her past than she could have ever imagined?
Perhaps this story is not about a star falling.
But about how stars truly burn.
