Reborn to be the Dragon Queen

Arya remembers everything. One moment she is the Dragon Lord, bonded to the crimson dragon Lucien she raised with her own blood, and the next her stepsister Cecelia stands over her, gloating that all the hard work is finally hers. Lucien sneers that he never loved Arya, that she stole him from Cecelia in the arena, and now she will pay with her life. As Arya's vision fades, she swears if there is a next life, she will never choose him again—and she will make them both pay in blood.

She wakes to the exact words that started it all: each of you will claim one dragon. The day of the claiming has begun again. Cecelia, all false sweetness, asks to choose first and points at the crimson dragon—the very Lucien Arya bled for in her past life. Arya catches it instantly. In the last timeline, Cecelia took one look at the wounded black dragon Raegar and claimed him, treating Lucien like trash because he was broken and weak. Now she is suddenly desperate for Lucien. Cecelia has been reborn too, and she thinks she is seizing the strongest card. She has no idea that Lucien's strength came entirely from Arya's blood and medicine. Without it, whatever talent he has will rot before it ever blooms. Arya does not fight her. She lets Cecelia take Lucien, then walks to the black dragon everyone calls useless and barely breathing. The crowd calls her insane. Cecelia warns her she will raise a monster that will tear her throat out. Arya strokes the black dragon's snout and smiles. She remembers how Cecelia whipped Raegar every day in their last life, driving him mad when he could not win. This time, she will use the very dragon Cecelia destroyed to crush her all over again.

To make sure there is no betrayal, Arya decides on a blood bond immediately. She cuts her palm and offers it to the black dragon. The moment her blood touches him, his temperature spikes. A man rises before her, disoriented, because her hand brushed the scales on his neck—a place only a fated mate may touch. He asks if she is ready to be his mate, and before she can fully process it, the bond seals and a golden dragon mark blazes between them. The mark of the royal bloodline, thought lost since the Dragon King fell twenty years ago. The man, who calls himself Regis, explains that someone sealed his power and threw him into the arena as a crippled black dragon. He does not know how to break the seal, but Arya's blood has already started something.

Days later at the training grounds, Cecelia arrives with Lucien already shifted into human form, showing him off like a trophy and offering to spare Arya if she kneels. Arya points out that Lucien's wounds are rotting. Before Cecelia can strike her, a hand closes around Cecelia's wrist. Raegar stands there in human form, cold and unmistakably dangerous. Lucien lunges. Raegar catches the blow with his bare hand. As Cecelia screams that this is impossible, Arya watches the black dragon's power surge and knows exactly what it means. The seal is finally broken.