They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. Mine didn't. All I remember is tripping down the apartment stairs with my phone in one hand and my dinner in the other. I'd ordered from my favorite takeout place again because working late for the third week straight didn't leave time for cooking. I'd been scrolling a romance novel on my phone, obsessed with this new fantasy web story where the cold, dangerous duke falls for the unexpected heroine after a one-night stand. I was just getting to the juicy part when my heel caught the last stair. Crack. Then black. No tunnel of light. No montage of regrets. Just... silence. And then, warmth.
I woke up to the sensation of silk beneath my skin, soft and cool. My head pounded, my body ached, and something heavy and warm was draped across my waist. I blinked against the sunlight streaming in from a wide window. The ceiling was impossibly high, painted with golden vines. Rich velvet curtains hung around the bed. The scent of sandalwood, smoke, and something unfamiliar clung to the sheets. This wasn't my studio apartment. I wasn't on my futon. And I most definitely wasn't alone. I turned my head. And nearly passed out again. There was a man next to me. A very, very naked man. His back faced me, broad and sculpted like it had been carved by a Renaissance artist. His hair was black, tousled like someone had run their fingers through it all night. He had a defined jawline, sharp cheekbones, and a faint scar that slashed through his right brow. He looked familiar. Too familiar. I inched backward, careful not to wake him. That's when I noticed the other details: the oversized bed, the golden embroidery on the sheets, the chill of morning air through the open balcony doors, and A full-length mirror across the room. I stumbled out of bed and rushed to it. My breath caught in my throat. The woman staring back at me was not me. Blonde. Pale. Delicate. Her features looked like they'd been airbrushed by a fantasy illustrator rosy lips, a flawless jawline, wide blue eyes. I touched my cheek. She did the same. No way. This had to be a dream. No a nightmare.
Think, Emma. Think!
I was Emma Carter. Twenty-five. Overworked. Addicted to spicy noodles and romance novels. I'd been reading The Duke's Dark Vow before I fell down the stairs. In that book, the female lead wakes up after drunkenly sleeping with the cold, terrifying Duke of Raventon a war general with the emperor's ear and a reputation for ruining women.
The girl wasn't the heroine. She was just a side character. A noblewoman named Lady Evelyn Wrenford, known for being vain, loud, and a bit wild. She appeared in exactly three chapters before vanishing in disgrace. Unless... Oh God. I turned back toward the bed. The man shifted onto his back, exposing more of his torso. Broad chest, scars along his ribs, abs sculpted like marble.
I recognized him. Killian Raventon. The Duke.
The Duke. I have read entire chapters describing this man's cruelty and charisma. Women swooned for him. Men feared him. And I'd apparently just shared a bed with him. No. This couldn't be real. And yet… the soreness in my limbs, the faint ache in my vagina, the love bite all over my neck, the scent of him all over me. It was real. Too real.
Panic surged in my throat. I backed away from the bed and looked for clothes.
A silk robe lay on a chair. I threw it on just as the man turned. He groaned low in his throat, rolled onto his side, and blinked once. Then twice.
Our eyes met. His eyes were golden sharp and unreadable, like a wolf sizing up prey.
"Running already?" he said, voice low and rough with sleep. "Didn't peg you for shy."
I froze. "I—what?"
He sat up, the sheets falling to his waist, revealing more skin than I was prepared to deal with.
"You don't remember?" he asked, studying me like I was a puzzle. "How disappointing."
I clutched the robe tighter. "Of course I remember. I just… needed air."
He raised an eyebrow. "Before or after you ordered the servants to prepare our wedding contracts?"
"What?"
He stood up just like that and walked toward a tall wardrobe, not caring in the slightest that he was fully naked. I turned my back quickly, cheeks burning.
"This isn't happening," I whispered. But it was.
And unless I wanted to be beheaded, exiled, or worse, I had to play along.
"About last night," I said, forcing my voice to stay calm, "I may have… acted impulsively."
Killian emerged fully dressed in a black high-collared jacket and matching pants, polished boots thudding against the floor. His gaze was cool. Calculating.
"I've had impulsive women before," he said. "They don't usually end up in my bed and my household within twenty-four hours."
"You could annul it," I blurted. "Right?"
His eyes darkened. "And tell the emperor I bedded a noblewoman and left her dishonored?"
I swallowed. "Would he care?"
"About a Raventon scandal? Very much." He moved closer. "Besides, you begged me to make it official. You cried on the steps of my estate declaring I'd ruined your life."
That… definitely wasn't me. But it was Evelyn. The real one. The one had replaced.
I looked away, trying to hide the terror growing in my chest.
"If you want to escape this mess," Killian said, circling me, "you'll need to be very convincing. Because if you try to back out now, the court will rip you apart."
"And if I stay?"
He leaned in. "Then you'll be my wife. In name. In public. And if you cross me. His lips brushed my ear.
"I'll make sure you regret it."
Charming. Absolutely delightful.
A soft knock interrupted the tension. A servant opened the door. "Your Grace, Lady Arabella has arrived."
Arabella!! His sister. Another minor character from the book. Ambitious. Cold. Dangerous. Killian's jaw clenched. "Of course she has."
He glanced back at me. "Dress like a duchess. And try not to embarrass me."
He strode out, leaving me shaking in a stranger's skin, in a body that didn't belong to me, surrounded by a story I was never meant to be part of.
I looked in the mirror again.
"I don't know how I got here," I whispered. "But I'm not going down like a side character." Because I was here now. And I wasn't planning on dying twice.