Category: English

The night of our graduation party—the one for turning eighteen—Ryder marked me.Out of nowhere. We were both drunk.I’d gone downstairs to get some air.Found him leaning against the garage door.He crooked his finger at me.Just that.One little gesture.And I followed him upstairs. It hurt. I bit down and stayed quiet,fingers twisting into the back of his shirt.When he pulled away,my head was still buzzing.He was already standing up straight,fixing his collar. I’d had a crush on him for six years. I thought I finally had my answer. First thing, the next morning, I opened my laptop and pulled up the college application portal. Ryder’s school was out east.Massachusetts.Long winters. I hate the cold. I was willing to deal with it. I wanted to tell him in person. The hallway was loud. I walked up to his classroom and reached for the door handle—then stopped. Someone inside was talking.Loudly. “You marked Luna Hale? The one who bolts every time she sees you——” “How long has she had a thing for him?” “Who knows.She’s so easy.Throw her a little attention and she’s hooked.” Laughter. A lot of it. I stood there outside the door,waiting.Waiting for Ryder to say something.To deny it.To tell them to shut up. “Alright,relax,”Ryder said.”It was just a temporary mark.It’ll fade in a few days.Not a big deal.” More laughter. “Right.Didn’t Ryder say he wanted to practice with someone before going after Chloe?” “Classic.She’s been chasing you forever and you give her a temporary mark?” “She was into it. I didn’t make her do anything,”Ryder said. “She’s totally going to think it meant something.” “That’s her problem,”Ryder said.”Either way, I’m making things official with Chloe before school starts.” The tears came fast. I pressed my hand over my mouth and walked away. I stood in the bathroom for a long time.Staring at myself in the mirror.At the red mark on my neck. It was fresh.The edges were still sharp.In a few days it would be gone.Like none of it ever happened. He never meant to choose me. I was just practicing. My phone buzzed.Mia. “You coming to the graduation dance tonight?” Then another.”Oh,and I just saw Chloe posted—she’s gonna be there too.And Ryder.Don’t tell me they’re actually a thing now?” I started typing.Deleted it.Tried again. I’ll be there. I slid my phone back into my pocket and took one last look in the mirror. I needed to talk to him face to face.

I changed into a different dress and let my hair down to cover my neck. The temporary mark was still warm. I dug a concealer out of my drawer and dabbed it on.In the mirror, there was nothing to see. Mia was waiting for me at the door.One look and she was already suspicious. “You look off.Something happened?”She looked me up and down. “Let’s just go.” I spotted Ryder the second I walked in.He was on the couch in the corner.Chloe was next to him. Not next to him.On his lap. She had on a crop top and shorts.His hand was resting on her waist. When she turned to say something to him, he leaned in naturally to listen.Their arms were linked together. Ryder never leaned down for me. I’m shorter than him.Six years of conversations,and every single one of them, I was the one on my tiptoes,stretching my neck,tilting my head up just to catch his eye. They started playing a game.Someone held up a phone to keep time.Everyone around them was egging them on. Simple rules.Chloe lay back on the couch.Ryder planted both hands on either side of her and did push-ups without touching her. Chloe laughed and sank into the cushions.Ryder lowered himself down with each rep,chest meeting chest before pushing back up.The crowd was screaming. On the tenth one, he didn’t hold himself up.He dropped down and stayed there. Chloe’s face went red.She shoved at him.”You did that on purpose.” Then he kissed her.Full on the mouth.She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Three whole minutes.Okay,I’ve seen enough,”Mia said. When Ryder pulled back from Chloe,his eyes swept across the room. He saw me.His hand was still on the back of Chloe’s head,but for half a second his expression went blank. Then he looked away.Chloe said something in his ear.He bent down to listen.Then he smiled. The crowd closed around them. Mia grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the door.”Stop looking.” She pulled me outside. “What’s that on your neck?”she said. I reached up to touch it.The concealer had sweated off.The bite mark from the temporary mark was showing.

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Five years ago, I lost my world to fire and blood. Now, I’m a single mother in a forgotten town, guarding a secret that could restart a war. My son has furry ears and sharp teeth. He is the last heir of the Lycan King. I thought we were safe… until He found us. The King’s brother. The ruthless Alpha. And he’ll burn the world to ashes to take what belongs to him. … “Lior, ears in! Now!” I hissed, frantically pulling the woolen beanie down until it nearly covered his eyebrows. One fuzzy, gray triangle was still twitching defiantly against the fabric. Living in Silver Falls meant hiding in plain sight. Local legends spoke of “The Howl” on full-moon nights to keep naughty children in bed, but the town had no idea the real “monster” was currently eating chicken nuggets at my kitchen table. I once stopped my son from biting a mailman. Last week, he accidentally howled at the moon during a spelling test. Today, he grew wolf ears at breakfast. Lior looked up, his molten gold eyes shimmering with ancient power. “What are the rules, Lior?” I asked, crossing my arms. “No teeth, no ears, no glowing eyes, and don’t scare the humans,” he recited, his voice small but steady. I kissed his forehead, sent him to the bus, and headed to the diner. Three years ago, I arrived here with nothing but a secret. Now, I was the town’s favorite cook, blending into the aroma of grilled onions and sea salt. But at 2:00 PM, the school called. “Miss Elara,” the principal wiped sweat from his brow. “He didn’t just push the boy. He… he smashed a solid oak desk with his bare hand.” Lior stood tall, uninjured and defiant, while the other boy sobbed with a small scratch on his arm. “Is this how you raise him?” the mother shrieked. “Look at my baby!” “Sorry-” I apologized profusely, but Lior’s eyes flared. “I’m not sorry! He said my Dad is never coming back. He lied! I have a Dad, he’s just… very busy!”

Five years ago, Ironwood Pack was the crown jewel of the North. Luna Seraphina was my only true friend. She is a regal woman who treated a human servant like her own blood sister. Beside the Alpha King stood his younger brother, Kael, the kingdom’s deadliest wolf. When Hagen’s rebels breached the gates, the air filled with the blood. “Run, Elara!” Seraphina had gasped, thrusting a silver-wrapped bundle into my trembling arms. “Protect him. He is the last Alpha heir. Never let Hagen find him.” I watched from the shadows as she and the Alpha Lord shifted, their massive forms standing ground against a tide of darkness until the pristine snow turned crimson. I ran until my lungs burned like fire, clutching baby Lior to my chest. He lost his memory that night, the trauma locking away his wolf. To him, I wasn’t the servant who saved him. I was simply “Mama.” But now, in the principal’s office, the wolf was scratching at the door. “Lior!” I interrupted, my heart hammering against my ribs. “We had a deal! You cannot hurt your classmates, no matter what they say.” The “busy Dad” he imagined was a shield he’d built for his own heart, but I knew the truth.

“Mommy, I’m still so hungry.” Lior mumbled, his eyes fixed longingly on the raw ribeye I was prepping for the lunch rush. His pupils were blown wide, nearly swallowing the gold of his irises. “It’s not cooked yet, baby,” I said, reaching for the tongs. Lior didn’t wait. In a blur of speed no human child should possess, he snatched the slab of meat and began tearing into it. I sighed as a sudden flurry of black fur drifted onto the kitchen tile. He was shedding again. His triangular ears popped out, twitching with every frantic bite. I didn’t panic; I just grabbed the vacuum. Whirrr. “How about I sear the next one medium-rare for you?” I asked, navigating the vacuum nozzle around his feet. “Just tell me when you’re hungry, and for heaven’s sake, stop raiding the fridge in the middle of the night!” “One more thing, mom, I accidentally ate the neighbor’s chicken.” “Again?!” I wasn’t in shock. The struggle of raising a Royal Alpha cub? It doesn’t care about your grocery budget. When he loses his temper, every dog within a three-block radius starts a howling riot. But luckily, I’m the only one who can talk him down from the ledge. “The full moon is coming up,” I warned, bopping his nose. “Try to behave better, okay?” He just blinked at me. “Yes, Ma’am!”

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When I broke with Kane Blackwood,his inner circle all laughed at me. “Let her go,”they laughed. “Elara Vance is nothing without the Alpha. The rogue wolves will tear her apart in days.” They were right. Every path was a dead end. I was starving,exhausted,dodging rogue wolves at every turn. So,I ended up crawling back to that man. Like the sacrificial offering I was,dressed in a sheer silk nightgown,standing before Kane’s estate. Kane stroked my neck. His fingers found my pulse—fragile,frantic—and he chuckled. “Learned your lesson?” I flashed a sweet smile. “I did.” I used to have it all wrong. I actually thought I would be the Luna of the Blackwood Pack. Not anymore. Now,I was just the Alpha’s pet. I craved his protection,his resources—but nothing more.I was done chasing his love. … My legs gave out from weakness. Kane swept me into his arms and carried me to the bath. Holding me close,he turned on the shower with his free hand. Hot water washed down my neck. I leaned against his chest.My eyelids were heavy. I murmured,my voice thick and soft. “Kane?” “Yeah.” “I want to enter the Blood Moon Crown trials.” He stopped washing me. His rough thumb brushed the fresh bite marks on my collarbone. A moment passed in silence.Then,flatly, “Alright.” A smile crept onto my lips. I leaned into his chest gently.”Thank you,my Alpha.”

The next morning,my phone was overheating from all the messages. The internal rules for the Blood Moon Crown. A list of the wolf Elders. Each Elder’s preferences for assessing wolf strength.It was all organized clearly and thoroughly. Even their past combat footage was tagged and sorted. At the very bottom was an image of an antique bronze crest. An Elder’s Endorsement—a fast-pass straight to the finals. I stared at the screen for a long time. Then,almost out of habit,I opened the pack forum. Sure enough. Every single post trashing my bloodline or doubting my strength was wiped clean. Overnight.Even some Elder heirs who had been stirring up trouble were nowhere to be found. Instead,the feed was flooded with a completely new narrative. “Elara Vance is actually insanely gifted.” “Taking down that berserk bear shifter solo?Absolute flex.” “You just can’t hide a truly strong wolf.” I read the praise and almost laughed. When I was on my own,I couldn’t even beg my way into the lowest-tier trials. Now,Kane lifted a single finger,and the absolute best was handed to me on a silver platter. Why the hell was I playing the proud,independent card before? I put my phone down. I showered,changed into my tactical gear,and sat at my workbench. Already polishing my silver dagger,I finally texted him back. 【Thank you,my Alpha.I got the crest.You’re amazing.】 I paused,then added another text. 【Free for a hunt tonight?】 I deliberately softened my tone,adding a touch of sweetness. He didn’t reply. The old me probably would have stared blankly at the screen. I would have agonized over whether he was busy with pack business, or if he just couldn’t be bothered with me. But not anymore. I put my phone face down and went back to studying my tactics. Hours later,shoulders aching,I finally picked up my phone. Sent two hours ago.Just two words. 【Come downstairs.】

I blinked in surprise and quickly replied.【Sorry,I was deep into studying tactics.Didn’t look at my phone.】 His reply was instant. 【Yeah.】 【Come down.】 I walked over to the window. His black Ford Raptor was idling on the street below. The driver’s window was rolled halfway down,revealing his sharp,impassive profile. When he saw me approach,he grabbed a paper bag from the console and handed it through the window. “I was at the Elder council all afternoon. Couldn’t text you back right away.” Inside was a hot,fresh meat pie from my old favorite spot. Back in the day,whenever we got into a fight,Kane was never one for sweet talk or apologies. He would just do his border patrols,swing through town,and pick up a small peace offering. A hot pastry,some sweet candies,or a six-pack of my favorite craft beer. I paused briefly,then smiled slightly.”Well.I know you’re busy.” The cab fell silent for a few seconds. Kane just stared at me. His dark eyes were completely unreadable. Finally,he looked away. “Get in.There’s a pack gathering tonight.” “Okay.” I pulled open the passenger door. As I slid into the seat,I froze. The seat had been pushed way back.It definitely wasn’t in my usual spot. The glove compartment in front of me was cracked open. Resting inside was a silver bracelet. It wasn’t my style. I reached over and picked it up. Kane turned his head.Something shifted in his expression. “That’s—” I had already dropped the bracelet back inside and snapped the compartment shut. My tone was calm. “Probably just something one of your pack members left behind.” I fastened my seatbelt,tilted my head,and gave him a smile.”Let’s go.We shouldn’t keep everyone waiting.” Kane didn’t put the truck in drive. I turned back to look at him.”What is it?” He was staring at me. His eyes were pitch black,his expression steadily turning ice-cold. A few agonizing seconds passed before he finally shifted into gear. His voice came out low and dangerously raspy. “Elara.” “You’re understanding these days.” Dead silence filled the truck. The veins on the back of his hands bulged against the steering wheel. He didn’t say another word.

We reached the valley for the pack gathering. I followed Kane into the clearing. Around the bonfire,a circle of wolves was drinking and chatting.The moment they saw me,the air went silent for a split second. Then,someone let out a laugh. “What did I tell you guys?” Gideon,Kane’s Beta,leaned against a boulder,swirling the liquor in his cup. His tone was dripping with arrogance. “I said Elara would come crawling back the second she hit a wall out there in the real world.” A few others snickered along with him. I stood beside Kane.I just offered a faint smile and didn’t say a word. The old me probably would have thrown my dagger in his direction.I wouldn’t have given a damn about the Alpha’s presence or pack rules. But not anymore. Gideon looked genuinely surprised by my silence. He raised an eyebrow. “Well,look at that.Seems she finally learned how to behave this time.” The second the words left his mouth,Kane’s flat voice cut through the air. “That’s enough.” Gideon clicked his tongue and threw his hands up in mock surrender. “Alright,alright.The Alpha’s getting defensive.My lips are sealed.” Footsteps crunched on the trail leading into the valley. Seraphina Thorne strolled in,her knee-high boots clicking against the stones. Her gaze drifted between me and Kane. “What’s going on?”she asked,her voice silky. “I could hear you guys being loud from all the way down the trail.” Someone chuckled and filled her in. Seraphina listened,looking thoroughly amused.She turned her gaze to me. “Just a harmless joke between packmates.Miss Elara won’t mind,right?” Her tone was light and airy. Exactly the same tone she used the very first time we met. She was the Alpha’s daughter from the neighboring Thorne Pack. Pure-blooded and noble. When she came to visit the Blackwood Pack back then,Kane had personally gone to the border to escort her in. The news blew up across the neighboring packs that very day. The rumors of an”impending mating union between Blackwood and Thorne”were everywhere,felt like daggers to my eyes. I refused to believe it. I went straight to Kane,demanding an explanation. I ended up running right into them as they arrived together at the estate gates. I grabbed Kane’s arm and asked him what the hell was going on. Seraphina,standing right beside him,gave me a dismissive once-over and laughed. “The Alpha’s kept little pet is quite disobedient,isn’t she? Someone needs to teach her a lesson.” I looked up and told her,syllable by syllable, “I am his mate.Not a pet.” But she just treated it like a hilarious joke. She turned to Kane with a smirk. “She says she’s not a pet.” Kane grabbed my wrist. His brows furrowed into a hard frown. “Elara.Behave.Don’t make a scene.” He didn’t say a single word to defend me.Not one. Furious and broken,I told him I was leaving him. He just stared down at me,his face dark. “Don’t regret this,”he said.

Back then,I really did panic. I even second-guessed myself. But that night,I stood just outside the valley. I heard his inner circle laughing with my own ears. “So what if they split? Without the Alpha,what the hell is Elara Vance? Let her go rogue for a few days;she’ll learn how cruel the wilds really are.” Right then and there,any thought of turning back just died. So I packed my things,moved out of his estate,and left cleanly. And the result? It was laughably pathetic. When we were together,I never once used Kane’s power to my advantage. Yet after we split,the neighboring packs were so terrified of offending him that they completely cut off all my options. Hunting grounds were shut down to me. Werewolves at the trading markets deliberately lowballed my goods. Even a spot at a sanctuary I had already secured was ripped away at the last second. I found out later that someone had put the word out: I had offended the Blackwood Pack,and anyone who didn’t want trouble should steer clear of me. After all that struggling,I still ended up crawling back to his side like a beaten dog. Pulling myself out of the memory, I picked up my mug of ale and met Seraphina’s eyes. “I don’t mind.” “As long as everyone’s having a good time.” Seraphina paused. My unnatural calmness actually earned me a second glance from her. Gideon let out a low whistle,looking at Kane. “Alpha,you really tamed her this time.” I just sat there,taking a slow sip of my ale,pretending I didn’t hear a thing. But Kane’s expression was turning pitch black. A second later,he abruptly stood up,snatching his jacket off the boulder. “We’re leaving.” The whole crowd in the valley froze. Gideon blinked in confusion. “Leaving already?” Kane completely ignored him,his hand locking onto my wrist. He dragged me through the woods. My heeled boots stumbled over the thick layer of dead leaves. I couldn’t help but gasp,”Kane,slow down.” He didn’t miss a beat. He dragged me all the way back to the parking lot.Then he finally let go and whirled around to face me.”Elara,are you really tolerate everyone like this?”

I pretended not to understand. Kane stared at me,his eyes a terrifying,fathomless dark. The next second,his hand clamped around the nape of my neck and he crashed his lips onto mine. The kiss was urgent and bruising,dripping with sheer Alpha possessiveness. He forced me backward until my lower back slammed against the car door. A moment later,he pushed me into the backseat. The car door slammed shut with a heavy thud. In the cramped space,the only sound left was his ragged breathing. Like a provoked beast,he bit at my lips,his large hands gripping my waist with a punishing force. Through the relentless motion and close contact,his growl rumbled deep against my ear.”Elara,are you mine?” For a fleeting second,my mind drifted. As a half-blood,I watched my human mother slowly drain her soul over a doomed interracial romance.I knew better than anyone just how treacherous love could be. Back then,I was guarded,prickly,and absolutely refused to hand my heart over to anyone. But Kane stubbornly bulldozed his way into my life. During my years wandering the Southern Territories,I was gravely injured once. On the night of a full moon,I called him in a delirious haze. All I said was,”I miss you.” By the very next afternoon,he had actually flown a helicopter across countless pack borders,touching down in the dirt lot right outside my motel. The wind from the blades whipped my hair around. Standing amidst the deafening roar of the rotors,he lifted his gaze to me—looking like a fierce beast that would never,ever back down. The image of the old Kane gradually merged with the wild man pinning me down,demanding answers. Looking up at him,the corners of my lips suddenly curled. I lifted my arms,wrapping them around his neck,and gave him a sweet,seductive smile. “Of course I’m yours,my Alpha.”

He suddenly stopped moving.Then a wilder,more violent storm blew in. In the following days,my inbox blew up. Pack alliance invites and rare resource lists fell like snow. Ancient weapon blueprints. Reserved seating at the Moonstone Council. Combat journals of legendary Lycans. Things I could never touch before. Sorting through them,I scoffed. Being an Alpha’s pet was so easy. As long as you kept the Master happy,everything came to you. Kane didn’t visit me once. But news of him and Seraphina flooded the pack forums,as they attended the Elder Council together and patrolled the borders.Always side by side. Every pack whispered the same thing:their Mating Ceremony was coming. I played the perfect pet. I didn’t ask a single question. Until one midnight. I woke up groggy. The heavy stench of alcohol hit me. Kane was in my bed. He hugged me from behind,gripping me incredibly tight.His face was buried in my neck. His voice was terribly hoarse. “Elara,let’s have our Mating Ceremony.” I went completely rigid. Silent.Sensing my reaction,his arms tightened. So hard,he almost crushed me into his very bones.

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I was back to the day I chose my son. This time, I walked past my own flesh and blood and picked the runt no one wanted. Everyone said I was the most pathetic omega in the pack. The day I gave birth, the Luna took my son and never gave him back. But I told myself it was fine. Catherine was the Luna, my boy would have a better life with her than he ever would with me. Then I took a blade for the Luna during a rogue attack. The Alpha said I’d earned a reward and let me choose one of the pups in the pack house to raise as my own. So I asked for my son back. I asked for Julian, and Catherine had to hand him over. I raised him until he was twenty, and that year the Alpha named him heir. That same night, Julian forced a cup of wolfsbane tea down my throat. He looked at me like I was filth. “If you hadn’t dragged me away from the Luna, I would’ve been named heir years ago. All you ever did was hold me back.” When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day I’d chosen him. Alpha Alaric sat at the head of the hall. “Evelyn has shown her loyalty to this pack. She may choose one pup to take into her care.” I followed his gaze. Five boys stood in a line. Julian was at the front, dressed sharp, the Luna’s golden child. He looked at me with something close to disgust. Last time around, I’d been so blinded by the joy of getting him back that I missed the contempt in those eyes. I closed mine and swallowed the nausea rising in my throat, then looked past him to the others. At the very back, below the dais, a scrawny kid stood with his head down. That was Silas. His mother Lillian had tried to seduce the Alpha and been executed as a traitor, and after that he became the runt nobody wanted. The other wolves said he was sullen and strange, that he lived worse than the omegas in the pack house. I looked at that boy standing there all alone and something in me just broke. I knew what it felt like to be thrown away. I took a deep breath and raised my hand, pointing at Silas. “Alpha, I want him.”

The room went quiet. Silas looked at me, his eyes blank with confusion and something like disbelief. He was thin, almost frail, but his back was perfectly straight. I met his gaze and didn’t know what to feel. I’d never been the type to fight for anything. Alaric and I had a thing back in school, but he found his Luna and moved on. Catherine never let me forget it. Five or six years in this pack and I was basically invisible. Last time around, I’d insisted on getting my real son back, and he’d poisoned me for it. This time, I wasn’t hoping for anything. I just wanted a kid nobody else wanted either, so the two of us could keep each other company and get through the days. Alaric paused for a moment, then gave a faint smile. “Alright.” He said, “Silas is a quiet one and you’re steady. Good match. Take care of him.” I could tell he didn’t think much of it. He just figured I’d picked the easiest option and that was that. I thanked him and walked over to Silas, reaching for his hand. When my fingers touched his, he flinched but didn’t pull away. And just like that, Silas became my son and came home with me. That night, I ran a warm bath for Silas. When his clothes came off and I saw his back, my hands went still and I couldn’t move. It was covered in wounds. Whip marks layered over each other, huge patches of bruising and burn scars where the skin had puckered and fused together. My voice shook when I asked, “Who did this to you?” Silas was quiet for a long time before he said, “I fell.” I bit my lip and didn’t push. I wrung out the cloth again and wiped his back as gently as I could, working around every wound. When I was done, I got him clean clothes and helped him into them. Then I put my hand on his head. “Silas, this is your home now, and I’m your mom.”

Silas wasn’t the sullen, difficult kid the rumors made him out to be. He was obedient, just quiet. So quiet that sometimes I forgot he was even there. But that was enough. I’d gotten a second life and I wasn’t going to waste it getting caught up in pack politics or trying to climb any ladders. I just wanted to lay low, raise Silas in peace, and keep my head down. Maybe when I was old, he’d come visit once in a while. That alone would make this life worth living. Silas went to school every day. One afternoon, I had nothing to do, so I baked some pastries and brought them over. I spotted Silas before I reached the school. He was sitting alone under a tree, reading. On the other side of the yard, Julian was tossing a ball around with three other boys crowding him like he was the center of the universe. Right. Julian lived with the Luna. Everything he had was the best of the best, and every kid in this pack treated him like royalty. Last time, I’d been stupid enough to pull him away from all that and make him live with me, a nobody omega with no power and no connections. Him hating me, resenting me for dragging him down, I guess I couldn’t entirely blame him. I let out a dry laugh and looked away. My son was Silas now. All that mattered was that we lived our lives in peace. I carried the box over and sat down next to Silas. He looked up at me with a flicker of surprise. “Hungry?” I set the box on the table. “I just made these. Try some.” I’d barely gotten the pastries out when an impatient voice cut in. “Why do you keep showing up?” I turned around. Julian had already walked up close, not bothering to hide the irritation on his face. He pointed at the pastries, his face twisted in disgust. “The servants at Catherine’s house eat a hundred times better than this. I wouldn’t touch this garbage. Stop bringing this crap around to bother me.” Before I could say a word, Silas stood up. He stepped between me and Julian. “She’s your mother, Julian. How can you talk to her like that?” Julian scoffed. “My mother is the Luna. She’s nothing.” He waved his hand. “Take your garbage and go. Don’t come back.”

If this had been the old me, those words would have left me burning with shame. But now, all I felt was disappointment. I smiled lightly. “Julian, you’ve got it wrong.” I pulled Silas close. “I’m Silas’s mom. These are for him.” I bent down and ruffled Silas’s hair, then handed him a pastry. “Here, sweetie, try it. Tell me if it’s any good.” Julian’s face froze for a second after I said that. He’d probably never imagined that the woman who used to fuss over him would cut him loose and give all that warmth to a kid he thought was beneath him. Silas took a bite and smiled. “Thanks, Mom. It’s really good. I love it.” I grinned. “Good. I’ll make more next time.” I turned around with the pastries and looked at Julian and the other two boys standing there, stunned. “You guys want some too?” Kids are kids. Six, seven years old, always hungry. They perked up when I offered, already tempted. The other two were slowly reaching out their hands. “Don’t you dare!” Julian slapped their hands away. “It’s just some sad little pastry. The kitchen scraps at our house are better than this. Only losers who’ve never had anything decent would want this. I wouldn’t be caught dead eating it.” Then he looked at me and raised his chin. “You better remember what you said today. Don’t ever come looking for me again.” I watched Julian, furious and trying so hard to act like he didn’t care, and almost wanted to laugh. I nodded. “Don’t worry, Julian. My only son is Silas. Anything good I have goes to him.” Julian’s face went pale. He stomped his foot and spun around, shouting at the three boys still standing there dumbfounded. “What are you looking at? Let’s go!” Then he took off without looking back. The three boys scrambled after him. That night, Silas came home from school and I put him to bed like always. Just when I thought he was asleep, he said in a very small voice, “Mom.” He rolled over to face me. “Tomorrow when school’s out, could you bring me pastries again?” My heart went soft. “Of course.” I kept my voice gentle. “I’ll make more tomorrow, and I’ll come pick you up too.” Silas’s mouth curved into a happy little smile and he closed his eyes, perfectly content.

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My husband and my three brothers dug out my heart for their favorite sister. I drink the prenatal supplement Jade gives me. Seconds later, my stomach folds in on itself, as if someone’s twisting a rope inside me. “C-section. We have to do a C-section,”Dr. Ethan Hart—my oldest brother, also　the best cardiac surgeon in Fairmont—says I need an emergency C-section. My husband Julian Price screams, “Save her! I only want my wife!” My three brothers crowd around me. Their eyes are red. “Just sleep, Ivy, it’ll stop hurting. We have the best doctors, the best medicine.” When the pain is at its worst, I feel ridiculously lucky that the people who love me are right here. Until I overhear them outside the door while I’m waiting for anesthesia. Ethan’s voice carries a note of excitement I don’t like. “Ivy’s healthy, her blood type and age match. It’s a rare chance—let’s harvest her heart and transplant it to Jade.” Marcus agrees—my second brother. “I’ll arrange people to destroy the evidence. Ivy will never find out.” Oliver chimes in—my third brother. “I’ll formulate a targeted medication. Even if Ivy gets a bad heart, she won’t suffer.” After a beat, My Husband Julian exhales like a man unburdened. “Jade really needs a good heart to fulfill her dance dreams. As for Ivy… we’ll compensate her later. I’ll sign the consent now.” It’s like a bucket of ice dumped over me. My heart already feels like someone is carving it out of my chest with a dull knife. Then a voice rings inside my head—familiar and utterly foreign—a cold electronic chime: [ALERT: Host life at risk.] [FINAL CONFIRMATION: Do you wish to forfeit all rewards and remain in this world?] I laugh through my tears. This time, their counterfeit love can’t chain me anymore. — I try to roll off the bed. But a nurse shoves a tube down my throat and into my nose. Anesthesia floods my body. Before the darkness swallows me, I see Jade—accentuated and rehearsed in her pity—being wheeled in. The foster sister they adore now, and the one who poisoned my baby. Ethan holds his scalpel. He speaks coldly to the nurse: “Don’t bother with the dead fetus. Take her heart out and transplant it into Jade.” I feel the blade slice through my skin, layer by layer. Right before I lose consciousness, I hear him whisper. “Hold on, Jade. When you wake, you can shine on stage.”

When I come to, the first thing I do is ask *The System* what it said. “As long as my body dies,” I ask, “I can go back to my original world. My heart disease will be cured. And I’ll get a hundred million dollars. Correct?” [Correct.] How ridiculous—when I first agreed to come this world to redeem four men, it was because I couldn’t afford treatment for my heart disease.Fifteen years later, those same four men repay me back a bad heart again. I don’t hesitate to rip the oxygen tube out. To make me die faster. Breathing becomes harder. My throat clamps shut. My face turns purple. I am moments from suffocating. A small, humorless smile lifts my lips. Good. I won’t have to stay here and face their fake love anymore. The heart monitor explodes into red lights and a keening alarm. My three brothers and Julian burst into the room with a pack of nurses, bellowing, “Ivy!!” Ethan does CPR, he wants to save me. He puts the tube back in. Then he roars with bloodshot eyes. “Are you insane?! Why did you pull out your tube? It’s just a lost baby—don’t give up on your life!” I clutch at the hollow ragged pain where my heart should be and scrape out a voice. “I only lost a baby?” Julian collapses to his knees and keeps slapping his own face. “It’s my fault. I asked Jade to give you that medication. thought it would help the pregnancy. I didn’t know you were allergic…The toxins hit your heart. But Ethan’s the best cardiac surgeon in the country—he can fix you. We can have more children.” Julian crawls toward me on his knees. His eyes are wet. He grabs my hand. “I already punished the pharmacist who made the mistake. She’ll never work again. Don’t blame Jade, don’t blame yourself. we love you.” When I don’t answer, Marcus speaks. His voice is hoarse. “I’ve contacted hospitals overseas. We’ll find a matching heart.” Oliver pats my shoulder gently. “I’ll prepare the targeted medication. You’ll breathe like a normal person again. You’ll run and jump.” I feel nothing but so cold. They want to sweep it all under the rug. Jade poisoned me. Killed my baby. And now they’re planning to steal my heart. I let out a bitter laugh. I look at the four men surrounding my bed. “Where’s Jade? I’ll go see her myself.” Ethan frowns. “You’re still blaming her? She had a heart attack from the guilt. Lucky we found a donor just in time.” Oliver, the brother who used to spoil me the most, quickly adds. “Darling, Don’t cause trouble. Ethan will fix Jade, and he’ll fix you too.” I snort. “Really? Both surgeries, at the same time? My heart breaks, and Jade just happens to find a donor?” The room goes silent. “Ivy…”Ethan opens his mouth and closes it again. I’m tired of their lies. “Go check on Jade if you want. I’m glad she’s well.” They freeze, looking for something to say; I pull the blanket over my face. When I peek out again, they are gone. But Julian hesitates at the door and then stays. His shame is thick in his eyes. I smile at him. “Go see her. Come back and tell me how she’s doing.” Then he leaves without another word. When the house is finally empty, I breathe out and fumble for my phone. *The System* promised me one wish if I helped it meet its KPI. Right before I went into surgery, I traded my System wish for two video clips. I watch the videos until my vision blurs—over and over— I watch them plan how to steal my heart. How my eldest brother methodically stripped it out and painstakingly placed it into Jade. A chill runs through me. And then I am glad I didn’t die just now. Because leaving so easily would have been too kind for them.

During my hospital stay, one of them stays with me every day. But they always leave in a hurry. I think they are busy. Then one day I need to use the bathroom. No one is around. I drag my IV pole and slowly make my way down the hall. I pass a room. Through the window, I see Julian Price—the man who said he had an urgent meeting—feeding a dumpling into Jade’s mouth. My three brothers are in the room too. They watch her with soft, doting eyes. Ethan’s voice is helpless but fond. “Jade, you can’t go stuffing yourself just because you’re better. Those dumplings are too greasy.” Jade bats at his white coat and pouts. She complains with the exact touch of a spoiled child. “But Marcus made them for me. They’re too good to resist.” Then she complains again. “You guys crowd around me every day. It’s so annoying. I can’t even sneak a snack without someone catching me.” My nails dig into my palms. I laugh at myself. For days my meals have been nothing but plain rice porridge I’ve ordered myself. No one noticed. No one asked. Jade, meanwhile, has hot dishes hand-delivered by Marcus. I turn around. My legs feel like lead. Then I hear two nurses whispering outside the break room. “The patient I’m taking care of? I think this one is the real sister. Dr. Hart was explicit—just give anther one IV fluids and keep her alive. If Miss Jade has severe rejection, that one be ready to replace her whole blood.” My body clamps shut. The scar lines across my chest and belly feel like they’re tearing open; pain crawls through my limbs. How did it come to this? When I first came to this world, my body was weak. I was sick all the time. Another critical condition notice. Another brush with death. I remember being the child who if I so much as bumped my knee. Ethan learned medicine to take better care of me. Marcus and Oliver were the same. Marcus hustled to build businesses so we could afford treatments; Oliver buried himself in pharmaceutics to make my medicines less bitter. When I was on the edge of death, they prostrated themselves at famous temple and pray for a protective charm to me. To bring me good karma, they even saved an orphan named Julian Price from the snow. Everyone in Fairmont knows the Hart family’s daughter is blessed: three brothers who dote on their fragile little sister, and her fiancé is the CEO of a tech giant. I was an orphan. I craved that love more than anything. After I finished the mission I even refused the reward—I just wanted to stay and be loved by them. Then Jade arrived. The day they brought her home, the brothers swore over me. “She looks so much like our mother. She has the same heart condition. We can’t ignore her.” “Don’t worry. Adopting her will bring you more good karma. You’re still our love and only.” I believed them. I really tried to accept her. To be kind I gave up my room. Every time my brothers came back from a business trip, I reminded them to buy her a gift too. I felt sorry she couldn’t go places because of her heart. So every time Julian and I went on a date, I brought her along. Slowly, Jade sank into the family. She learned to whine for gifts. She play-fought with Julian. She fit right in. But somewhere along the way, something shifted. When Jade fell in front of me, Ethan’s first question was, “Did you push her?” One time Marcus cooked, he made all of Jade’s favorite foods. Oliver’s research goal became—develop a targeted drug for Jade’s heart. Even Julian, when we argued, would throw out, “Why can’t you be more like your sister? Learn to be softer!” And then… they plotted to steal my heart. All for her. The emotions surge back. My heart feels like someone is ripping it out again. I try to move faster. I want to leave this place. But I’m too weak. My legs give out. I fall. The wounds on my chest and abdomen split open. Pain so sharp it blots out thought folds me into a ball. I go limp, fog swallowing me, and whisper, “Ethan, Oliver and Marcus …” Just as I am about to pass out, I see them. My brothers and Julian. Running toward me. Ethan is the fastest. He scoops me up. His voice is harsh. “Ivy Hart! Because you saw us all with Jade, you hurt yourself again? Just to get attention?”

I am sent home from the hospital. Nurses watch me around the clock. They won’t let me hurt myself again. My body is too weak. I sit in a wheelchair. I can’t even use the bathroom without help. Jade, on the other hand, runs and jumps like nothing happened. She wears a pink chiffon dance dress and twirls in the garden, light on her feet. Julian holds his phone, recording her. My three brothers watch without blinking. Their lips curl into soft, adoring smiles. I feel boring. I turn my wheelchair around. I want to leave. “Oh!” Jade suddenly trips and falls with a small thud. “Jade!” The four men rush to her side. I look back. Jade points at a loose latch that fell from my wheelchair. Her voice wobbles with tears. “Ivy, I know you blame me for the wrong medicine and for losing the baby, and you must be jealous my heart got fixed and yours didn’t, but—” She bursts into sobs. “I can finally dance. How could you do this on purpose and make me fall?” Ethan kneels to check her leg, rubbing it gently. Marcus’s face darkens. Veins bulge on his forehead. “Ivy Hart! What happened to the way we raised you? How did you become so cruel?” The other three glare at me. Disgust in their eyes. My ruined heart feels like someone just stabbed it again. “I didn’t,” I rasp. “That part fell off yesterday—” “Still lying! We really spoiled you too much.” Marcus raises his hand. He is about to slap me. The blow is inches from my face before Julian steps between us. “Marcus, Ivy has been through a lot. She needs time.” Oliver also tries to calm him down. “Forget it. Jade mentioned wanting to try that new private restaurant. Let’s take her out to celebrate.” He turns to me. his eyes are cold now. “As for you. Stay home and think about what you did.” Julian hesitates. He wants to stay with me. but Jade rushes forward and grabs his hand in front of me, shaking it like a child claiming a toy. “Julian, come with me! You promised you’d buy me dinner if I was good during surgery.” Julian’s face stiffens. “I should stay with your sister… she—” I stare at their intertwined hands until my throat goes dry. “Just go. She wants you to.” Julian pats my head. “All right. Wait for me at home. I’ll bring back your favorite seafood porridge.” — I sleep until three in the morning and wake to an empty bedside. Julian never came home. The whole house is dark; only Jade’s room is lit. The door is ajar. As I closer, I hear the soft, syrupy sounds of her crying. Julian’s voice, huskier than I’ve ever heard it, murmurs, “Shh. We have to stop. You just got better…” Jade’s voice trembles. “Now that my heart’s fixed, when will you divorce her? I met you first. You were mine from the beginning.” Julian answers, low and warm, “You’re my favorite, baby. But Ivy saved my life. I can’t abandon her. Besides, if you reaction after the surgery was very strong, we might need her blood to save you.” “Julian…” Jade coos. A cold basin of water is poured over my head. All night I listen to them whisper and laugh, their sweet nothings spilling through the thin door. My hands shake as I grip my phone. I lean against the wall. I close my eyes. — Morning comes. My three brothers leave for work and find me propped beside Jade’s door. “Ivy, what are you doing here?”they ask. I give them a quick wave and then push my wheelchair inside Jade’s room without warning. In the stunned silence on their faces, I throw back the covers. Two bodies are tangled under the sheets—naked and breathless. I raise my phone and start taking pictures.

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“Eleanor. Did you steal the strawberries from my fridge?” Hailey tagged me in the family group chat while I was having tea at my old friend Margaret’s place in the Hamptons. I’d used a few of the white strawberries sitting in her crisper drawer to make a simple purée for Leo that morning. Before I could type a word, Liam jumped in. “Mom, those were imported white strawberries. Fifty bucks a box. You can’t just help yourself to Hailey’s things without asking. We need boundaries in this house.” Hailey piled on. “You keep saying you came here to help with the baby, but you sneak behind my back and steal my strawberries? You’re no better than some common thief.” I opened my banking app and Zelled her $5,000. Then I typed back: A hundred times what they’re worth. Are we square now? Hailey accepted the transfer in under three seconds. Then she kept going. “Liam, you need to handle your mother. She thinks because she has a little money she can walk all over us.” I didn’t type another word. I packed my bag, called my driver, and went straight back to the estate in Southampton. On the way, I called my attorney and told him to start the paperwork to repossess the Tribeca penthouse they were living in. Let’s see how well they eat without the thief in the house. The car hadn’t even cleared the Midtown Tunnel when my phone started buzzing. Liam. “Mom, what the hell is this? Are you seriously throwing a tantrum right now?” “I’m going home. To my own house. That’s not a tantrum.” “You’re humiliating us in front of the whole family, Mom. Hailey is sensitive. You’re the adult here, you’re supposed to let things slide. And the $5,000 thing? Who were you trying to embarrass with that stunt?” I almost laughed. “She called me a thief in writing, Liam. And you want me to let it slide?” “Mom—” “The penthouse you live in? I bought it cash. The Cayenne you drive? I wrote the check. I wire you twenty grand a month to float your life. And I’m a thief over a box of strawberries?” “Jesus Christ, Mom, do you have to make everything about money? Families don’t keep score like this. Hailey’s right, you’re controlling. You act like we owe you something. Just come home and apologize to her and we can move past this.” Apologize. To the woman who just called me a thief on a group thread with thirty relatives on it. I hung up. The phone started lighting up again immediately. The family group. Hailey had posted an essay. Eight hundred words, minimum. To everyone — I’m sorry to air this here but I don’t know what else to do. Eleanor didn’t just blow up at me over a misunderstanding today, she actually walked out on us. And that’s not even the worst part. I just went to get ready for dinner and my grandmother’s Van Cleef necklace is GONE. Nobody else has been in the apartment. Eleanor left in a rush with a huge bag. I don’t want to accuse anyone but that necklace was the last thing I had of my grandmother’s. The replies started rolling in. Liam’s sister Catherine was first out of the gate. Eleanor, I am SHOCKED. You’ve always seemed so put-together. How could you? Then Uncle Raymond, doing his usual fake-peacemaker routine. Hailey sweetheart, let’s not blow this up. When she gets back just ask her to open her bag. Let’s keep it in the family. Please don’t call the police. Hailey hit him with a crying emoji. Uncle Ray, I don’t want to either. But she literally threw money at me today and said she has plenty of it. If she has so much, why would she take my necklace? I stared at the screen and my hands went cold. They were building a case. A permanent one. The kind you never wash off. I typed: Hailey. Back up your accusations with evidence or stop talking. Liam chimed in before she could. Mom, don’t dig in on this. That necklace means everything to her. Just give it back and we’ll drop it. Nobody has to know. Thirty years I raised that boy. And it felt like someone had driven a fist through my chest. “Liam. You actually think I took it.” He sent a voice note. I could hear the exhaustion he was performing for the audience. Mom, come on. You’ve always been like this. You take extra plastic bags at the grocery store. You pocket the free pens at the bank. It’s a pattern. Maybe you had a moment, we get it. Just return it and we can all move on without humiliating you. My hands were shaking. I take reusable bags to the store to save two cents at checkout. I send him twenty thousand a month. And that was the evidence I’d stolen a diamond necklace. Catherine again. Eleanor, honey. Liam is handing you a way out. Take the off-ramp. You’re too old to end your life as the family embarrassment. I gripped the phone until my knuckles went white. I’ll say this one more time. I did not take it. If you don’t believe me, call the police. Hailey posted a screenshot. An NYPD online complaint receipt, already filed. Eleanor, you forced my hand. I looked at that screenshot and whatever was left of my feelings for that boy and his wife went out like a candle. There were debts on this ledger. It was time somebody balanced them. I scrolled to my contacts and dialed the private investigator my late husband used to keep on retainer.

The car pulled through the estate gates just after sunset. The hedges had gone wild. The lawn was knee-high in places. I hadn’t been out here in almost three years — not since Richard died and I moved into the city to help with Leo. I’d barely gotten my suitcase through the front door when I heard tires on the gravel drive. The black Cayenne I’d paid for in cash was parked at an angle across my front walk, like they owned the place. “What do you two want?” I opened the door just a crack. “Did the NYPD already track down the necklace in my luggage?” Hailey rolled her eyes and pushed right past me with Leo on her hip. “God, Eleanor, you hold a grudge. Nobody was actually going to have you arrested. It was a wake-up call. We came all the way out here to bring you home.” “I am home. The apartment doesn’t have room for a thief, apparently. So I’ll stay here.” Liam stepped into the foyer, rubbing his temples like I was giving him a migraine. “Mom. Stop. You’re in the middle of nowhere. You can’t even get DoorDash out here. How are you going to live? And who’s going to cook for Hailey and watch Leo while she works?” “She called my cooking unsanitary. She said my parenting was Stone Age. So she can do it herself.” Hailey had already started walking through the house. Living room. Dining room. Up the main staircase. Her eyes were moving like a real estate appraiser’s, and I didn’t like what I was seeing in them. “Babe,” she called down to Liam. “Actually, this could work.” “What could work?” She came back to the landing, smiling in a way I’d come to recognize. “The air in the city is terrible. Leo’s had that cough for weeks. It’s so much healthier out here. Why don’t we just move in? All three of us.” “Excuse me?” “You can take the nanny’s suite downstairs. It’s right off the kitchen, so you’ll be close when Leo needs a bottle at night. Perfect, actually.” The estate had six bedrooms. I’d raised Liam in the main wing. The nanny’s suite was a windowless seventy-square-foot room off the pantry. “You want me in the staff quarters.” “Obviously the master is ours. Leo needs a nursery. I need a room for my Pilates reformer — my trainer said I have to keep practicing. Liam wants a home office. And we’ll need two guest rooms for when my mom and brother visit.” She cocked her head. “That leaves the nanny’s suite. I mean, you’re not going to be difficult about this, are you? It’s for Leo’s health. You always say how much you love your grandson. Surely you can give up a bedroom for him.” I turned to Liam. “Liam. And you’re fine with this?” He wouldn’t meet my eyes. He scratched at the back of his neck. “Mom, Hailey’s thinking about Leo. You don’t need a big bedroom all to yourself, that’s just wasted space. The nanny’s room is fine, you can fix it up.” Something cold ran up through me. This was my son. The son I’d carried, fed, sent through Choate, put through Wharton. And he was negotiating me into a broom closet to keep the peace with his wife. I pointed at the door. “Get out.” Hailey’s face snapped. “Excuse me?” “Out. Both of you. Off my property.” She laughed, sharp and ugly. She shoved Leo into Liam’s arms and dropped onto my living room sofa like she was in a hotel lobby, crossing her legs. “Your property? Eleanor, honey, you need a reality check. Richard built this house. That means half of it is Liam’s. We’re not going anywhere.” She leaned forward, her voice dropping. “In fact, you’re going to get the contract out right now and sign it over to Liam. Tonight. I’m not letting some senile old woman leave this estate to a charity someday because she got mad at her family.” My voice came out very quiet. “Hailey. You are in my house.” She stood up, fast, and slapped my hand away from where I’d been pointing. “You’re in my way. And I haven’t even gotten started on the necklace yet. You sign that contract over tonight, or I walk into the 1st Precinct tomorrow morning and file charges.” “You want to do your eighties in Bedford Hills? Try me.” Her hand shot out and grabbed something off the console table. “Pang—” Porcelain shattered across the hardwood.

I stared at the pieces on the floor. Richard’s teapot. The one he’d kept on his desk for thirty years. The one he was holding in the last photograph I had of him. “What did you just do.” Hailey dusted her palms off like she’d gotten something sticky on them. “Oops. Slipped.” She shrugged. “Relax, Eleanor. It’s just some ugly little pot. You’re scaring Leo screaming over it.” Liam bounced Leo away from me, frowning like I was the problem. “Mom, seriously. You know Hailey’s temper. Why would you provoke her? It’s a teapot. I’ll order you one off Amazon tonight. Twenty bucks, looks identical, on your porch by Friday.” I looked up at him. My vision had gone blurry at the edges. “Twenty bucks.” “Yeah, Mom. Don’t make this a thing.” “That was your father’s. It was Yixing clay. The auction house valued it at two hundred thousand dollars.” Hailey’s eyes flicked sideways when I said the number. I saw her do the math. Then her voice went up an octave. “Two hundred thousand? Are you insane? Are you trying to shake us down? ” “I’m telling you right now, you’re not getting a dime. You stole my necklace, that was thirty grand. We are even.” She walked over and kicked the largest piece of porcelain across the floor, watched it skid to the baseboard. “Let me make this simple for you. You’re signing the deed tonight. You’re not going to argue. And if you breathe one word of pushback, you will never see Leo again. Not his birthdays. Not his graduation. Nothing.” She pointed at Leo in Liam’s arms. “Liam. Take him out. I don’t want him breathing this old-lady air. And from now on, she doesn’t touch him without my permission.” Liam hesitated. “Hailey, come on. She’s his grandma.” “So? With a shoplifter for a grandmother, he’ll get bullied at school. He’ll have to explain her at Christmas dinner his whole life. Liam, I swear to God, if you take her side on this one, we are filing papers tomorrow morning.” Liam crumbled so fast it was almost impressive. He turned to me with that look. The one that had always meant fix this for me, Mom. “Mom. Just get the contract out. Please. Before she really loses it. This house is coming to me eventually anyway. What’s the difference?” I pushed myself up off the floor. My knee was bleeding where I’d knelt in the porcelain, but I didn’t feel it. “Liam. You are using your father’s ashes and your son as leverage to get this house out of me.” “Jesus, Mom, don’t be dramatic. It’s called estate planning. You’re one old woman rattling around in a mansion.” “What does it accomplish? Keep playing this selfish game and see who’s changing your diapers in ten years.” I looked at him. Carefully. And I couldn’t find the boy I’d raised anywhere in that face. I took a long breath in. The inside of my mouth tasted like copper. “You want the house.” “Yes. Thank you.” “Second floor. Top drawer of the writing desk.” Hailey’s whole face lit up. She shoved Leo back into my arms and grabbed Liam’s sleeve and dragged him toward the staircase. Actually, What was in that drawer was a signed contract for the sale of the Tribeca penthouse. And a repossession notice for the Cayenne sitting in my driveway.

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I was the real son of the Carter family. But my family chose the fake one. April Fool’s Day. To make the fake one happy, my fianc¨¦e and sister turned me into their plaything. the fake one ripped my clothes to shreds. Used a marker to write “TRASH” across my face. When I didn’t react, he kicked me straight into the septic tank. When they fished me out, a crowd stood around with phones raised. Mocking laughter pierced my ears. My sister stayed a hundred feet away, covering her nose in disgust. She wouldn’t come closer. the fake one’s smile was smug. “Ethan, happy April Fool’s. You played along great.” My fianc¨¦e stepped in front of him, her tone dismissive. “It’s just a joke. Don’t take it personally.” She gestured to someone. They blasted me with a pressure hose. I got knocked flat. Freezing. Body turning purple. But I didn’t beg for mercy. Overnight, the video of me naked went viral in our circle. My sister hated me for dragging the fake one’s reputation down. She threw me out. My fianc¨¦e publicly canceled the engagement. “The Astor family can’t have a man with such a stain on him.” I nodded to everything. Didn’t argue. They thought I was faking composure. They didn’t know my mission had only three days left. These people? I felt dirty just looking at them. … In the courtyard, Dad swung his whip. Each lash tore into my flesh. “Shameless! Filthy!” I didn’t explain. Just endured silently. Fighting back only made the beating worse. A few days after being brought back to this house, Ryan¡ªthe fake son¡ªaccused me of stealing his watch. Mom and Dad ransacked my room. My sister Clara stripped me in front of everyone. They found nothing. I thought they’d apologize. Instead, Clara slapped a tooth out of my mouth. “You must’ve sold Ryan’s watch! Where’s the money!” My room was closet-sized. I didn’t have a single bank card. I tried to explain. She hit me harder. Called me unrepentant. I huddled in the corner. Got kicked until I coughed blood. Ryan suddenly gasped. “Found it.” The diamond-studded watch gleamed in the sunlight. All I felt was a stabbing pain in my eyes. I looked at Clara. No guilt on her face. Just a flat response. “Just a misunderstanding. Don’t worry about it.” “I’m Ryan’s sister. I trust him unconditionally.” Clara knew she was Ryan’s sister. But she forgot I was her actual brother. In the courtyard, Dad’s whip kept falling. Blood streaked my body. Clara stood by. Didn’t say a word in my defense. She was the one who let Ryan humiliate me. Let him take naked photos of me. But she blamed me for ruining Ryan’s reputation and threw my few belongings out the door. She wanted me gone. I agreed. But Dad roared. “You think you’re leaving? Want to embarrass us more?” He ordered the whip. Made them execute family discipline on me. Two hours later, Mom stopped him with a frown. “Enough. Make him bang his head on the floor 99 times. Write a confession. Then we’re done.” Dad threw down the whip, annoyed. “You spoil him too much!” Spoil? I found that funny. Mom’s “bang head” meant smashing my head into the ground hard enough to make a sound. If it didn’t echo, it didn’t count. The confession? Had to be written in blood. Less than ten thousand words? Not sincere enough. They’d make me rewrite it. I said nothing. Banged until my forehead bled. They splashed cold water on me to wake me up. I kept going. Wrote twenty thousand words in blood. Every word dripping with humiliation. Crushed into the dirt. I remembered every insult clearly. Waiting for the day I’d collect what they owed me with interest. I thought that would be enough. Ryan covered his nose and stepped back. “Clara, it’s not that I won’t let Ethan inside. It’s just… he stinks.” Clara ruffled his hair affectionately. Shot me a sideways glance. “You don’t deserve the servants’ quarters. Go stay with Goliath.” Goliath was Ryan’s python. And I was terrified of snakes. I remembered the day the cops first brought me home. Ryan looked disgusted back then too. But Clara didn’t make me sleep in the snake pit that day. She just made me stay in the dog cage. The pet dog’s cage was bigger than the servants’ room I got later. When Ryan didn’t give orders, the dog didn’t bite me. I could barely get some sleep. The snake pit? No way I’d survive. I fell to my knees in front of Mom and Dad, begging. “Please, I know I stink. I can leave the Carter estate. I can sleep in the dog cage. Just don’t make me go to the snake pit.” A flicker of emotion crossed Dad’s face. He was about to speak. Clara grabbed the back of my neck. “Ethan, stop playing the victim!” “If it weren’t for you, would the Carter family be a laughingstock? You should be grateful you have anywhere to sleep!” She dragged me toward the snake pit. I looked back at Dad. He looked away. The stench from the pit nearly knocked me out. A forked tongue flicked against my face. Just as I closed my eyes in despair, the system’s cold mechanical voice echoed in my mind. “Time until Host’s mission completion: two days remaining.”

I suddenly calmed down. Slowed my breathing. Two days left. I couldn’t give up. Three years ago, Ryan got a stomachache after dinner. Eyes red, he accused me of spiking his food. Before I could react, Clara pried my mouth open and forced an entire bottle of laxatives down my throat. The pain left me unconscious on the bathroom floor. No one checked on me. The whole family went to the hospital with Ryan. On the verge of death, a mechanical voice rang in my head. “Host life value has reached zero. Forcibly binding Revenge System.” “Current Mission: Survive three years.” “Success: Pain Rebound. One hundred million dollar cash reward.” “Failure: Soul annihilation.” I didn’t understand what a system was back then. Thought it was a hallucination before death. But when I woke up on that bathroom floor and the pain was gone, I believed. The system gave me a second chance. I was eighteen. I started valuing my life. Became silent. Compliant. I recalled survival shows I’d seen on TV. Forced down my fear. Stayed perfectly still. The python slithered past me. Its touch cold and terrifying. Outside the glass enclosure, Ryan held my fianc¨¦e’s hand. That smirk on his face. “Lucy, your fianc¨¦’s dirty, so he got tossed in the snake pit.” “Does it hurt your feelings?” Lucy’s eyes barely flicked over me. “Stop talking nonsense. I don’t have a fianc¨¦. That engagement has been canceled.” Even now, my heart twisted painfully. Lucy was different from the Carter family. She was my childhood friend from the orphanage. When she first came to the orphanage, her leg had been broken. No one wanted to adopt her. I pretended to be dumb. Stayed behind to keep her company. Her leg made it hard to walk. I fought for food for her. Stood up for her. One winter, some older kids stole her crutch to burn as firewood. I threw myself in front of her. They hung me upside down from a tree. Packed snowballs hard as rocks and used me as target practice. They broke my nose. Blood splattered everywhere. Lucy held my frozen body and cried all night. She said when she grew up, she’d protect me. I laughed in my haze. Thought she meant it. Later, when the cops brought me back to the Carter family, the first thing I did was help Lucy find her family. Turned out she was an illegitimate daughter. The Astor family had thrown her away on purpose. To help her return home, I proposed a marriage alliance. Clara called me pathetic. Said I’d just gotten back and was already chasing women. I knelt in the courtyard for seven days. No food. No water. My knees bled through the scabs. In exchange for a marriage contract. It wasn’t that the Astor family was bad. Mom and Dad just wanted me to marry better. To be a stepping stone for Ryan’s rise. The day I went to pick Lucy up from the orphanage, her eyes were red. She hugged me tight. Swore to the God. “Ethan, once I’m stable in the Astor family, I’ll marry you!” But she never married me. She personally tore up our marriage contract. Threw me to Ryan to humiliate. When did it change? Maybe the first time Ryan put his arm around her shoulders. He was stronger than me. More outgoing. Better at making people happy. He’d put his arm around Lucy’s shoulder and say, “Lucy, your engagement to Ethan was forced on you, right?” Lucy didn’t deny it. Maybe it was that business dinner when I drank myself to a bleeding ulcer trying to shield her from toasts. Collapsed on the floor, couldn’t get up. Lucy frowned. “Ethan, you’re so embarrassing.” I brought up marriage. Brought up rings. A wedding. She got impatient. Plucked a weed from the roadside and wrapped it around my finger a few times. Then turned around and dropped a fortune on a luxury watch for Ryan. Personally picked out the style. I asked her, “Lucy, do you remember what you said back at the orphanage?” She laughed. That laugh was mocking in a way I’d never seen before. “Ethan, you drag up the orphanage every single day. Aren’t you tired?” “Yeah, you helped me. But you’ve used that favor to tie me down for years. Isn’t that enough?” I tied her down? I shattered my knees kneeling. Went on a hunger strike. Fought like hell to get her a future. But she said, “Ethan, stop pretending. You wanted this marriage because you’re the least favored son in the Carter family.” “Couldn’t find a wife, so you latched onto me?” “That desperate to get married? That starved for a woman?” In that moment, something inside me shattered. Ryan’s laughter pulled me back from the memory. “Lucy, don’t be so heartless. Ethan was your fianc¨¦ for years.” Lucy sneered. “Fianc¨¦? A freeloader like him? As if.” I took a deep breath. Silently asked the system. “Will betrayal get reflected back too?”

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I am the vicious Duchess everyone whispers about. Arthur brought back a blood slave from the border named Lilith. She’s been lavished with his affection. Yet tonight, she suddenly collapsed. Arthur cradled her corpse as his claws pressed against my throat. “You poisoned Lilith! I’ll make your entire bloodline pay!” Suddenly, I heard her demon whispering to Lilith. [Demon: Perfect. The fool thinks you’re dead.] [Demon: The Draught wears off in two hours. Teleport out from the crypts. Return with a new face and replace that bitch as his true Duchess.] Oh? Fake death? Planning to return and humiliate me? I wiped the blood from my neck and threw myself onto her “corpse” with a sob. “Poor girl! She died from a blood curse! Her soul will mutate! Seal her in the Obsidian Coffin! Pour mercury down her throat! Perform the rites and release her soul!” The whispers panicked: [Demon: What?! This bitch is actually purifying you?!] …… The guards approached with a bucket of steaming mercury. Arthur’s wings exploded from his back. His blade flashed. The guard screamed, his arm severed. Mercury splashed across the floor, burning it black. “No one touches Lilith!” He stood before her corpse, sword dripping blood. I stepped forward to meet his gaze. “My lord Duke, this is ancestral law! Blood curse victims carry the heaviest corruption.” “Without mercury sealing and the Obsidian Coffin, she’ll rise as a ghoul on the seventh night and slaughter this entire castle!” I pointed at the ancestral portraits lining the walls. “Would you disgrace a thousand years of House Crimson for a blood slave?” Arthur’s knuckles whitened on his sword. “Chloe Nightshade, spare me your superstitions! You just want to desecrate her!” I smiled coldly. Desecrate? No. Obliterate. More whispers: [Demon: Stay calm. Your consciousness is waking early.] [Demon: Half an hourglass more. I’ll activate the teleportation circle.] [Demon: She won’t really pour mercury. The Duke will stop her.] Half an hourglass? Dream on. I drew the Blood Covenant Token and raised it high. “The Elder Council’s Supreme Decree! The blood slave Lilith entered this House through binding ritual. Her life and death are subject to our laws!” “Crypt Keepers! The coffin! Drive the stakes in!” Eighteen hooded priests stepped forward with ash-wood stakes covered in runes. Arthur froze at “Elder Council’s Supreme Decree.” In that heartbeat, the priests lifted her into the black obsidian coffin. “Close the lid!” CRASH! “Drive the stakes!” “CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!” Ash-wood stakes pierced through the coffin. Wood splintered. Flesh tore. The whispers screamed: [Demon: The stakes pierced your shoulders!] [Demon: Don’t move yet! The potion is still active!] [Demon: Where is that fool Duke?!] I smiled. Pierced? Perfect. Arthur lunged forward. “STOP!” I blocked his way. “If you open this coffin, you defy the Elder Council! You’d sacrifice House Crimson’s thousand-year legacy for this whore!” “Kill me first. Step over my corpse!” His claws pressed my throat. Blood trickled down. “Chloe Nightshade, if her body is harmed, your entire bloodline dies!” I didn’t flinch. “Continue! Pour the molten lead! Seal it!” Guards poured liquefied lead along the seams. Sizzzzz… Sealed completely. Then, from inside, a faint groan. “Mmph…” Arthur’s face changed. He spun around. “What was that?! Lilith isn’t dead?!”

The sound echoed through the hall. Arthur’s sword clattered down. He threw himself at the coffin, pounding the lid. “Lilith! Is that you?!” Whispers flooded in: [Demon: Stay calm! You’re still a fledgling. Your body hasn’t fully transformed yet. You still need air!] [Demon: Cratch the lid! Make him hear you before you suffocate!] [Demon: The lead is blocking my magic!] I glanced at the musicians. “Play! Send her to eternal rest!” “BLAAARE!” Trumpets drowned out everything. Arthur roared at me. “STOP! I heard her voice! She’s alive!” He clawed at the lead seams. His fingers began to smoke. I wrapped my arms around his waist. “You’ve gone mad! That’s a ghoul turning! If you open it, it’ll drain your blood!” “GET OFF!” He shoved me back hard. I held on, screaming to the nobles. “Bear witness! The Duke is bewitched! He wants to unleash a ghoul!” “If it harms you, I accept death!” The guests went pale at the pounding inside. “Madness! The dead can’t return! It’s transforming!” “Arthur! Cremate it now!” “Suppress it before it breaks free!” Opinion turned against him. Arthur’s eyes blazed. He channeled power into his palm and struck the lid. “CRASH!” A crack appeared in the lead seal. The scratching became violent pounding. Time for my killing move. “The corpse is turning! It will claim our souls! Dead Man’s Blood! Suppress the ghoul now!” Buckets of rotting blood were brought forward. “Pour!” SPLASH! The foul blood flooded the coffin, seeping through the crack. Whispers shrieked: [Demon: It burns! ] [Demon: Damn this bitch! I’m invoking emergency power! Burning part of your lifespan to fuel a strength curse! You need to break out NOW before you suffocate!] The pounding became frantic. Arthur stared at the blood-drenched coffin, lips trembling. He spun and kicked my stomach. “WHAM!” I flew back, hit the pillar, spat blood. He grabbed my collar, lifting me. “Chloe Nightshade, you’re dead!” I swallowed blood and smiled. “My lord… I’m saving you… This abomination will destroy House Crimson…” “Noble. Righteous.” His grip tightened on my throat. My vision darkened. “Since you love purging evil, meet the Devil first!”

Choking, vision fading, I clawed his wrist. “Burn… it…” I forced the words out to the guards. “Light the pyre! Cremate it!” Torches hit the oil-soaked kindling. WHOOSH! Flames consumed the coffin. Whispers screamed: [Demon: The obsidian’s heating up! Your skin is blistering!] [Demon:I’m channeling my power into you!Let the power EXPLODE and shatter this coffin from the inside!] My heart seized. “BOOOOM!” The lid blasted skyward, smashed through the altar. Through black smoke, a blood-soaked figure sat upright in the shattered coffin. Dead Man’s Blood covered her face. Fingernails ripped off. Two bloody holes in her shoulders from the stakes. “AHHH! THE CORPSE MOVED!” “GHOUL!” Nobles screamed and fled. Arthur stumbled back from the shockwave. Lilith sat in the ruins, glaring at me with hatred. Then instantly shifted to tears, reaching for Arthur. “My lord Duke… save me… Lady Chloe tried to burn me alive… it hurts…” Hoarse voice. Arthur froze, then charged into the flames. “Lilith! I’m here!” He shielded her, his back burning. Carried the blood-soaked woman out. Whispers turned gleeful: [Demon: Perfect. Now play the helpless victim.] [Demon: Make him so enraged that he’ll slaughter that bitch and her entire bloodline for you.She’s finished.] Arthur set her down gently. Lilith trembled in his arms, pointing at me weakly. “My lord… Lady Chloe called me an abomination… poured Dead Man’s Blood on me… drove stakes through my shoulders…” “I only fainted from shock. Why torture me…” Arthur looked at her, then at me. His eyes held murder. “SEIZE HER!” His servants surrounded me where I lay wounded. Arthur handed Lilith to the healers, picked up his sword, walked toward me. “Chloe Nightshade, you witch! Lilith was in a death-like state from the blood curse, yet you tortured her and tried to burn her alive!” “Today, I’ll tear you apart!” I clutched my bleeding stomach, pulled myself upright against the pillar. “The healers examined her! No blood flow!” “You’re so bewitched you can’t recognize True Death?!” Lilith reclined weakly as healers tended her. A cold smirk played on her mouth, voice still fragile. “Lady Chloe… I know you resent me for taking the Duke’s affection…” “But my late father left me maps of the Empire’s magical defenses…” “Is House Nightshade killing me for those maps?” One sentence. Domestic dispute became political treason. Arthur stopped. Murder intensified in his eyes. “So that’s it… Clever House Nightshade. Cunning Chloe Nightshade!”

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I was eating cake when Derek suddenly put down his fork and looked at me. “Who’s Mike Hansen?” My fork stopped halfway to my mouth. My heart slammed against my ribs. Mike Hansen. That name was a code I’d made up with Sarah Mitchell one night in college, after way too many beers. We promised each other, if one of us ever went missing, if something was wrong, that name would be the signal. No one else in the world knew. And Sarah had been missing for thirty-two days. She said she was going to Sedona to clear her head. She never came back. I looked at Derek’s calm face, and my blood ran cold. How did he know that name? Mike Hansen was a name Sarah and I invented our senior year of college, sitting on the roof of our dorm with two cans of cheap beer. The stars were thick that night. Sarah threw her arm around my shoulders, half-drunk, and said, “Claire, we need a code word.” “A code word for what?” “For if something happens to one of us. If one of us disappears. You hear that name, you know something’s wrong.” I told her she was being dramatic. But I helped her come up with it anyway. We settled on Mike Hansen because it was so painfully common. No one would ever suspect it. Only two people in the world knew what those words meant. Me. And Sarah. And Sarah had been missing for thirty-two days. She said she was going to Sedona for a few days. Before she left, she sent me a voice message, her voice so excited: “Claire! What should I send you?” That was the last time I heard her voice. After that, her texts went unanswered. Her phone went straight to voicemail. Her Instagram stopped at a photo of Cathedral Rock. I filed a report. Her family filed a report. The police in Arizona were looking. But no body. No trace. Sarah had vanished like she never existed. And now. My husband Derek. A man who didn’t even have Sarah on social media. A man who’d only met her a handful of times. A man who nodded at her at parties and then walked away. He had just asked me, while eating cake, who Mike Hansen was. “You okay?” Derek raised an eyebrow. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” “I’m fine.” I shoved a bite of cake into my mouth. Tasted like nothing. “Never heard that name. Where’d you see it?” “Oh, scrolling online.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Just curious.” He changed the subject. Started talking about his golf game this weekend. I didn’t hear a single word. My brain was stuck on one question. How did he know?

After dinner, Derek went to take a shower. I sat on the couch, my palms sweating. The sound of water came from the bathroom. I looked at the bathroom door. Then I looked at his phone on the coffee table. I knew the passcode. My birthday. I picked it up. My fingers were shaking. I went through his texts. His call log. His notes app. Nothing. Too clean. A normal person’s phone isn’t that clean. I went to his laptop in the study. Same passcode. He’d never hidden anything from me, or so I thought. Search history. Downloads. File folders. I checked everything. Then I opened his Uber trip history. My hand stopped moving. One month ago. Derek told me he had a business trip to San Diego for two days. I packed his suitcase. But the trip history showed something else. He didn’t go to San Diego. He went to Sedona. He left one day before Sarah arrived. He came back two days after she disappeared. The shower turned off. I closed the laptop. Walked back to the living room. Sat down. Picked up my phone and pretended to scroll. Derek came out drying his hair, glanced at me. “Coming to bed?” “In a minute.” I smiled. He walked into the bedroom and turned off the light. I stared at the bedroom door in the darkness, my fingers digging into the arm of the couch. Derek. What did you do in Sedona?

The next morning, I told Derek I had a work thing. A last-minute trip to Denver for a client meeting. Derek was buttoning his cuff. Didn’t look up. “How long?” “Three or four days.” He turned and looked at me. Smiled. “Be safe.” I smiled back. My flight wasn’t to Denver. It was to Sedona. The plane landed just after noon. Sedona was dry and hot, the sun so bright it made my head spin. The last photo Sarah ever posted was taken in this city. Red rocks. Blue sky. Clouds that looked painted on. She was standing in front of a crystal shop, smiling, her eyes all crinkled up. I didn’t have time to cry. I went straight to her hotel. Sarah had sent me the location before she left, a little boutique place near Oak Creek called The Desert Rose. I walked up to the front desk, pulled up Sarah’s photo on my phone, and asked in my most polite voice, “Do you remember this woman? She stayed here about a month ago.” The receptionist looked at the photo. Shook her head. “Her name is Sarah Mitchell. From Chicago.” The receptionist typed into her computer. Then her face shifted. “Yes. She stayed for two nights. But she never checked out. Her things are still in our storage room.” My chest tightened. Her things were still there. She wasn’t. I steadied my voice and asked the question I was terrified of. “About a month ago, did a man from Chicago also stay here?” I showed her Derek’s photo. The receptionist looked at it. Typed again. Then looked up at me with an expression I couldn’t read. “Yes. He stayed for four nights.” Four nights. Longer than Sarah. “What room was he in?” “203.” “And Sarah Mitchell?” “205.” Same floor. One room apart. I stood at the front desk with my head buzzing. The obvious thought was the worst one. The one that makes your stomach drop. They were having an affair. Sarah and Derek. Hiding in Sedona. But I pushed that thought down as fast as it came. No. Sarah hated Derek. Not in a subtle way. Not in a polite behind-his-back way. She hated him to his face. Every time I brought him to a party, Sarah barely spoke. And once, after a few too many drinks, she looked right at him and said, “Claire has perfect taste in everything except men.” Derek’s face had gone purple. They’d barely seen each other after that. There was no way. So then why was he staying next door to her? What was he doing there? I took a breath and looked at the receptionist. “I need to see your security footage from that week.” The receptionist hesitated. “That’s… we’d need the owner’s permission.” “Then get it.” “And probably a police request.” “My best friend is missing.” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care. “She’s been gone for a month. No body. No trace. Your hotel might be the last place she was seen alive. Do you think your owner is going to say no?” The receptionist went quiet. Then she picked up the phone. Twenty minutes later, the hotel manager took me to the security room. Small space. One computer. Two monitors. The manager pulled up the footage from the week Sarah checked in. I sat in the chair, my hands cold, and watched. Day one. Sarah walked into the lobby with her suitcase. She checked in at the front desk. She was wearing a yellow sundress, her hair down, laughing with the receptionist. My eyes burned. Then, in the bottom corner of the screen. A man walked in. Black polo shirt. Baseball cap. Sunglasses. The way he moved. The way he stood. It was Derek. He didn’t go to the front desk. He went to the seating area. Picked up a magazine. Pretended to read. But his eyes weren’t on the magazine. They were on Sarah. From check-in. To room key. To elevator. He watched her the whole time. A cold shiver ran down my spine. “Fast forward,” I said. The manager sped up the footage. Day one, afternoon. Sarah left the hotel to walk into town. Three minutes later, Derek followed. Same hat. Same sunglasses. Staying about a hundred feet back. Day one, evening. Sarah ate dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel. Derek sat outside at a bar across the street. He ordered a drink. His table had a clear line of sight to Sarah’s window. She never noticed him. Day two. Sarah went to the red rock trails. Derek followed. Sarah went to Tlaquepaque. Derek followed. Sarah stopped at a food truck to buy fry bread. Derek stood at a souvenir shop across the street, pretending to read a postcard. Every frame. Every shot. He was there. My hands started shaking. This wasn’t an affair. Affair partners walk together. They eat together. They touch. He never once spoke to her. She never once looked at him. This wasn’t cheating. This was stalking. “What about day two after that?” I asked, my voice dry. The manager pulled up the rest of the footage. Day two, late afternoon. Sarah checked out of the hotel, or, she left. She had her backpack, her phone in her hand. She looked happy. The footage showed her walking out the front door and heading north. Three minutes later. Derek came out the side door. He walked the same direction. And then the footage ended. The hotel cameras only covered about fifty yards. Fifty yards beyond that, I couldn’t see. “Is there any other footage?” I asked. The manager shook her head. “Just what’s here. Street cameras would be with the police.” I sat there for a long moment. Then I stood up, said thank you, and walked out. I stood outside the hotel and pulled up a map on my phone. Sarah had walked north. North from here went past a few houses, some empty fields, a parking lot. And then it hit a dead end. The base of the mountains. A stretch of undeveloped land. Rugged. Steep. Unforgiving. I stared at the map, my fingers frozen. She went there. He followed. And then she disappeared.

I rented a car and drove north for about forty minutes. The road ended at a patch of empty, scrubby land. The mountains rose up, steep and raw. Loose rocks. Dry brush. The wind was strong enough to push you sideways. This wasn’t a hiking trail. There were no signs, no paths. Just a dirt track that led nowhere. I stood at the edge and looked down. Boulders. Dead grass. A ravine carved out by flash floods. If someone fell from here. I didn’t let myself finish the thought. I started walking to the nearest houses. A tiny cluster of trailers and old cabins, a few families living scattered among the juniper trees. I showed Sarah’s photo to everyone I saw. No one remembered her. Door after door. Head shake after head shake. I was ready to give up when I saw her. A little girl. Maybe six or seven years old. Sitting under a juniper tree in a faded pink T-shirt, barefoot, playing with stones in the dirt. She was holding something. A phone. A pink case. With a cartoon rabbit on the back. My brain went blank. That case. I gave Sarah that case for her birthday. Pink. Rabbit. Because Sarah loved rabbits. I walked over slowly and crouched down, trying to keep my voice soft. “Hey, sweetheart. Where did you get that phone?” The girl looked up at me and pulled the phone behind her back. “Is it yours?” “No,” she whispered. Her eyes darted away. “I’m not going to hurt you.” I stayed low. “That phone belongs to my best friend. She’s lost. I’m trying to find her. Can you tell me where you found it?” The girl pressed her lips together. Her eyes had something I rarely see in children. Fear. Not of me. Something older. “Did you see something scary?” I asked quietly. The girl’s lip trembled. She didn’t answer. I pulled out some cash and held it out to her. “If you tell me, I’ll give you this. You can buy anything you want.” The girl looked at the money. Then at me. Then she pointed toward the mountain. “Down there.” “Down where?” She pointed again. Toward the ravine. My heart dropped. “Did you find anything else?” The girl hesitated. Then slowly pulled something from behind her back. A crossbody bag. Fabric with little flowers. A small tassel hanging off the strap. Sarah’s bag. I knew this bag. She saw it at a mall in Chicago two years ago. Said it was too expensive. I bought it for her for Christmas. She cried. Now it was stained with mud and water. The fabric was starting to rot. I took it. My fingers were shaking. I opened it. Her lip balm. Her portable charger. A photo strip from a photo booth, the two of us, making stupid faces. Everything was still inside. If the bag was down there. If the phone was down there. Then where was Sarah? “Can you show me where you found these?” I asked. The girl shook her head hard. “I’ll give you more money.” She shook her head again. “Please.” My voice broke. “Please.” The girl looked at my face for a long time. Then she stood up, dusted off her shorts, and said, “Okay. I’ll show you.” She walked ahead. I followed. The path got narrower. The brush got thicker. The air started to smell wrong. My stomach turned. I kept repeating the same prayer in my head. I would rather she had slept with my husband. I would rather she had betrayed me. I would rather she had run off with him. Anything but this. The girl stopped. She turned around. Her face was pale. “What is it?” I asked. “That place.” She swallowed. “It smells bad.” I didn’t go any farther. I knew that if I kept going, if I found something, I wouldn’t be able to handle it alone. I needed professionals. I needed evidence. I took the girl’s hand, walked her back to the cabins, and called 911. It took two tries to get through. I explained everything. The missing person. The phone. The bag. The smell. The dispatcher said someone would come. But it would take time. I hung up and called a search and rescue team I’d looked up before I left Chicago. They worked with the county sheriff on mountain recoveries. They got there faster than the police. They said they’d be there by afternoon. Waiting was the worst part. I sat on a rock at the edge of the cabins, holding Sarah’s bag in my lap, not moving. I opened it and pulled out the photo strip. We were standing in front of our dorm, wearing our graduation gowns, arms around each other, laughing. Sarah was making a heart with her hands. We were twenty-two years old. Sarah was my college roommate. Four years. She had the bed on the left. I had the bed on the right. Every night we’d stay up talking across the gap until two or three in the morning. About the future. About boys. About everything. The night we graduated, we sat on the roof of our dorm with two beers and looked at the stars. That was the night she came up with the code. “Claire, we need a signal.” “If something ever happens to one of us, the other one hears that name and knows what to do.” I told her she was crazy. But I remembered. I never thought I’d actually use it. Now I was sitting in a patch of dirt in Arizona, holding her rotting bag, waiting for a search team to find her body.

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From the ashes of the Phoenix Divine Bird, only one true bird was supposed to rise. But my parents were having sex all the time, trying to get pregnant. Then they birthed two daughters from the sacred ashes instead of one. The Phoenix Clan had never seen such a scandal in thousands of years. And Moros, the god of fate, broadcast his prophecy across all of Mount Olympus. The true god would be born from the ashes, and she was destined to be the wife of Ares. That was the prophecy. But the strangest thing happened. My sister was a brilliant red ball of fire, but she didn’t have any divine markings. I was a ragged, scruffy, and pathetic low-level bird, yet my forehead glowed with that powerful mark. My parents stared at me. They believed that I stole the power from my sister. They thought I was too ugly for such divine power. I didn’t get a chance to explain. My mother yanked the powerful mark right out of my forehead. Then she tossed me into the dead, mist-choked wasteland known as the Fields of Erebus. In the Phoenix Clan, bloodline was everything. Pure divine blood ruled everyone. But my people had muddied our bloodline with monsters and beasts for centuries. Our divine power faded. And we even got kicked out of Mount Olympus by Hera because we accidentally offended her. Now, with extinction breathing down our necks, everyone pinned their hopes on my mother. She was the last Phoenix Divine Bird with pure blood left. However, my mother fell for a freak. My father had a sparrow’s body and a human face. But he was also sharp and charming. And he knew how to talk sweet. My mother let him in despite the elders cursing their union. Their forbidden love only diluted her pure blood even more. The entire clan watched my mother’s belly and waited for a miracle. My dad spent his days squatting on those ashes. He talked to me, caught sunbeams, and told sappy love stories about him and my mother. If an elder got angry at his antics, he just pointed at the ashes and boasted about me. Then the day of our birth arrived. Every shaman, every elder, and Moros watched. Even Zeus and Hera watched from Mount Olympus, ready to judge us. My sister and I hatched together. She emerged bathed in holy crimson. Her feathers blazed like a piece of the sun. It was the proof of pure blood. But I was a disaster. I was grey and had bald patches. I was just an ugly chick who looked nothing like a Phoenix. I looked like a dirty little sparrow. All the elders lost their minds over my sister. “The true pure blood! She’s the chosen one!” they shouted. They practically wept onto her feathers because she was their last hope. No one cared about me. I shivered in the cold ashes and tried to speak up. I wanted to say that I was the true pure blood, but a rough hand yanked me up. Heads swiveled toward me. All eyes blasted through me and stared at the blood-red mark glowing on my forehead. My mother’s shriek could shatter worlds. “You damn useless thing! How dare you steal the True God’s mark? You filthy little thief!” My dad jumped beside her and shouted. “Such evil, already at birth! You’re a disgrace to our kind!” I spread my ugly, patchy wings. My eyes were wide as I tried to scream the truth. “Mom, Dad! Look at me! I’m Carson, your daughter! I’m the real Phoenix Divine Bird!” “Shut up! You hideous, ragged bird! You think you deserve to be my child?” my mother screamed. “You dared to steal my darling’s divine mark. I’ll tear you apart!” Then a firestorm of agony shattered my world. My mother clawed the mark from my forehead. She ripped out a bloody feather that burned with power. Gold-streaked blood ran down my face. I couldn’t even make a sound. I just thrashed silently in the cold ashes. Moros finally broke the silence. His voice was full of awe. “Her blood shines with gold. That’s the mark. That’s the blessing. Only a true Phoenix Divine Bird has that.” But my mother wouldn’t believe him. She was hysterical. “Impossible! That curse is no blood of mine. Only my beloved Carson is worthy. That thing is just a thief.” The elders agreed with her. “Exactly! Birds like that deserve to die. Let’s not waste our time.” Moros fell silent. My mother looked at me with hate and disgust. She raised her god-whip. I closed my eyes and braced for the pain. Before she could strike, Moros spoke once more. “She’s a Phoenix Divine Bird, no matter what. Her blood heals any wound. The War of the Giants left Ares in a coma. Could you let me have her and offer her to the God of War?” Phoenix Divine Bird blood was god-tier medicine. That was why the entire divine realm was panicking over Ares. My parents traded glances and finally gave in. “If it’s for Ares, fine,” they said. “But that freak is never welcome here. Let her die far away from Phoenix lands.”

I woke up blurred and broken in a pitch-dark ravine. Pain leaked out of my battered bird body. Moros looked at me with pity. He drew a blade and sliced my brow. Warm blood gushed into a gleaming obsidian bowl. The agony ripped through me. I shook and couldn’t scream. I fought to keep from passing out. I caught a glimpse of a towering shadow of a man lying on a stone bed. Before I could see more, blackness swallowed me whole. Moros ran his hand gently down my feathers. “Hold on, little one. Only your blood can save Ares now.” He carved open the man’s arm and merged my magic blood with his. Divine power hummed in the air. Once he was done, he brought a cold chalice to my beak. It was Olympian water. First he bled me dry, and now he tried to heal me? It felt like divine roulette. But my survival instinct took over, and I gulped it down. The chill burned hot. A rush of fire coursed through me and sealed every wound I had. I barely had time to catch my breath before Moros picked me up. He dragged my limp body to the edge of a forgotten abyss. The next time I woke up, I was nowhere near the golden skies of Olympus. I was in a wasteland blanketed with death and gray mist. It was the Fields of Erebus. This was the borderland between the Underworld and the mortal realm. It was the playground of the god Erebus. Here, the ground cracked and cursed magic steamed up. Monsters prowled and damned souls cried in the darkness. I staggered to my feet and flapped my crooked wings. I was desperate to fly, but I found a wild boar instead. It had yellow tusks and drool stringing from its lips. It slinked out of the fog and locked its hungry eyes on me. A wicked sneer crossed its face. “Well, well. Erebus delivers a real treat! I didn’t expect a snack today.” Terror ripped through me. I fought to get away. “Stay back! Get away! Don’t touch me!” My tiny voice chirped frantically. The beast’s snout twitched as it sniffed me. It drank in my scent. “So sweet. God-blood tastes different. If I eat you, I’ll level up!” Slobber splashed everywhere as it dove for me. Its razor tusks tore through my wing. I blacked out. I was sure I was dead. But then, I saw a light. A burning gold shield appeared and surrounded me. The boar slammed into it and snarled. It was catapulted through the mist. Its huge body spun mid-air and crashed into a tree. The impact snapped the tree clean in half. Blood spilled out of the boar’s mouth. “Damn it! What the hell?” the beast grunted. Before it could get up, a man dropped out of the sky. He was tall and broad. He slashed his sword, and silver flashed. The metal bit into the beast’s flesh. The brute squealed and shuddered in agony as blood poured from its jaws. It kicked twice and then died. The man scooped me up in his enormous hand and nestled me in his palm. He fastened a necklace around my throat. It was plain, but it glowed with divine gold. He didn’t say a word. He mounted his beast and carried me to a wooden hut deep in the Fields of Erebus. I was half-conscious, but I felt his warmth as he put me down. As I faded again, I saw the outline of his powerful back vanishing into the gloom.

When I woke up again, I was trapped inside a cold iron cage. Black roses curled up the bars. Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, had made me his pet. I remembered it clearly. A tall man had saved me. It definitely wasn’t that gloomy bastard Hades. He only fed me once a day. The food was cold, rotten scraps that pulsed with the tainted Underworld air. It wasn’t fit for a vulture, let alone a Phoenix-blood like me. But that wasn’t the worst part. He clamped iron chains around my claws. He locked me down as if I could sprout wings and vanish. It was laughable. Even if I broke free, I had this scrawny, ashen sparrow body. How far could I fly? I had no divine power. I only had feathers and grit. “Kraa!” A hoarse screech sliced through the suffocating silence. I jerked awake. Black flames charred my soul again. The pain seared every nerve. This was torture. This was murder. Hades’ calculating eyes drilled into me. They were cold, cruel, and unblinking. He summoned the black fire. He scorched my feathers until they turned to ash. “Pathetic. Useless. All these years and still not a single Phoenix feather. You are just as worthless as your ragged father.” The smell of burning flesh and despair filled the air. Every nerve in my body screamed. I bit down hard. There was no way I would whimper. I refused to let that monster see me break. I refused to let him bask in his twisted game. Anger flared inside me. He was testing me and torturing me just to see if I would shatter. I couldn’t stay here. If I did, I would die soon. I would just be another broken thing in his collection. When Hades’ maidservant came to feed me, I struck. My beak darted out and bit her finger hard. She howled, and I bolted from the cage. I was too careless. The chain was still locked tight on my leg. I crashed to the ground and my bones rattled. Pain exploded through me, but I refused to quit. I was bleeding and raw. I thrashed and tore at the chains with everything I had. Then, one moment changed everything. A tear, red with blood, slid from my brow. It splashed against the worthless trinket I wore on my neck. Golden light blazed. Somewhere deep inside my fragile bird chest, ancient power surged. The chains erupted. Fragments flew like shrapnel, and I broke free. My wings beat wild and frantic. I ran. I scrambled. I clawed my way out of Hades’ dark palace with every last drop of strength. Shouts echoed everywhere. “Hades’ pet bird has escaped!” If he caught me now, the next time would mean a hell so much worse. I would never leave that cage alive. I swore I would rather die than go back. I didn’t hesitate. I ran fast. I dodged his hellhounds. I dove into the twisted fog at the edge of the Fields of Erebus. It was the borderland, crawling with wild things and monsters. It was a dump, but right then, it was the only place where I had a chance. I stumbled onto a shack. It was rickety and half-collapsed in a pile of boulders. There were scratch marks on the door. They looked weirdly familiar, but my head was a foggy mess. That chain around my neck caught a bit of my god-blood and glowed with a freakish, golden shine. Since then, the scars from Hades’ dark flames had healed. Some lucky godly heir must have dropped it, and I had snagged it for free. I set up a shelter. Every day, I perched in the scraggly tree outside and sunned myself. Below me, mutant monsters with five heads tore each other apart. It was honestly way more entertaining than the backstabbing in Hades’ palace. Just as things got good, a black shape streaked above me. I tried to curse out whoever was tossing trash from the sky, but something slammed into the back of my skull. The world spun. Everything blacked out. I tumbled out of the tree, dazed. When I came to, there was something in my arms. It was small, scaly, and dark as midnight. It was a snake. It was barely breathing, sickly, and battered. It had a lone white mark on its tail. I circled it a few times. “Damn, bro, you look like hell. Nobody wants a mess like you. You fit perfectly with a lost cause like me.” I wiped dirt off my face and dragged it inside. “Lucky you crashed here instead of landing in Hades’ stew pot. He would have dropped you in soup for sure.” I dug through the cupboards and found some leftover god-herb roots. I chewed them into a bitter mash and shoved it at the little black snake. “Come on! I picked this up while the monsters brawled. If you weren’t as pitiful as me, I would never waste these scraps on you.” The stubborn thing wouldn’t open its mouth. It didn’t matter. I jammed the herb in my own beak. I broke his jaws open and force-fed him. Watching this little black wreck, something warmed in my chest. It felt like finding a shitty brother in this hellhole. For once, I wasn’t totally alone. “In a place like this, ugly fuckers like us? We stick together. It’s the only way to survive.”

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