Chapter6 Exposed

Crystals flared as scribes and messengers recorded the scene. I ignored them.

I stood barefoot on the cold stone, facing the two people who had shaped my life more than anyone else. 

“This is everything,” I said evenly. “Nothing left but my underwear. If Alpha Vane and Luna Sandra still think I’m hiding something, they’re welcome to search me themselves.”

Lycus’s face blanched. His eyes were fixed on my back. He must be reliving the cellar again, the blood, and the way I’d flinched from even a gentle touch.

He looked afraid.

Sandra stared, then her lip curled. Confusion flickered, then calculation settled. “Oh, right,” she said loudly, turning to the crowd. “You all probably don’t know. Aria was thrown out of my parents’ house for being… a slut. Even as a teenager she couldn’t keep her legs shut.”

A disgusted murmur spread.

“So those marks…” someone whispered.

“Punishment,” another voice said. “No wonder they cast her out.”

Sandra smiled, sweetly. “She liked sneaking men into the house. Mom and Dad were merciful, really. If it were up to me, I would have—”

“Enough.”

My voice cut through her performance.

I met her gaze and saw the same thing I’d seen five years ago in that dark basement. Raw cruelty wrapped in pretence.

“Sandra,” I said, “just because no one saw you do something doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. You can spit lies all you want. That doesn’t make them true.”

Her smile faltered for a second. “What are you implying?”

“You say you’re Sundar. You say this”—I lifted my wrist, the silver bracelet gleaming under the light—“is your design. You say I stole it.”

I took a step closer. “Then tell us: what does this bracelet do?”

The hall fell silent.

Sandra blinked. She hadn’t expected that. She didn’t even know whether this piece was part of the collection. She’d just needed a reason to accuse me.

She glanced at Lycus, wide-eyed.

He didn’t answer. His frown only deepened.

I could feel the tension rolling off him; the unease he couldn’t hide anymore.

“That’s enough,” he said finally, voice hard. “Sandra doesn’t have to prove anything. She said it’s hers, then it is. Give the bracelet back, Aria, and we’ll let you leave quietly.”

He said it like he was being generous and I should be grateful.

A weird sort of amusement bubbled up in my chest. “You two might forgive and forget,” I said softly, “but I won’t.”

I looked down at the bracelet. My work, my pattern, and my hidden safeguard.

Then I lifted my hand and tapped the inner sigil twice.

The main diamond shifted aside with a soft click, revealing a small moonstone beneath. It flared, sending a thin beam of blue light across the hall. The ray struck the largest warded panel, the same surface used for announcements and sigil demonstrations, and spread like water.

The entire screen lit up.

The crowd fell silent as lines resolved into an image.

Black Fen’s mark glimmered in the corner. He’d woven my memory into the stone when I’d visited him in secret years ago, “in case,” he’d said, “you ever need the truth made louder than their lies.”

On the glowing surface, we saw a cell. A stone room with no windows, lit by a single torch.

Sandra stepped into view, younger but unmistakable, whip in hand. A girl lay curled on the ground, back bare, already bleeding.

Me.

The hall fell into a deathly silence.

I watched as everyone stared at the image on the screen, shock spreading across their faces.

“Was Sandra the one who hurt Aria?”

The whispers grew louder.

Sandra’s expression finally cracked.