Chapter 7

After the auction, I found them near the VIP exit.

"Name your price, Kieran," I said, blocking their luxury car. My voice was cool and businesslike. "I want that necklace."

Seraphina, nestled in his arms, flinched. She clutched the large ruby at her throat, as if I might snatch it away.

Kieran frowned. "You don’t have money, Aurora. Your accounts are frozen."

I met his gaze, playing my last card.

"I’ll sign a lifelong contract. I’ll be the Nocturne family’s exclusive perfumer. Just give me back my mother’s necklace."

Within their bloodlines, a lifelong contract was practically servitude. Even with different terms, it was a deeply agonizing commitment. For a noble pureblood, it was a grave insult. But I didn’t care anymore.

Kieran paused, a flicker of complex emotion crossing his eyes.

Then Seraphina tugged his sleeve, her voice soft. "Since the necklace was purchased, it’s now family property. I want to wear it. How about this? Once I’m done with it, I’ll give it back to my sister, alright?"

Kieran glanced at me, a hint of hesitation in his expression, then finally nodded.

But that afternoon, when Seraphina reappeared, the necklace was gone.

I waited a moment, then finally spoke.

"…Where is the necklace?"

Seraphina gasped. "Oh! I was playing with Snowball and let him try it on. I completely forgot to take it off him."

Snowball was the pet cat she kept in the back garden.

As she spoke, she blew a whistle from around her neck.

A pure white cat sprinted over instantly, my mother’s necklace dangling from its fur.

"The red looks so good with his fur, doesn’t it?" Seraphina smiled, lowering her head to stroke the cat’s fur.

My sanity shattered in that instant.

I didn’t think. My body moved faster than my brain, lunging directly at Seraphina.

I didn’t care about the consequences. I just wanted to sever the hand that desecrated my mother’s memory.

But the next second, my dagger never reached her.

A surge of immense shadow power slammed into my chest.

I was flung backward, crashing hard against a pillar in the corner of the garden.

The crack of breaking bones was sharp and sickeningly clear.

"Enough!" Kieran’s furious voice boomed.

He stood before Seraphina, dark mist swirling around him. He looked down at me, sprawled on the ground and coughing blood, his eyes devoid of pity, filled only with disappointment and disgust.

"I gave you a chance, Aurora. But you’ve disappointed me far too much, trying to harm Seraphina twice over a mere trinket."

"That… that was my mother…" I struggled to rise, but the searing pain in my ribs sent me crashing back down.

Kieran turned away coldly, issuing his command to the guards behind him.

"Take her to the ‘Cell of Silence.’ No one is to visit without my express orders."

The Cell of Silence.

It was a place reserved for those who committed the gravest offenses, a hundred times more brutal than any previous confinement.

Two burly bloodline guards roughly hoisted me up.

Seraphina stood by the car, looking down at me, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips. She mouthed the words: He’s mine now.

I was dragged into darkness.

This time, there were no doctors. No medicine.

Only specially forged silver chains piercing my collarbones.

Every so often, someone would drive a silver dagger into my palm.

As the burning agony pushed me to the brink of unconsciousness, the lead guard crouched down and patted my face.

"Don’t blame us for being harsh, Miss Aurora," he sneered. "Lord Kieran specifically instructed that you need a proper lesson. Learn what obedience means."