Chapter 7: Family Knives

POV: GUINE

I expected my family to be angry. I did not expect them to become Morgause’s willing weapons.

The morning sun had barely begun to filter through the heavy velvet drapes of my study when the heavy oak door swung open without a knock. My uncle Lord Reginald and my mother Lady Vespera strode into the room, their expressions hardened into masks of cold, synchronized determination. There was no pretense of a family visit this time, no false tears or dramatic gasps. They walked like enforcers carrying out an execution.

I stood beside my writing desk, my fingers resting lightly on the stacked ledgers of my personal accounts. I didn't flinch as they closed the distance between us.

"You have gone far enough, Guine," Uncle Reginald began, his voice flat and devoid of any familial warmth. "The tradesmen are locking their doors to your couriers. The council elders are whispering about your instability. You cannot survive outside the pack's protection, and you certainly cannot stand against Morgause Wren."

I looked at him, and without even trying, my mind-hearing gift forced their unguarded thoughts straight into my skull.

(Morgause promised that if we break her spirit and force her back into Kael’s good graces before the new moon, the southern trade charters will be transferred directly to my name. Uncle Reginald was thinking greedily, his heart racing with anticipation. She has to submit. She has no other choice.)

Beside him, my mother’s silent thoughts echoed with an even sharper cruelty. (She is completely ungrateful. All those years of investment, and she throws it away over wounded pride. If she ruins our standing with the Draven house, she deserves whatever misery finds her.)

Their spoken words were harsh, but their inner thoughts were absolute poison.

I let out a cold, quiet breath, watching them with utter detachment. "You didn't come here to reason with me. Morgause gave you instructions, didn't she? What did she promise you? A title? A trade charter? Or just enough gold to keep your creditors from seizing your estate, Uncle?"

Uncle Reginald flushed a deep, mottled red, his fists clenching at his sides. "Watch your tongue, girl! You owe everything you are to this family!"

"I owe you nothing," I replied steadily.

My mother stepped forward, her dark eyes flashing with a familiar, chilling expression, the exact same cold disappointment she had worn in my first life whenever I failed to be useful, whenever I fell short of the obedient, compliant tool they wanted me to be.

"We gave you life, Guine," my mother hissed, her voice trembling with manufactured righteousness. "We gave you standing. And you throw it away like garbage because you cannot stomach a noble man taking a mistress to secure his house? You are selfish, bitter, and…"

Before I could blink, she raised her hand and struck me.

Slap.

The sharp crack echoed off the stone walls of the study. My head snapped to the side from the sudden impact. A hot, stinging pain bloomed across my cheek, and the metallic taste of blood touched my tongue where my teeth caught my inner lip.

Silence descended upon the room. In all my years in my first life, my mother had never dared to lay a hand on me. No matter how exhausted I was, no matter how many sleepless nights I spent balancing their ledger books, physical violence had been a boundary they never crossed.

Until now.

I slowly turned my head back, lifting my chin. I tasted the blood in my mouth, but beneath the physical shock, something else awakened deep within my chest, something darker, colder, and infinitely more powerful.

A sharp, clarifying rage swept through my veins, washing away every lingering remnant of the dutiful daughter I used to be.

The pain of the blow was nothing compared to the absolute, freezing clarity that followed it. It was the final, undeniable proof: in this life, just like the last, my value to them had an expiration date, and it ended the exact moment I stopped serving their interests.

My mother stared at her own trembling hand, momentarily stunned by her own action, but her face quickly hardened back into bitter defiance.

"That is what you deserve," she whispered harshly. "You will pack your things, Guine. You will go to Kael’s hall, you will drop to your knees before Morgause, and you will beg for forgiveness."

I wiped a trace of blood from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand, my dark eyes locking onto hers with a terrifying intensity.

"If you want Kael’s protection so badly, Mother, you can crawl to him yourselves," I said, my voice dropping into a register so cold it made the air in the room feel like winter. "Beg him for his scraps. Sell your own jewelry to pay Uncle’s debts. Let Morgause walk all over your dignity. But I will not be the price you pay for it. I will never be your sacrifice again."

Uncle Reginald stepped forward, his face purple with rage. "You ungrateful, rebellious wretch! You think you are strong because you escaped for a few days? You are nothing without us!"

"I am everything you are too cowardly to be," I answered, turning my back on them and walking deliberately toward the heavy oak door of the study.

As I reached the threshold and placed my hand on the brass handle, Uncle Reginald’s voice followed me, low and venomous, carrying the final threat of a cornered animal.

"Walk out of this house today, Guine, and consider yourself disowned. Do not ever expect to cross this threshold again. You will die alone in the dirt."

I didn't stop. I didn't look back. I pulled the door open, stepping out into the cool air of the corridor.

As the heavy oak door clicked shut behind me, my enhanced hearing caught my mother’s voice whispering to my uncle through the wood.

"Morgause was right," my mother murmured, her tone dripping with smug certainty. "Let her go. She will come crawling back when she gets hungry enough."

A bitter, fearless smile touched my lips in the empty hallway.

They thought I was walking out into the cold with nowhere to go. They had no idea that my true home, a fortress carved out of ancient stone, waiting with wealth, power, and absolute sovereignty, was already calling my name.

Let them wait in the dark. I was finally heading to Eclipse Hollow.