Chapter 4

The next morning, Ethan was distant but overly solicitous. He suggested a walk in the gardens.

Olivia was there, looking pale and fragile, leaning on Ethan's arm.

"Sarah, dear," Olivia said, her voice a weak whisper. "Thank you for understanding about last night. Ethan was so worried."

Ethan excused himself to speak with the head gardener, leaving me alone with Olivia.

The moment he was out of earshot, Olivia's demeanor changed. The fragility vanished. A sly, knowing smile played on her lips.

"He really does dote on me, doesn't he?" she said, her voice suddenly stronger. "Poor Sarah. You never stood a chance."

I stared at her. "What are you talking about, Olivia?"

"Oh, please," she scoffed, plucking a camellia from a bush and twirling it. "You think those little 'Curses' you've been taking for me were just my natural purification cycles? Darling, those were the overflow. Ethan has been actively suppressing your core essence for years, ever since your botched Awakening."

My breath caught. "Suppressing me?"

"Of course! He couldn't have you overshadowing me, could he? He needs my power. Your little talent for a breeze was just... inconvenient. He found a way to cap it, then divert all the unpleasantries of my much larger power growth onto you. You're useful, Sarah. A perfect little sponge."

She leaned closer, her eyes gleaming with malice. "And it wasn't just your Awakening he 'helped' with."

A sickening dread filled me.

"Our parents," Olivia continued, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Their tragic accident during that high-level ritual? The one that made them 'ascend' too quickly?"

She smiled, a cruel, triumphant curve of her lips. "Not quite an accident. A little nudge from an outside force. A force that wanted me to have everything. Their status, their wealth... and Ethan's undivided attention."

She had murdered my parents.

And Ethan... Ethan must have known. Or at least suspected. His "Time-Rewinding Mirror" could show him glimpses of the past. He had chosen to see nothing.

The world tilted. The carefully constructed reality of my life shattered.

Rage, cold and absolute, flooded me.

I lunged for her, my hands outstretched, aiming for her throat.

"You viper!"

A blur of motion. Ethan was there, his hand clamping onto my wrist like an iron vise.

His other hand moved, a swift gesture, and a strange pressure sealed my lips. I tried to scream, to curse her, but no sound came out. He had silenced me with a Guardian binding spell.

He pulled me away from Olivia, his face a mask of cold fury. But it wasn't directed at her.

It was directed at me.

"Sarah! Control yourself!" he hissed, his grip bruising. "Olivia is unwell. How dare you try to harm her?"

Olivia cowered behind him, feigning terror.

My heart turned to stone.

He chose her. Again. Unequivocally.

That night, I didn't burn the dissolution papers. I penned a new document: a formal Severance Contract, invoking ancient Guardian law. It was more than an annulment; it was a complete magical and familial break.

I placed it on the center of his desk in the study.

Then, I waited for Luna's signal.

Under the cover of a moonless night, two of Luna's quiet acolytes, cloaked and silent, met me at the old servants' gate.

As I slipped away from Blackwood Manor, I saw a light flicker in Olivia's window. She was standing there, watching, a satisfied smirk on her face.

She raised a hand in a mocking wave.

Ethan would find the contract. And he would find something else.

Luna was a mistress of illusion. She had procured a small, unfortunate alligator, already dead from some bayou misadventure. She'd infused it with a trace of my aura and the lingering energy of the curses I'd endured.

It would look like Sarah Blackwood, unable to bear another "Cleansing Curse," had finally succumbed, her life force extinguished.

My escape route was a pirogue, gliding silently through the dark waters of the swamp, towards Luna's hidden sanctuary.