Chapter 3

Before I could speak, before I could scream, the door burst open again.

Livia.

Grand Master Valerius followed her in, a silent shadow.

Livia' s eyes, cold and cruel, fixed on me.

She strode forward.

Orion said nothing. He just watched.

Valerius watched.

"Still clinging to life, are we?" Livia sneered. "Unworthy. Filth of a dead clan."

Her hand lashed out.

A sharp, stinging slap across my face.

Then another.

She grabbed my hair, yanking my head back.

Pain, sharp and blinding, exploded behind my eyes.

I was weak, still recovering from the millennium of torment. My body was a fragile shell.

I crumpled, spitting blood onto the polished floor.

Orion remained silent. A statue.

Valerius finally spoke, his tone mild, almost bored. "Livia, dear. That' s enough. Control yourself."

Like chiding a child for a minor mess.

Livia released me, a dismissive shove.

She smoothed her pristine robes. "She needed a reminder of her place."

They left. Orion, Livia, Valerius.

Orion lingered for a moment after they were gone.

He knelt beside me, his face a perfect picture of sympathy.

"Selene, I am so sorry. Livia... she is spoiled. Impetuous. I will speak to her. I will protect you."

His hypocrisy was a suffocating blanket.

Protect me? He was the architect of my ruin.

Rage, cold and pure, filled the spaces where love and hope had been.

I said nothing. I let him help me up, let him fuss.

Later, when I was alone, truly alone, I took out the locket.

My mother' s locket.

The only thing I had left of her, of my clan.

Its metal was cool against my palm. It pulsed with a faint, almost forgotten warmth.

Ancestral Lumina magic.

Desperate, I used its edge.

I carved a small, hidden sigil of my clan' s protective magic into my own flesh.

Over my heart.

It hurt. A deep, searing pain.

But it was my pain. My choice.

A tiny spark of defiance.

The locket, the Beacon of the Forgotten, hummed faintly, as if acknowledging my desperate act.

A seed of power, buried deep.