Chapter 1

At the Eternal Night Realm admission ceremony, Carly suddenly grabs my hand.

My heart pounds. I think he is going to announce our relationship to the entire continent.

Instead, he says, "Eve, thanks for everything these past five years. But Lym didn't make the cut. She's hurting right now, and I need to go back and be there for her."

He crushes the realm token right in front of thousands of people.

For five years, I hid my pureblood lord identity. I drained my magic until I literally coughed up blood, quietly paving every step of his way.

I thought we loved each other. I thought after this ceremony we would rise to the top together.

But his casual thanks for everything crushes five years of my devotion into dust.

What is even more laughable is that the moment the online backlash hits Lym, he calls me on the comms.

"Eve! You need to put out a statement to clear this up right now! As my friend, you owe me this!"

Friend?

My hand holding the crystal shakes.

...

"Stop!" I lunge forward, my fingers grasping at empty air.

A sharp crack rings out across the high platform. It is the sound of the magic seal shattering.

Carly crushes the realm admission token without a second thought.

"Are you out of your mind?" I grab Carly by the wrist. "This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity! Do you know how much blood we shed to get this spot, and now you are just throwing it away?"

"Let go of me." Carly yanks his hand away. "Lym failed. I can't leave her all alone in that mortal town. She is completely falling apart right now. I am going to help her rebuild her magic."

"Help her rebuild?"

"We nearly died to stand up here, Carly! And now you are telling me you are throwing it all away for some loser who couldn't even pass the basic trials?"

"Don't talk about her like that, Eve." Carly grabs his bag from the floor and forcefully slings the strap over his shoulder. "I can always retake the realm exam later, but Lym only has me right now. We grew up together. I can't just abandon her."

He doesn't look at me again. He turns and strides down the platform. His figure quickly disappears into the loud, chaotic crowd without a single backward glance.

I freeze in place. The warmth of his wrist still lingers on my fingertips, but as the wind blows, only a biting cold remains.

He threw me, and our shared future, away like trash.

The cold wind from the platform follows me all the way into the hall of the temporary palace.

Bang.

The doors burst open. Carly's parents stumble into the hall.

"Lady Eve! Please, I am begging you. Go talk some sense into Carly!" His mother grabs the hem of my robes, her face stained with tears.

I step back.

"He made his choice. I have no right to interfere."

"But what about our family business?" Carly's father hits the floor in despair. "If he loses his status as a realm apprentice, the suppliers will rip up our contracts! We will lose everything!"

I look at this sobbing human couple, a short, bitter laugh rolling in my throat.

Business. That is all they care about.

I turn around and walk toward the massive floor-to-ceiling windows. My fingers grip the windowsill tightly as I force down the waves of cramps caused by my depleted magic.

Carly despises the elitist vampire nobles. To cater to his prejudice, I buried my identity as a pureblood lord and disguised myself as a common, low-level vampire.

Do they really think the magic material business their family relies on runs on business smarts?

It is me. I spent years burning my own magic to secretly guard their trade routes. I emptied hundreds of years of my own private stash to pave the way for Carly's trials. I hid all my edges as a vampire lord and endured the backlash of magical exhaustion, all just so I could walk through the realm's doors with him.

And now, for a woman named Lym, he stomped it all into dust.

The agony of magical exhaustion tortures me all night long, but it is nothing compared to the glaring headlines on the magic forums the next morning.

Every forum across the continent is blowing up.

Carly's name is on the front page of every section. The internet's comments are sharp as knives, pointed straight at Lym.

"She is a total leech! She literally dragged a genius down with her!"

"It is one thing to be useless, but ruining someone else's future? Lym should rot!"

It turns out the public sees things much more clearly than Carly does.

Just then, my comm crystal flashes a blinding red. It is a call from Carly.

I accept it.

"Eve! Are you happy now?" Carly's sharp voice instantly blasts through the room, filled with unfiltered rage.

I grip the crystal, frowning. "What are you talking about?"

"Drop the act! You are the one pulling the strings on the forums, aren't you?" He grills me through gritted teeth. "You paid people to attack Lym! She is already miserable enough about failing. Why do you have to be so vicious to her?"

I take a deep breath, finding the whole thing incredibly absurd. "I haven't touched the forums. Every word on there is just people stating the obvious."

"I don't care about the obvious!" Carly yells. "I need you to put out a public statement right now! Clear up our relationship, tell everyone it was my own choice to drop out, and clear Lym's name! You owe me this!"

"I owe you?" My voice drops.

"Yes! If you actually care about me, you would help her fix this mess! Do you have any idea how much stress she is under? She is literally terrified to leave her house!"

Lym. Lym. Every single sentence is about Lym.

I stare at the glowing crystal in my hand.

The years of exhaustion, the blood I spilled in secret, my empty magic reserves, and the pride I swallowed all morph into a massive joke right now.

"Eve, are you listening to me? Drop the statement."

"Shut up." I cut him off.

He pauses on the other end. "What did you just say?"

"I said shut up, Carly." My voice is surprisingly calm. "I am not releasing any statement. Lym is a piece of trash, and that is a fact. You are an idiot, and that is also a fact. You two are perfect for each other. Go rot in that mortal town together."

"Eve! How dare you."

I crush the crystal right in my hand.

Years of accumulated love die completely in this moment. I will never shed another drop of blood for this foolish human.