Chapter 3

I don't know when I passed out. My eyelids felt impossibly heavy, and occasionally, blurred fragments of voices drifted past my ears, only to dissolve again into the fog.

Suddenly, a tear dropped straight onto my parted lips. I tasted salt.

"I don't want to do this to you either..."

I forced my eyes open with everything I had, but there was no one there.

Derrick's assistant was dragging me by a rope tied around my ankles, hauling me toward the courtyard, the stone paving scraping my knees raw.

Audrey sat beneath a parasol, smiling, her eyes curved with amusement.

"Seraphina, are you hungry?"

I didn't answer. The kick that came was merciless, landing squarely on the freshly scabbed wound on my abdomen.

Blood seeped out again, quickly soaking through the fabric.

Derrick, expression blank, yanked the coat draped over the lounge chair and tossed it at me, his tone impatient.

"Audrey gets sick at the sight of blood. Cover it."

Nancy soon arrived carrying a wooden bowl, filled with a mixture of grass clippings and unidentifiable insects, giving off a rotten stench.

I had no choice. I lowered my head and swallowed it down, mouthful by mouthful.

Audrey leaned against Derrick, watching me with keen interest, then suddenly seemed to remember something and spoke up.

"Oh, right—the bone meal mixed into that bowl came from that batch of fox kits in the tank."

My stomach lurched violently, and I doubled over and vomited, the mess splattering across her elegant shoes.

The assistant didn't wait for instructions—she slapped me hard across the face, the force leaving my ears ringing.

Derrick crouched down, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and meticulously wiped her shoe tips clean, his movements carrying a patience I had never once seen from him.

"Can't even train this thing properly," he muttered coldly, not sparing me another glance.

Audrey, however, spoke up with a smile.

"Let her stay and keep me company while I practice piano. Consider it making up for her mistake."

Before he left, Derrick leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her swollen belly.

A sudden sting rose behind my nose, and I turned my face away in a hurry.

The moment he was out of sight, the smile on Audrey's face turned instantly cold. She tossed out some excuse about not wanting to be watched while playing, and had me sent off to the greenhouse out back.

The steward threw me a rusted pair of garden shears, his tone dripping with undisguised contempt.

"Fertilize that row of special flowers. Use your own blood."

I said the shears were rusted, that I was worried about infection. He scoffed.

"A beast that can't even die—what's infection to you?"

I said nothing more. I cut open my wrist and let the blood seep drop by drop into the soil of the flowerpots, until my whole body turned cold and my lips took on a bluish tinge.

It was in the idle chatter that I learned—the nutrient formula for these "flowers" was mixed with powdered spirit pearls from fox kits. Audrey found the living creatures too noisy, so she simply had the entire batch disposed of, repurposed as raw material for fertilizer.

I braced myself against the wall and walked out of the greenhouse, but the sight before me froze me in place.

Deep in the courtyard, the bodies of fox kits were piled high, layer upon layer. Audrey stood among them, using a small knife to pry open the chest cavity of one, extracting the spirit pearl inside.

She didn't even look up.

"Pure white ones are the rarest. Come lend a hand instead of just standing there."

That was when I saw the glass display case.

Locked inside it was Aria—only ten years old, not yet able to shift form. My little sister.

She pounded against the thick glass walls, screaming.

"Help me!"

Tears fell from her eyes, gathering at the bottom of the tank and hardening into tiny, delicate pearls.

Audrey waved a hand at Nancy, signaling for the glass tank to be wheeled over beside the cutting table.

I crawled forward on my knees, bowing my head to the ground again and again until my forehead split open and bled.

"Please, spare her... I'll give you my spirit pearl in exchange for her life—mine is pure white!"

Audrey only laughed and shook her head, tossing the knife in her hand at my feet.

"I don't feel like opening a blind box today. Yours can wait."

Her gaze fell instead on the single tail still remaining on my back.

"This one, though. You do it yourself."

I stared at the knife, my whole body trembling, unable to bring myself to reach for it—this was my last tail. Once it was gone, there would be nothing left.

Audrey's patience clearly had limits. With a cold laugh, she snatched the knife from the ground and moved without hesitation.

The instant the agony tore through my entire body, I nearly lost consciousness.

The moment the bodyguard smashed open the glass tank, Aria wrenched herself free and sank her teeth into Audrey's wrist. Blood sprayed out.

Derrick was there almost the same instant, rushing forward.

He pulled Audrey into his arms, his voice icy.

"Wasn't it enough that you people took my parents from me? Now you won't even leave her alone?"

Sobbing, I pulled my trembling sister into my arms, shaking my head, unable to force out a single word.

In my near-collapse, I lifted the tail I had just cut off and held it out toward him.

"Please... let her go."