After the auction, I found them near the VIP exit.

"Name your price, Kieran," I said, blocking their luxury car. My voice was cool and businesslike. "I want that necklace."

Seraphina, nestled in his arms, flinched. She clutched the large ruby at her throat, as if I might snatch it away.

Kieran frowned. "You don’t have money, Aurora. Your accounts are frozen."

I met his gaze, playing my last card.

"I’ll sign a lifelong contract. I’ll be the Nocturne family’s exclusive perfumer. Just give me back my mother’s necklace."

Within their bloodlines, a lifelong contract was practically servitude. Even with different terms, it was a deeply agonizing commitment. For a noble pureblood, it was a grave insult. But I didn’t care anymore.

Kieran paused, a flicker of complex emotion crossing his eyes.

Then Seraphina tugged his sleeve, her voice soft. "Since the necklace was purchased, it’s now family property. I want to wear it. How about this? Once I’m done with it, I’ll give it back to my sister, alright?"

Kieran glanced at me, a hint of hesitation in his expression, then finally nodded.

But that afternoon, when Seraphina reappeared, the necklace was gone.

I waited a moment, then finally spoke.

"…Where is the necklace?"

Seraphina gasped. "Oh! I was playing with Snowball and let him try it on. I completely forgot to take it off him."

Snowball was the pet cat she kept in the back garden.

As she spoke, she blew a whistle from around her neck.

A pure white cat sprinted over instantly, my mother’s necklace dangling from its fur.

"The red looks so good with his fur, doesn’t it?" Seraphina smiled, lowering her head to stroke the cat’s fur.

My sanity shattered in that instant.

I didn’t think. My body moved faster than my brain, lunging directly at Seraphina.

I didn’t care about the consequences. I just wanted to sever the hand that desecrated my mother’s memory.

But the next second, my dagger never reached her.

A surge of immense shadow power slammed into my chest.

I was flung backward, crashing hard against a pillar in the corner of the garden.

The crack of breaking bones was sharp and sickeningly clear.

"Enough!" Kieran’s furious voice boomed.

He stood before Seraphina, dark mist swirling around him. He looked down at me, sprawled on the ground and coughing blood, his eyes devoid of pity, filled only with disappointment and disgust.

"I gave you a chance, Aurora. But you’ve disappointed me far too much, trying to harm Seraphina twice over a mere trinket."

"That… that was my mother…" I struggled to rise, but the searing pain in my ribs sent me crashing back down.

Kieran turned away coldly, issuing his command to the guards behind him.

"Take her to the ‘Cell of Silence.’ No one is to visit without my express orders."

The Cell of Silence.

It was a place reserved for those who committed the gravest offenses, a hundred times more brutal than any previous confinement.

Two burly bloodline guards roughly hoisted me up.

Seraphina stood by the car, looking down at me, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips. She mouthed the words: He’s mine now.

I was dragged into darkness.

This time, there were no doctors. No medicine.

Only specially forged silver chains piercing my collarbones.

Every so often, someone would drive a silver dagger into my palm.

As the burning agony pushed me to the brink of unconsciousness, the lead guard crouched down and patted my face.

"Don’t blame us for being harsh, Miss Aurora," he sneered. "Lord Kieran specifically instructed that you need a proper lesson. Learn what obedience means."

In this torment, time seemed to lose all meaning.

I don't know how long I was there.

The silver chains bit into my flesh, and I suffered from bouts of fever and chills.

Countless times in my dreams, I called out Kieran's name, only to wake to the heavy silence of the dark.

There was no response.

No one came to see me.

Until one day, the guard unlocked my chains.

"You can go. Lord Kieran said if you behave, you can return to the Moon Tower to continue your work."

I was thrown out of the prison gates as if I were discarded refuse.

It was raining heavily.

Injured all over, I stumbled along the muddy road.

A black car stopped in front of me.

The window rolled down, revealing Kieran's handsome but impassive face.

"Get in," he said. "If you kneel and apologize to Seraphina now, I can pretend none of this ever happened."

I looked at him, feeling like I was looking at a stranger.

My spirit had broken, and even hate felt like too much effort.

"No need." I walked around the car and continued forward.

Kieran didn’t follow.

He probably thought I was playing hard to get.

Back at the manor, I went straight to my perfumery lab to pack my things.

"Want to know how he and I met?" Seraphina was leaning against the doorway, unseen by me.

I said flatly, "Not interested. That has nothing to do with me."

But she started talking anyway:

"A hundred years ago, I happened to save Kieran from a demon hunter. Because of that, I only had a few years left to live. Just before I died, Kieran found me. He promised he would repay me with his entire life, that no one would ever separate us."

"But I never expected you to appear before I was fully recovered!"

"Even though Kieran promised me that the only person he truly loves is me, I can tell he cares about you… How could you take Kieran’s love from me!"

She suddenly gave a wicked smile. "So, the assassin… I was the one who hired him."

"It's a shame he didn't succeed in killing you."

I listened to her entire plan, feeling a strange sense of resolution I’d never known before.

"I won’t compete with you for Kieran, don’t worry."

"Of course I know that. What makes you think you're worthy of competing with me?"

"By the way, that day I said I felt insecure, guess what special gift Kieran gave me?"

Seraphina dangled a black USB drive in her hand.

"This is highly amusing," she said with a smile, walking into the room and plugging the drive into my computer. "Kieran personally showed this to me. He said it was so I could understand how you ‘serve’ him."

The screen lit up.

My pupils instantly dilated.

It was a video.

The footage showed the scene of Kieran and me performing the blood contract ritual in the secret room.

It was our most private, most sacred moment.

Not only that, she swiped with two fingers, revealing folder abbreviations.

Every moment I had spent with Kieran for the past five years was meticulously recorded!

My blood ran cold.

"Kieran said that during the assassination attempt back then, your mother's family was implicated. As her daughter, he felt you were deserving of punishment for her involvement."

"He said this was just a way to tame a wild beast," Seraphina whispered into my ear, her voice venomous. "He also said locking you up in the Cell of Silence this time was to keep me happy. He didn’t care if your legs were broken, as long as I was satisfied."

"He never loved you, not from beginning to end."

She kept talking, but her words became a blur.

At this moment, on this cold, rainy night, all the love, all the fantasies, all the grievances from the past five years turned to ashes.

"Is it true?"

I asked softly, my fingers tracing the foolish, love-struck version of myself on the screen.

"Of course. Don't believe me? Go check his study’s secret room. The original recordings are in the safe. The code is my birthday."

I pushed her aside and rushed to Kieran’s study.

Just as she said, the code to the secret room had been changed.

0915.

Without hesitation, I entered Seraphina’s birthday.

Beep.

The door opened.

In the safe, a box of video tapes lay quietly. The label read: Aurora – Taming Record.

"Hahahaha…"

I burst into laughter, tears mixing with the rain and flowing into my mouth, tasting incredibly bitter.

Taming Record.

So in his eyes, I was just a pet used to vent hatred and desire.

I grabbed the lighter from the table.

Beside it was Kieran’s most cherished thermostatic cabinet, used to preserve Seraphina’s blood samples.

And those priceless ancient books, land deeds.

"Kieran, since you like ‘fiery’ lessons…"

I lit the curtains.

Flames quickly licked at the dry books and wooden furniture.

The place was filled with flammable alchemical materials.

Blue flames shot up instantly, devouring everything.

Flames climbed into the sky.

Alarms wailed across Manhattan.

I stood on the lawn outside the manor, watching the mansion that symbolized Kieran's power and our past succumb to the inferno.

My phone buzzed.

It was a furious message from Magnus.

"Aurora! What are you doing? Seraphina called in a panic, saying you're burning the house down! Are you trying to get the entire Thorne clan killed?"

I called him back, my voice unsettlingly calm.

"I have just one question for you. If you lie to me, I'll turn myself in and take the entire Thorne family down with me."

Magnus was startled by my tone. "You... go ahead and ask."

"Did Kieran truly suggest putting me in the Cell of Silence?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, then Magnus's tired voice came through: "...Yes. The elders only suggested house arrest. Kieran insisted on the Cell of Silence. He said you needed that kind of pain to learn, to learn respect for Seraphina."

"Thank you."

I hung up.

The last bit of hesitation vanished.

I took off the ring from my finger and threw it into the fire before me.

Then, I tossed Kieran's black card, house keys, and car keys onto the lawn.

"We're even."

I turned and flagged down a taxi.

"To the airport."

Forty minutes later, I stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows in the departure lounge.

The radio was broadcasting breaking news: "A massive fire has broken out at a prominent Manhattan mansion, reported to be property of the Nocturne family..."

My phone vibrated non-stop.

Dozens of missed calls, all from Kieran.

I pictured him right now.

Angry? Shocked? Or finally starting to panic?

What would his expression be when he saw the pile of ashes, the empty safe, the ring I left behind?

It didn't matter anymore.

"Flight to Los Angeles is now boarding..."

I grabbed my suitcase and headed for the gate.

Just then, a commotion erupted at the entrance of the hall.

That familiar tall figure rushed in.

Kieran was searching frantically through the crowd.

He used vampire speed, moving like a blur.

He was looking for me.

Through the bustling crowd, his gaze seemed to sweep over me.

For a split second, my heart instinctively clutched.

Five years of habit. It was a reaction etched into my very bones.

I knew if I turned around, he would rush over, maybe embrace me, maybe lock me up again.

But I didn't stop.

I gripped my boarding pass, my knuckles turning white.

Goodbye, Lord of Shadows.

Goodbye, that foolish Aurora.

I stepped into the boarding tunnel, not looking back.

Outside the glass window behind me, the massive silver bird was waiting to carry me to freedom, to the man who had been waiting for me in Los Angeles—Lucian Ashford.

Whether it's hell or heaven, as long as Kieran isn't there, anywhere is fine.