Ethan pushed open the front doors of the Morrison estate with both hands, and for the first time in eighteen years, he was smiling so wide his cheeks hurt. His heart was pounding, not from fear, not from anxiety, but from pure, raw excitement that he couldn't contain no matter how hard he tried. His shoes clicked fast against the marble hallway as he half walked, half ran toward the grand hall where he knew his parents would be sitting at this hour.Today was the day. Today everything would change.He had spent eighteen years being invisible in this house. Eighteen years of watching his parents pour every ounce of their love into Derek while he stood in the corner like a piece of furniture nobody wanted but nobody bothered to throw away. He had told himself a thousand times that it was because he wasn't good enough. That Derek was smarter, more talented, more worthy of their attention. That if Ethan could just do something extraordinary, something undeniable, his parents would fina

"Lies. That's all you are, Ethan. A bundle of lies wrapped in skin." Patricia stood up, her silk dress rustling. "You've never cared about Derek. Not once. Not ever. When he was sick as a child, you didn't sit by his bed. When he won his first tournament, you didn't clap. You've always treated him like he's something stuck to the bottom of your shoe, and I am sick of pretending I don't see it."Something sharp twisted inside Ethan's stomach. She didn't remember. Or she chose not to remember. It didn't matter which one. The result was the same. He was always the villain in their story. When Derek broke his mother's favorite vase at age nine, Ethan took the blame because Derek cried. When Derek failed his mid year exams, Ethan tutored him in secret for six weeks and let Derek take all the credit when his grades improved. Every sacrifice, every time he put himself second, it vanished into thin air the moment it was done. Like it never happened. Like he never happened."I do care abou

Patricia was already on her feet, rushing to Derek, pulling him into her arms and pressing his head against her shoulder. "Don't you dare blame yourself, sweetheart. None of this is your fault. You hear me? None of it.""It's really okay if Brother doesn't want to give me his Bloodline Core." Derek's chin quivered as he looked down at Ethan on the floor. "I understand. Brother has always wanted to leave this family anyway. If he gives up his Core, he won't get into Imperial University, and I know that's been his dream. I don't want to be the reason he loses everything."The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on.Richard's gaze moved from Derek's tearful face to Ethan's bleeding body on the floor. His expression hardened into something colder than stone."So that's what this is really about. You've been planning to abandon us all along."Ethan almost laughed. A bitter, broken sound that never made it past his throat. Of course. Derek had just twisted the knife one more time

Derek stepped forward from behind Patricia. His face was arranged into the most careful expression of guilt and sympathy, every muscle placed exactly where it needed to be. His eyes were soft. His brow was pinched. His hands were clasped together in front of his chest like a prayer."I'm sorry, Brother. I told them not to do it. You know I'd never want to hurt you." His lower lip gave one small, perfectly timed tremble.The Spirit made a gagging sound inside Ethan's head. "That kid is a better actor than anyone I've seen in four centuries. And I've seen empires fall. Kid, your brother played your parents like a fiddle made of stupid."Ethan didn't look at Derek. He didn't look at his parents. His eyes moved past all of them and found Jessica at the top of the stairs. Her face was calm. Composed. Untouchable."You drugged the milk."Three words. Flat. Quiet. Not a question.Jessica met his eyes without flinching. Her posture didn't change. Her expression barely shifted. But something m

Ethan stood slowly. His body protested every movement, the whip marks pulling against his skin, but he stepped closer. Two feet away. One foot.The True Dragon Spirit exploded inside his skull like a siren going off in an empty cathedral."HOLY MOTHER OF EVERY DRAGON THAT EVER LIVED." The Spirit's voice cracked with something Ethan had never heard in it before. Shock. Raw, unfiltered shock. "Kid. KID. Stop. Don't move. Do you feel that? Do you feel what's coming off her body right now?"Ethan felt it. Something warm, not like heat from a fire, more like standing in sunlight that somehow reached his bones. It radiated from Serena's sleeping body and pressed against his skin and sank through his muscles and settled into the deepest parts of him. The hollow in his chest, the gutted space where his Bloodline Core had been ripped out, began to burn. Not with pain. With something else. Something that felt like the first breath of air after being held underwater."She's a True Phoenix Bod