Elena
She had counted fourteen moons through the tower's narrow window.
She marked them with a sliver of broken porcelain stolen from the washbasin.
Her cheek still throbbed where Lee had struck her last. Her ribs ached. But worse than the pain was the stillness. The way the stone whispered at night. The way her mother's voice echoed through the spiral staircase when she prayed aloud just outside the door — false prayers full of venom.
"You will never escape," Lee said.
"I already did," Elena whispered back, to the walls.
Food was left at odd hours. No visitors. No candles.
Even her magic — the warm pulse in her veins — was smothered by the warded hemp shackles around her wrists. She was magic, but magic meant nothing here. Here, she was dirt. Daughter. Property.
Until the engine arrived.
Kenneth
The sound roared like salvation.
A mana-stone car screeched into the estate's circular drive, its steel body gleaming in the pale sun. It bore the House Matteo crest. Dark navy flag on the front. Reinforced glass. Heat thrumming from the coils beneath.
The estate guards panicked. No one had been told to expect nobility.
Then the door opened, and Kenneth stepped out.
Black gloves. Skin as deep as a midnight sky, brilliant eyes that shone with purpose. Lapel pin shaped like a hawk. Coily hair clipped. Immaculate as ever. Behind him, three more men exited the car — quiet, armed, dangerous.
Kenneth strode to the front door.
"I've come to collect Miss Elena Rosaria," he said.
Lee, in her mourning veil, narrowed her eyes. "She's not yours to take."
He produced a scroll.
"This is a writ of purchase. Viscount Matteo has paid fifty thousand crowns to secure her release — equal to what you owe the Church in debt."
"I owe nothing."
"You owe everything."
"I won't sign."
"Then we will wait," Kenneth said, voice calm. "But understand this: my lord has sent a second letter to the Church… and this time, he did not ask."
Lee's face was white beneath her veil.
Elena, peering through her tower's window, watched as the guards began to argue.
She didn't know if this was a rescue or another imprisonment. She shrank back.