Chapter 2

Before I could even speak, Derrick pressed the button.

Current surged instantly from my temples through my entire body.

"It wasn't me!"

I clutched at the cold metal handles without thinking, my nails digging deep into my palms.

My consciousness scattered in an instant. A scream tore through my throat, my body convulsing violently, fluid running down my legs, mixing with the blood I'd coughed up—I couldn't tell which was more wretched.

By the time the first round of shocks ended, I was still twitching uncontrollably.

Derrick seemed to be losing patience. He pressed again.

"Where are my parents, right now?!"

I opened my mouth, spat out saliva laced with blood, my insides churning.

"I won't tell you."

Because this secret held the weight of countless lives besides my own.

This time, he didn't reach for the switch again.

Instead, he pulled from his pocket the spirit pearls I'd hidden in the crack beneath the basement door.

My pupils shrank instantly.

"What are you trying to do?"

He didn't answer. He simply bent down, picked one up, and turned it between his fingers for a moment.

"Guess."

His fingers slowly tightened, and the pearl—carrying an entire lifetime of one clan member's cultivation—crushed with a sharp crack into powder.

My scream tore out of my throat, mixed with the taste of blood.

He leaned down, his mouth close to my ear, his tone almost gentle.

"You foxes heal fast anyway. This is nothing."

I fought to protest, tears mixed with blood sliding down the corners of my eyes.

"Derrick, you'll regret this! You—"

His answer was a kiss, crashing down on me, fierce enough to feel like a bite, swallowing the rest of my words before they could leave my mouth.

The moment my consciousness began to blur, fragments of the distant past came rushing back without warning.

Only then did I realize how weak I'd become—weak enough to nearly forget that there had once been a time between us free of all this bitterness, a time when we had cherished each other.

Foxes are naturally drawn to humans. As children, we often took human form and moved among them, forming deep bonds.

The year I turned three, I was carried to him for the first time.

"Mom, I think I might like her a little?"

The woman laughed at his words and reached out to tap his forehead lightly.

From then on, our two families visited often, and the bond between us deepened year after year.

Until I turned fifteen, when humans launched a wave of persecution against the fox clan. My people were forced to retreat deep behind the barrier, no longer daring to show themselves.

But I still slipped out under cover of night, again and again—even if it was only to catch a glimpse of him from afar, it felt worth it.

Once, someone curiously asked who I was to him. I opened my mouth, ready to pass myself off as a "distant cousin," but he spoke first.

"She's my girlfriend."

In that instant, I gave him my whole heart.

Later, the fox clan reached an extremely secretive agreement with a group of top human scholars, brokered by my parents and Derrick's parents.

Not long after that agreement, his parents vanished without a trace, as though they had evaporated into thin air.

And I became one of the prime suspects.

See—humans could never rid themselves of their prejudice against the fox clan after all.

Years later, he became the foremost scholar in this field. And I, for the sake of my entire clan's survival, had no choice but to draw close to the very man who hated me down to the bone.

Countless times, the explanation nearly rose to my lips, only for me to force it back down, again and again.

Hold on, I told myself, over and over.

When that day finally came, there would be nothing left to hide.

The touch of his fingers snapped me back to awareness.

His hands were slick with sticky blood—the old wounds from years of cutting flesh and drawing blood from me, splitting open one after another right now.

"I'm dying, Derrick."

His expression changed instantly, as though I'd stepped on some line that could not be crossed.

Almost by brute force, he pried a whole bottle of pills between my clenched teeth and forced them down my throat.

"Who gave you permission to die?"

"Without my permission, you're not allowed to go anywhere."

He tore open the shackles at my wrists, then, with rough movements, shoved my face into the pool of emergency medicine, forcing the liquid up through my nose and mouth.

I fought to hold my last breath, feeling my face shift, inch by inch, from pale blue toward purple.

I don't know how long passed before the medicine finally took effect and the bleeding stopped.

He yanked me up out of the pool in one motion.

Before I could even catch my breath, the cold shackles were already locked back around my wrists, tethered carelessly to the foot of the bed.

Audrey pressed herself close, all smiles, draping herself over him.

She kissed Derrick with unrestrained affection, but her gaze stayed fixed on me.

Hidden in those eyes was a trace of malice no one else could ever have noticed.