"Little brother," the woman began while her eyes swept him from head to toe without hiding her judgment. "How have you been?"

There was not a single shred of warmth.

Kaiden just stared back.

She clicked her tongue dramatically. "Aww, come on! Your big sis will tear up if you treat her like this…" she whined, even lifting a hand to her eye as if preparing to shed a tear on command.

Fake.

Every bit of it.

Predictably, the twins stepped up with anger flashing in their eyes, hot and stupid.

"Don't be rude, you fucker!" one snapped.

"Yeah, show proper respect!" the other added, puffing his chest as if that helped.

Kaiden closed his eyes.

Deep breath.

Opened them again.

Selena.

Cassian.

Calix.

His older sister and his two younger brothers.

All three were absolute pieces of work.

Spitting images of their father, Magnus, in all the worst ways.

The Ashborn mansion had never been a serene place.

Not before the mana apocalypse, nor once it hit.

Peace was a foreign concept inside those walls.

From birth, every child was expected to perform.

Vespera, kind at her core despite everything, had been part of that problem, too.

Not out of malice. Not out of cruelty.

But because she herself had been raised under the same suffocating expectations by her own cold, demanding parents.

She had excelled from the moment she could walk, so she assumed, believed, that pushing her children the same way would give them the best chance at a meaningful life. After all, what mother wants their sons and daughters to become lost in their way?

And for a long time, she didn't question that.

Not until 'that' happened.

Not until she watched the quiet, depressing spiral Kaiden fell into when he couldn't awaken, something he had zero control over. A wound no amount of effort could fix.

That was when it hit her.

All the pressure.

All the demands.

All the unseen weight she'd placed on his shoulders.

Because it wasn't just that Kaiden was one of the unlucky 85% who didn't awaken, no, he was the sole child in the household full of awakened - a household that demanded excellence and respected competence. By the way she brought her own children up, he was understandably feeling horrible, like a true failure.

That was when regret grew in the woman like a sickness.

This was why Kaiden felt so emotional back when she visited them in their new home and went as far as to openly declare that he was her pride, her amazing son. It meant a lot to Kaiden, who grew up in this suffocating setting.

And this was why, back when Kaiden could take the depression no longer and left for college, once she saw the results of her own parenting style, she stopped.

But Magnus?

He didn't stop.

Magnus was worse.

He was the architect of the tension that now simmered between the siblings standing in this room.

It wasn't enough for him that his children excelled; they had to compete.

He fostered a home where one-upmanship was the norm.

Where emotional closeness was a weakness.

Where every victory earned praise… and every failure earned frost.

Where each child was silently pushed to claw their way toward the title of heir apparent.

Kaiden and Alice never bought into it, not truly. They were content not inheriting the large conglomerate that became New Dawn once they rebranded.

They refused to play the game.

But Selena?

Cassian?

Calix?

They dove into it.

And they were exactly what that system produced: sharp, petty, hungry for approval, always ready to undermine a sibling if it meant getting one step closer to Magnus's acknowledgement.

And now they stood here, looking at Kaiden like he was still the black sheep who fell behind.

Selena raised a hand, immediately silencing the barking twins without looking at them.

She was always the ringleader.

Then she stepped closer, plastering on a sisterly smile that fooled no one.

"Come here. Give me a hug."

She reached for him.

Kaiden's hand snapped up in that moment, with his palm stopping her in mid-reach before she could get close enough to touch him.

"I'd rather you didn't," he said calmly.

Questionable for a brother to say? Maybe.

But Kaiden knew these people.

He wasn't about to give any of them the chance to put him in a vulnerable position, not even for a heartbeat.

Who knew what Selena would do once she had him in her arms? He didn't want to find out.

Selena's eyes darkened.

The smile she wore soured, twisting at the corners with something ugly.

And the room seemed to shrink around them.

"What Mother did seems to have filled you with unfounded confidence," Selena spat. Every single word that left her throat was dipped in venom.

It wasn't their first encounter since Kaiden awakened.

The last time he'd set foot in Ashborn Manor, right after saving Julia, Aria's mother, these three approached him just like this. They pushed, mocked, prodded, circling him like jackals. And right when they were about to get physical, the walls themselves darkened. Shadows surged out and wrapped around their throats, courtesy of Vespera, whose powers appeared without a sound and squeezed until all three choked on fear.

They remembered that day.

But apparently… not clearly enough.

Because Cassian stepped forward now, closing the distance until he stood right in Kaiden's personal space.

"But Mother isn't here now, is she?" he hissed while smiling as if he'd already won. "So who's going to protect the family's disgrace this time around?"

Calix's eyes slid toward Kaiden's girls with his voice dripping contempt.

"Will it be them? The sl-"

*Boom!* Kaiden's killing intent hit the room from one moment to the next, making Calix feel as if a bomb had been detonated for a brief second.

"I'd strongly suggest you don't finish that sentence. Speak to me however you want. I don't care.

But you don't breathe a single insult about any of them, or you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

Calix froze up. His body acted before his brain caught up with one instinctive step back.

"What's wrong with this bastard…?" he whispered. "He's supposed to be F-ranked! I don't get it!"

Cassian recovered faster, evidenced by his jaw tightening with indignation.

"You've grown too arrogant," he snapped. "I challenge you to an awakened duel. Let's see if you have any right to act this high and mighty."

"Fine," Kaiden accepted instantly.

But before the tension could turn into violence, the air above Kaiden warped.

His halo, dark and heavy, flared to life.

A silhouette stepped out of it.

A girl. Frail-looking. But the moment her feet touched the ground, the temperature of the room plummeted even further, adding extra fuel to Kaiden's imposing aura. It was as if their two auras merged together seamlessly, forming one that built on the other's, reinforcing each other to a height neither of them could achieve on their own.

Alice Ashborn.

"If you want your miserable existence brought to a swift end so badly," she hissed coldly, "say no more. Come on. Let's go visit the arena. Just you and me."

Cassian's face drained of color.

Because this wasn't the Alice he remembered.

Her right eye gleamed stark white. The right side of her hair matched it, bleached to a ghostlike shade that contrasted violently with the rest of her dark locks. The change made her look outright otherworldly.

Someone dangerous.

That was what his senses told him about the girl.

And her glare, which was usually soft, usually aimed at Kaiden with childlike affection, now burned with pure hatred.

Hatred for them.

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