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I still feel it. Even now.

That’s what gave me fuel. Fire. Purpose.

I took it all for granted then. Life was good, and I didn’t question it.

But things can change.

Just like our reputations at Witley Academy, life can flip overnight.

* * *

I came home one vacation, when I was eleven, to a quiet house. I was dropped off at the front door by my father’s valet. The door was unlocked, which I remember thinking was so very strange.

The house was dark.

I stumbled into the kitchen.

And there, lying on the floor, were two bodies covered in blood.

My parents. Stabbed. In their own home. In cold blood.

Murdered.

And that’s when my entire world crumbled, in time for her to come into my life.

2

FABIEN

“You can touch anything in this house, except her.”

Those were the words Clement told me the first day I visited the Auclair family mansion. He was taking me on a tour around the estate when we passed Jolie Auclair in the hallway upstairs.

His sister.

The encounter was nothing. It was barely more than a momentary brush in a crowded hallway. There was simply a look from her.

A stare from bright, teal-colored eyes.

That was it.

And then, as soon as she had appeared, she was gone.

And Clement, thinking nothing of what could’ve transpired between her and me, told me never to touch his sister in the most offhand and casual way, but those words burned in my soul like a hot brand on flesh. He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to. Clement is many things, but most of all, he is possessive, especially when it comes to people he cares about.

Especially when it comes to his younger sister.

That vacation drifted by with barely any other sign of the youngest Auclair. She stuck to doing her own thing in the mansion, even as Baptiste, Clement, and I roamed around the grounds. There were no more looks between us. No more stares. No more passings in hallways. And definitely no touching.

Then my parents were murdered. The Supreme Elder of the Castaways was dead. And another Elder took his place. The world moved on.

And I was made an orphan.

Cromwell Auclair took me in. Of course he did. I was the son of the man he was loyal to. Once the funeral was over, my belongings were packed and sent to the Auclair mansion, my new room next to Clement’s. But it wasn’t really home. Most of my time was spent at Witley Academy. Only summer vacations were spent at the Auclair mansion, just like before the Cote murders.

I had only seen Jolie a few brief times since I moved in, and just like that first vacation, we didn’t exchange a word with each other. Not even a hello. She was always a silent presence in the mansion, existing as nothing else but a warning.

Our biggest interaction in those first few weeks in the mansion happened the day I was making myself a sandwich in the kitchen.