Mirabel's Defenses Crumble Tonight

After their father died, Marcus Thornfield was sent to live with an older half-sister he had never met—Aurelia Blackwell. She was like a blade tempered in ice, pouring all the bitterness of losing her mother and the contempt she held for their father straight onto Dorian's head, treating him like a weed invading her territory. Dorian endured every slight without protest, asking only for a roof over his head. That night, he caught a glint in Mirabel's eyes he had never seen before—it was not hatred, but something closer to the ashes left after everything has burned away. It hit him then: this woman, armored to the teeth, intended to destroy herself tonight. And the final sharpness she wielded before the end became the prelude to Dorian forcing his way into her forbidden world.