Chapter 4

A man in the crowd, an oilman I recognized as one of William Sr.'s rivals, suddenly laughed, a loud, booming sound.

He swaggered forward.

"Well, well, Ethan! Quite the showman!"

He turned to the shocked audience.

"I happened to be standing near our host earlier. He instructed his 'geologist' to identify a decoy if Elara got too close! Crystal #22, I believe he said. Artificially enhanced with a golden fleck, wasn't it, Ethan?"

He grinned maliciously.

"And as for the real #17..."

He strode to the display, picked up a bag from behind it – the bag with the shattered remains.

He pulled out a larger fragment, the golden vein clearly visible even in its ruined state.

My true second Sunstone Seed. It had been swapped. Smashed in secret.

He presented it to Candice with a mock bow.

"To the lovely Candice, for her research."

Candice simpered, taking the broken pieces.

I stared at the ruined Seed.

The unformed, nascent life-spark within it, the potential, the hope – utterly extinguished.

I felt a part of my own spirit die, a cold, hollow ache spreading through my chest.

Candice, now holding a lit bundle of sage, approached me.

Her smile was predatory.

"They say sage cleanses negative energy, darling."

She waved the smoking sage near the shattered pieces in her hand, then near my face.

The acrid smoke stung my eyes, my throat.

"Unless you admit right now that your 'Sunstone Guardian' nonsense was all a gold-digging scam, I'll 'purify' this little rock's essence right out of existence."

The thought of my potential child's spirit, the essence of my Seed, being so violated, so casually destroyed by her hate, was unbearable.

I looked at Ethan. His face was a mask of cold fury.

He believed her. He believed I was a fraud.

The fight drained out of me.

Broken, I whispered, my voice barely audible, "I... I lied."

The ballroom erupted.

Jeers. Derisive laughter. Shouts of "Fraud!" "Witch!"

Ethan advanced on me, his eyes blazing with a terrifying rage at my "betrayal."

He grabbed a heavy crystal award statue from a nearby table.

"I ought to see if you shatter as easily as your lies, you desert witch!" he snarled, raising it.