My Sister Stole My Mate, And I Let Her

Chapter 507: Chapter 507 THE SUN ON A NECKLACE

SERAPHINA’S POV

The chamber still trembled from Malachar’s fragment’s destruction, the air thick with residual silver light and dying black siphon threads curling like burnt nerves through stone.

Kieran stood at my side, his presence like a second heartbeat threaded into mine through the mate bond, steadying the storm inside me without muting it.

My initial shock waned, and I pulled my power back, not dissipating it entirely. Silver light gathered at my fingertips, waiting to identify this new variable before I attacked.

“Don’t,” she said, watching my hands warily. Her tone didn’t match the pattern of threat I expected.

There was also no fear or urgency in it. She sounded almost...conversational.

”Who are you?” Kieran barked.

She stepped fully into the fractured light.

She was younger than I expected—early twenties, maybe. Her auburn hair was pulled into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, and her sharp features gave her a severity that made it easy to misread her as older.

“I’m Evelyn,” she answered. “Catherine’s daughter.”

For a moment, my mind went utterly blank as I tried to make sense of what I’d heard.

“Catherine doesn’t have a daughter,” I said, voice low.

Behind me, Kieran shifted, tension flooding his stance and his eyes narrowing, his suspicion mirroring my own.

Evelyn’s expression did not change. “I’m adopted.”

That sounded almost more ridiculous than if she were Catherine’s biological daughter.

I was still struggling to process Evelyn’s words when Catherine let out a brittle laugh.

“I appreciate the sentiment, Evelyn, dear,” she said, forcing herself up with trembling limbs, “but you won’t succeed where I failed.”

I scoffed. “Listen to your”—my nose wrinkled—“mother.”

Evelyn didn’t take her eyes off me as she spoke. “You misunderstand, Mother. I’m not here to save you.”

Her hand moved.

Instinctively, I planned a counterattack.

But she hadn’t aimed for me.

Lines of light erupted across the floor in geometric precision, wrapping around Catherine and locking her in place as containment sigils ignited beneath her.

“What—what is this?” she demanded, struggling against invisible constraints as her hands pressed against glowing barriers that responded like living walls.

Evelyn finally turned to her.

“A containment array,” she said calmly.

I blinked at Catherine’s trapped form.

What the fuck?

Kieran’s voice brushed against my mind through the bond. ‘Call me crazy, but I don’t think she’s on Catherine’s side.’

And somehow, that realization unsettled me more than hostility would have.

“What—” Catherine sputtered. ”I didn’t teach you such a spell.”

Evelyn shook her head. “No, you didn’t.”

She exhaled once, as if bracing herself for something. Then she continued, “You also didn’t teach me the one I used to put a block on Margaret’s power.”

My body went still.

I remembered Catherine floundering, trying to figure out how my mother had cast the spell that protected me from her powers.

The shock hit Catherine like a ton of bricks.

She stared at Evelyn, her jaw unhinged. Her already pale face was almost translucent now. “What?”

Evelyn straightened, her face tight. “I couldn’t let you hurt anyone else.”

The shock quickly gave way to white-hot fury, and Catherine snarled from within the array. “You traitorous little—”

Evelyn flicked her wrist.

Catherine choked mid-word as the sigils tightened and the containment responded instantly, silencing her without mercy.

Evelyn turned back to me, continuing as if nothing had happened.

“If you want to save your mother, all the power Catherine stole must be retrieved and returned. And only I can do it.”

The implication of her words spread through me like ice over a lake, and my attention drifted back to my mother—to the minuscule rising and falling of her chest.

“You can save her?” I whispered.

“On one condition.”

My attention darted back to Evelyn.

Kieran’s skepticism hardened into hostility, our bond flaring with unified instinct.

No.

Another condition meant control. Another chain. Another trap.

“I’m not agreeing to anything you want,” I said.

Evelyn didn’t miss a beat. “Then everything here collapses unresolved. Catherine dies with stolen power still anchored inside her. Margaret will follow soon after. And Malachar’s residual imprint eventually reconstructs itself through the fragments you missed.”

My jaw tightened.

She was speaking too precisely.

Too sure.

Kieran moved beside me fully now, his presence rising. I felt his intent sharpen into action.

“You’ll find,” he growled, “that we don’t respond well to threats.”

She raised her hands, and I felt the pressure drop. “I’m not your enemy, but I’ll defend myself if I have to.”

Silver power flared at my fingertips. ”Take your mother’s advice—don’t try me.”

“Wait!”

We all turned at yet another newcomer rushing into the chamber.

I paused, stunned.

An image flashed in my mind, dredged up from the still-recovering memories of my sealed childhood.

Flashing lights. Broken glass. Hands reaching toward me. Kind eyes. A voice telling me to breathe.

‘One, two. In, out. Just like that, Sera. See? You just need to calm down.’

‘What’s wrong with me?’

‘Nothing, my dear. Absolutely nothing.’

“Tobias,” I whispered.

The corners of his eyes wrinkled as he smiled. “Hello, little one.”

I staggered a step back, and Kieran’s hands gripped my waist, steadying me.

“Wh-what are you doing here?”

Tobias raised both hands slowly, coming closer.

“Don’t attack her,” he said firmly.

Then he turned to Evelyn. “You too.”

It must have been muscle memory, the way I instantly retracted my powers.

Evelyn didn’t share my surprise. She had expected this interruption.

Tobias continued, voice steadying as he stepped fully into the chamber.

“We both helped Margaret,” he said. “Everything Evelyn just told you is true.”

Kieran’s eyes narrowed. “And why should we trust you?”

Tobias didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked at me.

And I hated how small that look made me feel, like I was once again that scared little girl in a world that feared me for what I couldn’t understand.

But Tobias hadn’t feared me.

He’d cared for me. He’d tried to teach me how to control my powers. He’d been the only one to push back against Catherine.

“We can trust him,” I said softly.

I turned to Evelyn, whose face was still pinched, her hands still ready.

I sighed. “I guess that means we can trust you, too.”

She exhaled slowly and let her tightly-held stance ease, though her gaze remained cautious. “You don’t have to trust me; just don’t fight me.”

I slipped my hand out of Kieran’s and moved across the room to where my mother lay. I gathered her in my arms, pressing my hand against her chest. A small sob stuck in my throat at the weak pressure of her heart beating.

I looked up at Evelyn and Tobias. “Can you really save her?”

Tobias moved towards me.

“The spell protected her the same way it protected you.”

Tears gathered in my eyes. “Thank you,” I whispered.

I didn’t know how he’d come to be here or become entangled with Catherine and her “daughter,” but if it meant I wouldn’t be orphaned, all I could be was grateful.

Kieran came to stand beside me, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder.

He tipped his head towards Evelyn. “What’s your condition?”

She swallowed and glanced back at Catherine. She was still mute, but her eyes blazed with fury.

“Don’t kill her.”

I laughed once, sharp and humorless. “You’d be better off asking for the sun on a necklace.”

Evelyn sighed. “Once all the power is out of her, she’ll barely be able to lift a finger without help. Is a lifetime of weakness and captivity not a better punishment than death?”

I paused.

I wanted Catherine gone. I couldn’t stand the thought of her being alive somewhere, of even a microscopic chance that she could ever come back on the board.

But Evelyn was a daughter who didn’t want to lose her mother the same way I didn’t want to lose mine. I could understand that.

“Save my mother first,” I said softly, “then we’ll talk.”

Evelyn’s jaw tightened, but she seemed to understand that was all she would get, so she nodded stiffly.

She flexed her fingers, and suddenly, Catherine’s voice filled the room, strained and venomous.

“How dare you?” she hissed. “After everything I’ve done for you.”

Evelyn finally looked at her fully, and for the first time, something like grief passed through her expression.

“I couldn’t stand by and watch you sink deeper,” she said quietly.

Catherine’s eyes burned. “You think you’re righteous?”

“I think you’re dangerous,” Evelyn replied. “Someone had to stop you.”

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of tense silence around us.

Then Catherine smiled. Sinister.

“You think you’ve stopped me?”

My instincts spiked instantly.

That expression was not defeat.

Kieran felt it too. His grip tightened on me.

“Sera, stand up.”

But Catherine was already laughing under her breath as her fingers shifted, pressing against something hidden beneath her wrist.

A faint pulse of black-red light ignited beneath her skin.

My blood ran cold.

“No,” I breathed.

Evelyn’s eyes widened.

“Don’t—”

The chamber went silent for a fraction of a second.

Then reality exploded.

Black-red light detonated outward from Catherine’s body in a shockwave, and the containment array shattered instantly.

The ground beneath her collapsed. The siphon network screamed as it inverted, feeding backward into nothingness.

Kieran locked his arms around my mother and me just as the blast hit. Silver light flared instinctively, stabilizing just enough to keep us intact as we were thrown backward and hit the fractured edge of the chamber wall.

Through the chaos, I saw Tobias grab Evelyn’s arm, pulling her toward a reinforced sigil line as sections of the chamber vanished into the collapsing void.

And Catherine—

Catherine was gone.