The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

The butler lay on the ground, a victim of a vicious attack.

Someone had been here.

They had taken her children!

Vivienne followed the scent trail outside with urgency. She had sprinkled her children with a special blend of spices, leaving a trace wherever they passed. The trail ended at the base of an old hill.

This was the same place where Abigail had set up her ritual circle years ago, inviting Vivienne and Mr. Wolf into its snare.

Now, Abigail stood at the center, holding fragments of the ancient artifact known as the Millennia Aegis, chanting incantations that seemed to belong to another world.

The ritual was ready, with Vivienne's twin children placed at the very heart of it, lying on a crimson cloth.

Silent and observant, they watched everything around them without a fuss.

Sensing Vivienne's approach, Abigail's lips curled into a triumphant smile. "You really thought I needed your heart to complete my plans, but alas..."

Her gaze fell upon the two children, a boy and a girl, and she laughed, "My true goal was always them!"

"Twins are naturally aligned with darker forces, and now, with the ritual, not only will I achieve immortality, but I will also gain the power to obliterate anything in my path. From this moment forth, none shall stand against me. I, Abigail, will reign supreme over this realm." "After all, you should be thanking your children. Were it not for them, you would be the one lying here."

"You plan to use my children as conduits for this power without my consent?" Vivienne's icy stare bore into the madness that had overtaken Abigail, her eyes simmering with danger.

"You?" Abigail scoffed. "Once I possess this power, you'll be nothing but an ant to me. I can snuff your life out in an instant."

Vivienne simply gave her a meaningful look, her tone cool, "Is that so?"

sensing something off about Vivienne

Vivienne's arrival, and now, all that was left was to

had surrounded the ritual circle with her army of gifted individuals, tasked solely with ensuring the ritual's completion and, if necessary, sacrificing their own abilities to mend

made no move

This was Abigail's design.

wanted Vivienne to witness her children being used as sacrificial offerings, their powers drained until nothing but lifeless

of charging into

with the ritual, Vivienne's calm

climax and the repaired

in confusion; the ritual

She couldn't believe it.

ominously auspicious conditions absorbing vast energies from Vivienne

towards the children to verify

her fingers could touch their hearts, the twins let out a cry and became lifeless,

and bewildered, searched for Vivienne but found she had vanished, with only the storm of the ritual

ritual continued, its demands unmet, and a bolt of

by the ritual, intended to correct

depended on her abilities, Abigail desperately sacrificed her army to the ritual's vortex,

the non-human

pulverized by unseen forces, her powers and life essence

the ritual's dark mists began to clear, Vivienne reappeared, stepping forward to confront Abigail, now a

"Take a good look at yourself, Madeleine Hernandez, the lone survivor of the Hernandez

to the mirror in disbelief, only to see a

"Impossible... This isn't me... How could I become this... This