The silk of my wedding gown itched like fire, soaked through from the rain pounding the courtyard. Chains bit into my wrists, bolted to the ancestral pillar. \n\n"No Mark, no marriage," Elder Lu sneered, holding my bare wrist up for all to see. "No marriage, no protection. Cast her out!" \n\nLaughter echoed as guards dragged me toward the gate. But I felt it—the tremor beneath the stones, the whisper in the wind. The same premonition I’d had the night before the Mark vanished. \n\nThey thought I was powerless. They didn’t know I’d dreamed this exact moment a hundred times. And in every version… I survived. \n\nNow, crouched in the alley behind the compound, blood dripping from my palm, I traced the old sigil into the wet concrete. The first step back from oblivion. The first spark of revenge. \n\nThe door behind me creaked open. Footsteps. Did I flee into the sewers… or turn and face them with the knife I’d hidden in my sleeve?