His Despised Stray Is A Hidden Queen

Aurora POV:

"Take the money, Aurora, and don't make this harder than it needs to be."

My uncle, Raymond Price, did not even look up from the parchment spread across his massive ebony desk. The Price family drawing room smelled of aged cedarwood and enchanted floor wax, a cold, suffocating scent that clung to my throat. High on the stone walls, oil portraits of Price ancestors in dark robes peered down at us with identical sneers, their painted eyes tracking my every breath.

I did not let go of my seven-year-old brother's hand. Silas's fingers were icy, his knuckles digging into my palm. He stood half-hidden behind my threadbare jacket, his chest rising and falling in rapid, shallow hitches.

Beside the desk, Raymond's assistant, Mr. Hayes, adjusted his silver-rimmed spectacles. He gave us the kind of sweeping look a pureblood wizard gave to garden pests before setting an extermination ward.

"Sis," Silas whispered, his voice trembling right beside my hip. "I hate it here. Let's go."

I squeezed his knuckles gently, signaling him to keep still.

Raymond finally set down his quill. He smoothed the sleeves of his dark green robes, the silver-threaded serpent crest of the Price lineage catching the pale chandelier light. He leaned back into his velvet chair, looking at us as though he were granting an audience to gutter rats.

"Your father's sudden death left debts that the Ministry of Magic is still auditing," Raymond said, his voice flat, stripped of whatever warmth blood ties were supposed to provide. "And your mother's inheritance is now under my legal administration. Let us stop pretending, Aurora. You are an eighteen-year-old orphan who was just suspended from Stellaria Academy for street brawling. You have absolutely no source of income, yet you are legally responsible for this child. You are a useless burden to the Price name."

With a slow, deliberate movement, he pulled open the heavy center drawer of his desk. He withdrew a small, cheap velvet pouch and tossed it onto the polished wood.

The pouch slammed down with a dull, metallic crash. It slid across the glossy surface, coming to a dead stop two inches from my knuckles.

"There are five hundred Glowgold coins inside," Raymond said. He laced his fingers over his stomach, his posture radiating absolute authority. "In the mortal world, five hundred Glowgold exchanged into pound sterling can buy you a tiny flat in the slums and keep you from starving for a few months. That is my final offer to buy you out."

I stared at the velvet pouch. The few gold coins inside clinked together, heavy with contempt.

"And what is the price for this generosity, Uncle?" I asked, keeping my tone perfectly level.

Raymond's mouth curled into an ugly line. "You take Silas. You cross the barrier into the mortal side tonight and fend for yourselves. You drop out of Stellaria Academy completely. You sign over the administrative rights of your mother's remaining vaults to me, to compensate for the resources this family has wasted on you two. And above all, you never tell a living soul that you carry Price blood. Consider your connection to this house severed."

The silence in the room stretched until I could hear the faint ticking of the enchanted pendulum clock by the door.

"Five hundred Glowgold to buy out our existence, while you legally swallow our entire inheritance under the guise of 'compensation'," I said, a slow nod accompanying my words. "You think our dignity costs that little?"

Raymond scoffed, the sound sharp and grating. "Dignity? You are an undisciplined freshman who barely survived the entry trials, constantly flagged for violent duels in the lower districts. You are practically a street urchin. Silas has not even displayed his core awakening. How do you plan to feed him? On empty pride?"

"Shut up!" Silas shouted, his small frame trembling with raw fury as he stepped out from behind my back. "Don't you dare talk about my sister like that!"

"Silas," I murmured, placing a firm hand on his shoulder to pull him back.

Before Raymond could snap his fingers for the house guards, the double oak doors swung open with a soft click.

A girl walked in, trailing a faint scent of sweet jasmine and expensive floral enchantments. She wore the sky-blue trimmed robes of Azure Gale House, cut from fine silk that shimmered with every step. Her blonde hair fell over her shoulders in perfect waves, framing an angelic, porcelain face that carried an innocent, practiced smile.

Isla White, my biological younger sister. The golden girl of the family.

"Oh, Sister," Isla purred, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness that made the hair on my arms stand up. "Why are you shouting at Uncle Raymond? He spent all morning talking to the Council of Magic clerks just to secure that settlement for you. He only wants what is best for you and little Silas."

She stepped forward, extending two manicured hands toward my forearm as if to offer comfort.

I stepped sideways without blinking.

Isla's hands caught empty air. Her polished smile twitched, a hairline crack showing through her practiced veneer before she smoothly lowered her arms and linked her fingers in front of her waist. She had been thoroughly brainwashed by Raymond, convinced that Silas and I were nothing but lower-class burdens dragging down her shiny new pureblood life.

Raymond looked at Isla, his hard features softening instantly into doting pride. "You don't need to waste your breath on them, Isla. I have already drafted the succession documents. Once your placement at Azure Gale is finalized, your late mother's entire estate and vaults will pass entirely to your name. You are the only true heir worthy of being adopted into the Price lineage."

I let out a short, quiet laugh.

In the dead quiet of the drawing room, that sound hit like glass shattering on stone. Mr. Hayes stiffened, and Raymond's eyebrows snapped together in immediate rage.

"Something amusing, Aurora?" Raymond barked.

"Very," I said. I looked at Isla's proud, arrogant face and found it utterly hilarious. She actually believed Raymond loved her, completely blind to the fact that he only adopted her because she was docile and easily manipulated. He was using her as a puppet to swallow our mother's massive hidden inheritance. I couldn't be bothered to expose the truth to someone so foolishly self-important.

I stepped up to the desk. I did not touch the velvet pouch with reverence. Instead, I placed the palm of my hand against the fabric and shoved it violently backward.

The pouch skidded across the desk, struck the inkwell, and tumbled over the far edge. It hit the floorboards with a violent thud, the drawstring snapping open. A handful of Glowgold coins rolled across the mahogany planks, spinning until they clattered against Raymond's polished dragon-leather boots.

"Keep your coins, Uncle," I said, looking straight into his cold, narrowing eyes. "I will raise Silas myself. And we won't take a single copper of your blood money."

"You insolent little..." Raymond slammed his palms onto the desk, rising half an inch from his chair.

"We are leaving," I cut him off, my voice dead and cold.

I turned around, took Silas by the wrist, and walked toward the exit.

"Aurora Kensington, if you walk through those doors, you are dead to this family!" Raymond's roar echoed off the high rafters, but I did not break my stride.

Mr. Hayes reached toward his inner cloak pocket, his hand hovering over his wand holster, but when my gaze swept past him, he froze, caught by the lethal calm in my eyes. He swallowed and stepped back.

Silas kept pace beside me, his small chin lifted, matching my speed.

We crossed the threshold. The heavy oak doors slammed shut behind us with an echoing boom, cutting off Raymond's furious shouts and Isla's sweet, fake murmurs of concern.

The long portrait gallery stretched before us, lined with faded tapestries depicting ancient wizarding duels. Two small house-servant sprites scrubbing the baseboards caught sight of us and scrambled behind stone pillars, squeaking in terror.

We walked down the wide marble staircase, past the empty courtyard, and pushed through the heavy front gates of the Price estate.

Outside, the damp evening air of the Atheria perimeter hit my face. It was cold, carrying the sharp sting of autumn mist and soot, but as it filled my lungs, the tight band around my chest finally loosened. I felt lighter than I had in months.

We walked down the winding gravel carriage path toward the boundary wards. Behind us, the wrought-iron gates swung shut with a heavy, final clatter of chains.

Silas looked up at me, his eyes wide and uncertain under the streetlamp's faint glow. "Sis... where are we going now? We don't have anywhere to sleep."

I knelt down in front of him on the damp gravel. The cold seeped through the knees of my faded jeans, but I didn't care. I reached up and pulled his jacket collar tight against the wind, fixing the crooked zipper before offering him a small, steady smile.

"Don't worry," I said quietly, tapping the tip of his cold nose. "I already have a plan."

My right hand slipped deep into the pocket of my oversized hoodie. My fingertips found the cold, circular metal of the token resting at the bottom. The heavy bronze crest stamped with an intricate ancient eagle.

Isla thought she had won the lottery. Let her enjoy her upper-class illusion. I just hoped she wouldn't come begging me for shelter when she realized Raymond was going to bleed her dry. After all, they thought I was just a penniless orphan with a suspended academic record. They had no idea what kind of supreme power this little bronze token could summon.