The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

The towering figure wrapped his arms tightly around her from behind, halting the supernatural power she was about to unleash. "Vivienne, don't hurt yourself." Vivienne Hawthorn blinked in surprise at the familiar voice before quickly grabbing the man in front of her. "Mr. Wolf, are you alright?" Just as Percival Ellington was about to respond, a pained "Ouch!" cfrom behind. "Geez, kiddo, got yourself a partner and ot your old coach, huh? I nearly got a hernia from that freaky thing, and you didn't even check on me?" Dawson was the first to dash in, and seeing the scene before him, he felt a lump in his throat, his annoyance nearly blowing the roof off. "Vivienne, how could you play favorites like this? Is ourbined worth really less than his alone?" The other apprentices trailing behind saw their beloved Vivienne in a tight embrace with Percival, worrying over him intensely, and felt as if their already wounded hearts were stabbed yet again.

And it was a deep stab indeed.

A stab that felt a hundred, no, a thousand times worse than any physical injury.

How had their Vivienne fallen for this man? "Vivienne, my hand's injured. Check it out, will you?" Donald's voice broke the tension, prompting others to lose their patience.

Larry chimed in after, "Check what? You should check mine first. What's your injurypared to mine? I nearly coughed up blood, did I say anything?" Eric added with a sigh, "Vivienne, my heart's racing. Am I about to die?" The others: "...You win." Jerry Perez was visibly frustrated. "Still arguing? We barely managed a simple barrier and almost got Vivienne hurt, and yet here you are, trying to take credit..." As Vivienne turned her sharp gaze to Finnian, who seemed to find the situation amusing, it was clear she suspected him of stirring up thismotion.

Finnian chuckled, standing upright suddenly, his eyes still carrying his usual slyness towards Vivienne.

"Both sides of the hand are flesh, after all. Bringing them here to see the action is fair, isn't it? After all, we're all in this together, and it wouldn't be fair for you to hog all the glory and et about your coach and brothers." Vivienne: ".

|| Did they seriously think this was ssort of treasure hunt? As Vivienne was about to lose her temper, Gary quickly tried to defend their coach, "Vivienne, don't be mad at coach. It was our idea toe. He just hinted at it, nothing more, honestly." Finnian's lips twitched.

What kind of apprentices had he gathered? They never thought of him when it was tfor credit but were quick to shift blame. The others added their two cents, "Exactly, Vivienne. You didn't even tell us about such a big deal. Do you see us as outsiders? Even if we're not much, we could still help." Finnian: It's like I'm the outsider here.

Vivienne, relieved to find no injuries on Mr. Wolf, finally tuned into the others' conversation.

Noticing the absence of Leopold, she frowned slightly.

Percival, sensing her worry, leaned in and whispered, "Don't worry, Thomas has found Dorian and the others. Thaddeus is being taken care of by the Linklater family." Vivienne looked up, meeting Mr. Wolf's confident gaze, and sighed in relief.

It wasforting to have Mr. Wolf around. Dorian and Cordelia were important to her, and any harm to them would weigh heavily on her heart.

In the midst of their silentmunication, a cold laugh cut through the air, a voice enhanced with power declared, "Perfect timing. With all this supernatural energy around, I have enough to activate the Millennia Aegis." Everyone froze, turning towards the source of the voice.

However, they hadn't noticed anyone else there, so absorbed were they in Vivienne's situation.

Finnian squinted, a dark shadow crossing his eyes, "You must be Abigail?" Abigail looked at him mockingly. "Old man, thinking a bunch of kids can stop me? Pathetic." Old? Finnian examined Abigail's face, then remarked, "Oh, if we're talking age, you've gotbeat. With that face, you're older by a mile. In front of an ancient witch like yourself, I dare not claim to be old." "Insulting my face? You're asking for it." Abigail's eyes flashed with a cold fury as she amed a powerful strike at Finnian, who countered with his inner energy. Despite holding his own, the confrontation was evenly matched, and Finnian, already nursing internal injuries, knew he couldn't last long. en.kikistories Abigail, realizing Finnian's vulnerability, intensified her attack, determined to crush him.

Vivienne was about to intervene when Percival, using his top-tier supernatural abilities, shielded Finnian from Abigail's onslaught.

Abigail's lips curled into an intriguing delive smile as she controlled Percival with her power and, with a flicker of movement, appeared before Finnian, a devastating blow to his chest. Those who dared to mock her would pay the ultimate price. en.kikistories Finnian couldn't dodge in tand coughed up blood.

"Master!" Seeing this, his fellow apprentices rushed over to catch the injured Finnian.

Vivienne's eyes shifted in color as she quickly approached to administer a healing potion to Finnian, channeling her inner energy to protect his heart.

She should have known, the ritual to break through barriers wasn't without its dangers.

Mr. Wolf stood unscathed, the injury had to be... the Master's.

"How dare you hurt our Master, I'll kill you!" Gary, refusing to believe what had just happened, raised his fists and charged at Abigail, only to be hit by an invisible force before he could even get close. If Jerry hadn't caught him, he would have slammed into the wall. en.kikistories Daniel clenched his fists, ready to avenge Gary, but a look from Jerry stopped him.

"Don't act rashly, something's off with this guy." When Gary approached, he hadn't even seen the man move, which showed that in terms of skill, they were not even worth his attention.

Even though their Master still had his strength, the exchange between the two made it clear that this was beyond anything the ordinary members of their group could interfere with.

If it had been a fair fight with their Master, Gary would have been more than just thrown around.

Enzo, fueled by anger, said, "Jerry, we can't just let this slide. He bullied our Master and Gary. I can't stand it." Donald also stood up, his eyes filled with a desire for vengeance, "Right, we can't let this guy get away with what he did to our Master."