I pulled my collar closed.

"Dana Griffin. On your wedding day, you knelt three times before heaven and earth. You looked Clarissa in the eye and swore you would trust her, protect her, never doubt her. That you would be hers alone, for the rest of your lives."

"All those vows dripping with devotion. Did you feed every last one of them to the dogs?"

I didn't wait for his answer.

My gaze dropped to the strands of his hair still tangled between my fingers, torn loose only moments ago.

"No matter."

"Every wrong done to her, I will repay in full."

Dana's brow furrowed. "You—"

Lucretia wrenched herself free of his arms and threw herself at my feet.

She flashed me a taunting smile, but the words that left her mouth were a tearful wail:

"Sister, whatever grievance you have, take it out on me! Don't hurt His Majesty!"

I was happy to oblige.

Without a heartbeat's hesitation, I swung my hand and slapped her across the face.

Then I hurled the entire bowl of heart's blood over her.

Lucretia screamed.

The blood was still warm. It dripped from her hairpins, ran down her temples, soaked through the crimson phoenix robe until the silk clung to her skin.

She raised a hand on instinct and wiped at her face, smearing the blood into a grotesque mask.

Dana stared at Lucretia, drenched and trembling.

As though she were the one who'd been bled. As though she were the one who'd been hurt.

Every ounce of tenderness in his eyes belonged to her. Every shred of his pity, his bias.

"Clarissa, you've bullied Lucretia since you were children. And now you use whatever affection I still hold for you to humiliate her again and again!"

"Since you drew heart's blood and still refuse to save her, then I will have every last one of those wretched spawn dug up and ground to dust. Let's see you use them to terrorize Lucretia then!"

"Guards! Exhume the remains of the First Prince, the Second Prince, the Third Princess, the Fourth Prince, and the Fifth Princess. All of them!"

"Burn them in open flame. Boil them in oil. Then summon the Exorcist to lay the foulest curse he knows, so they can never be reborn. Not even as ghosts!"

A savage pain detonated in my chest.

It wasn't mine. It was my sister's.

I froze.

Was Clarissa's soul still inside this body?

Then why, no matter how many times I called for her, had she never answered?

With every word Dana spoke, the pain deepened, as if something were being ripped apart inside me, slow and alive.

Lucretia sat crumpled in the pooling blood, biting her lip, sobbing as though each breath cost her dearly.

"Your Majesty, my sister truly despises me beyond all reason!"

"But... but the Exorcist himself said those five children died because of the elder sister's wickedness. That her sins provoked heaven's wrath..."

"That's why they were smothered one by one, trampled by horses, thrown to their deaths... I grieve for those poor children so deeply..."

Dana's chest heaved violently. He erupted.

"Even after you've humiliated her to this degree, Lucretia still weeps for those children! That is a heart of pure sincerity!"

"And you? All you do is use your own children as weapons for revenge! You don't deserve to be called their mother!"

Two lines of blood-red tears spilled from my eyes, beyond my control.

Those were my sister's tears, shed for her five murdered children.

I clenched my fists until the strands of hair bit into the flesh of my fingers.

I laughed. The sound was jagged, ugly.

"Sister Clarissa! Your five children are barely cold in their graves, and you... you can still laugh?!"

Lucretia's tears flowed without end, her expression the very portrait of unbearable grief.

But I saw it clearly. The triumph glinting in her eyes.

The same look her mother had worn, all those years ago, when the two of them had wielded their fragile, pitiful act to steal Father's affection and driven Mother to weep alone every night.

"I'm laughing," I said, "because you fools don't know what you've done. You woke me up."

I raised my hand and pressed a finger to my own chest.

"Dana Griffin. Do you know what a Soul-Scattering Nail is?"

"It is a torture designed to pin a living soul apart, scattering all three spiritual essences and all seven mortal forms until nothing remains."

"I was trying to save you, and you threw it back in my face!" Dana's eyes were full of bitter disappointment. "That ritual was meant to purge the darkness festering inside you. And it didn't do a damn thing!"

"From the day Lucretia entered this palace, when have you ever known your place? You slipped her fertility poison and smeared her name with accusations of debauchery. You pushed her into the water and caused her miscarriage!"

"All I did was give her your children as compensation, and you threw a fit, cut your own hair, and threatened to end your life!"

Lucretia delicately wiped the blood from her face, her voice catching in a pitiful sob as she added:

"His Majesty was merciful, all things considered. He still granted you the title of Imperial Consort, for old times' sake."

"But you only behaved yourself for a month. The moment the Fifth Princess was born, you threatened His Majesty with your life again!"

She dabbed at the corners of her eyes, her tone laced with indignation on Dana's behalf:

"His Majesty was so shaken those days he could barely function. He even canceled morning court for three days straight. And in the end, it was nothing but a ploy to monopolize his affection!"

Malice churned behind my eyes. I let out a cold scoff.

"Clarissa was pure-hearted to her core. She would never stoop to something so vile. Every word of it is slander."

"But from this day forward, every last thing you've accused her of, I will make you experience firsthand. Then you'll learn what true cruelty looks like."

The moment the words left my mouth, the handmaiden beside me dropped to her knees with a heavy thud.

She pressed her forehead to the ground, her voice trembling as though she could barely contain her fear:

"Your Majesty, Your Grace the Empress, this servant has something urgent to report..."

"The Consort... she has harbored a grudge against the Empress for the Fifth Princess's death. In secret, she has been practicing Hex Sorcery..."

With shaking hands, she pulled a Hex Doll from the folds of her robes.

I recognized this handmaiden.

She had been eight years old, selling herself into servitude to pay for her father's burial.

It was my sister's kindness that saved her, kept her close, and sheltered her all these years.

Dana stared at the Hex Doll, then turned his gaze to the handmaiden kneeling in testimony.

"This is the very servant you rescued. Now even she has come forward to testify against you. Do you still intend to deny it?"

His eyes were bloodshot, and the way he looked at me held nothing but bone-deep revulsion and disappointment.

"Lucretia told me you bullied her and her mother when you were children. I didn't believe it."

"But now the proof is undeniable. Every shred of your kindness was a lie!"

My chest seized without warning, a dense, blunt pain splitting open across it.

A mouthful of blood surged up and sprayed out, spattering across Dana's face, already twisted with shock and fury.

I watched the terror flare in his eyes.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my lips.

This was the last protective ward my sister had left inside this body.

Not to shield herself. To shield everyone else.

She had thought of every single person except herself.

Between my fingertips, the strand of hair stained with blood burned white-hot.

Every ounce of pain my sister endured.

I would make them feel it all over again, from beginning to end.

Dana's mouth opened and closed. His throat bobbed.

A nameless, bone-piercing chill crawled up through his chest.

Right on cue, Lucretia dissolved into whimpering sobs:

"Your Majesty, why is she staring at us like that... that cold, hollow look... The dark energy is rising in her again!"

Dana lifted his gaze and went rigid.

Tears of blood streaked down my face. My eyes blazed red, and a spectral chill clung to me like mist, flickering at the edges of perception.

He seized Lucretia by the arm and staggered back several steps, his voice tearing out of him in a ragged shout:

"Guards! Now! Summon the Exorcist!"

I closed my eyes.

My lips moved soundlessly, shaping the syllables of an incantation.

This was a curse I had mastered when I was still a wraith.

Within moments, Exorcist Aldric came rushing in.

He thrust his Peachwood Blade and ritual talismans out before him like a shield, his face white with terror:

"Your Majesty, the instant I set foot in the Forsaken Palace, I sensed an overwhelming wave of resentment!"

"But fear not! The fury is contained within the Consort's body."

"We need only nail her limbs to a peachwood pyre with century-old peachwood stakes, then set the pyre ablaze. That will purify her!"

He meant to burn me alive.

I stared at Dana without blinking.

He was silent for a moment.

Then, at last, he gave a heavy nod and murmured his instructions:

"...Perform the rite quickly. Don't let the fire truly harm her body. Just purge the evil spirit."

They brought in peachwood logs as thick as a man's fist.

I didn't resist. I let them bind me to the stake.

The instant my skin touched the wood, my soul felt as though it had been pressed against a white-hot brand.

Four peachwood nails, each the size of a bowl, were laid out right before Dana's eyes.

I gave him one last chance.

I looked at him, long and deep. "Dana. After all these years of love."

"Is this how little you trust Clarissa? If she hadn't risked her life to save yours, you would have died at Celestine Abbey."

"If she hadn't fallen in love with you, you never would have claimed the throne."

Dana's breath hitched, but his gaze held firm. No hesitation.

"Clara, once the exorcism is finished, you'll go back to the way you were..."

"We can live like we used to. I'll give you another child..."

The hammer fell.

Dana's entire body seized with a violent tremor.

He wrenched his head away, as though he couldn't bear to watch.

I didn't make a single sound. I just smiled.

But this time, something inside me died completely.

Not even a flicker of heartache rose to the surface.

For the first time, my composure cracked.

Sister...

Has your soul truly scattered to nothing, or are you still trapped somewhere inside this body?

How is it that neither Dana's love nor the threat to my very life stirs even the faintest response from you?

With every blow of the hammer,

the crease between Dana's brows deepened.

The red veins in his eyes spread another layer thicker.

The remaining peachwood piled around me had already been doused in lamp oil, its spiritual energy destroyed.

The flames roared to life.

I saw the panic flooding Dana's eyes. "Stop! Stop this at once!"

But Lucretia glided forward, her voice a gentle blade dipped in poison:

"Your Majesty, look at all that black smoke. That is the dark energy leaving her body."

"Once Exorcist Aldric has cleansed it all, we should send her to Celestine Abbey for spiritual retreat and prayer. That is the only lasting solution."

"I fear that one day, the one she harms won't be someone else. It will be you, Your Majesty..."

One sentence, and it struck the deepest fear buried in Dana's heart.

His outstretched hand froze in midair.

Conflict warred across his face, but in the end, he said nothing more.

Black smoke rolled into my throat, choking and thick.

Tongues of fire licked across my skin.

Dana could no longer see my body through the blaze.

Then.

Every ounce of agony that should have seared my flesh,

every last shred of it, rebounded.

Dana collapsed to the ground, convulsing, a scream ripping from his lungs as though his very organs were being torn apart.

"Put it out! Put out this fire!!"

"NOW!!"

At the same moment, Lucretia went rigid, as if something unspeakable had locked its gaze onto her.

She twisted around, her voice cracking with raw terror:

"A ghost!! There are actually ghosts in this world!!"