"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.
