en

terror, a heavy, cold stillne

cloying perfume mixed wit

rry across the torchlit courtyard below, clutching he

e tremor of hesitation, only the cold

bitter memories of the p

my mother, El

e realm, gifted with an unparalleled understandi

on, high society viewed her a

e than an ambitious merchant upstart who had bought a petty n

are tinctures to purge his condition, single-handedly cur

ed his wealth and power, he d

-blood pedigree he foolishly believed would elevate him-while banishing my mother, his lawful wife, to a

had been, "Aspen, ne

into Prince Krishna in a desperate search for love and bel

ing me to yield my betrothal and legitimate status to Deena-his concubine's daughter-and submit t

earable despair, I tied a silk cord

it was a sheer miracle that I o

rkness, my soul had crossed the dimensional void into a para

grew up as a pe

rn science, I rose through sheer grit, graduating at th

pharmacology-saving countless lives and pioneering revolutionary neural rege

yes on my deathbed-only to wake up in a sudden gasp back in

ed for Prince Krishna's scraps

med with centuries of cutting-edge clinical mastery that this

ed my

as gone, replaced by ab

own the crystal jar of royal beaut

ooden chest, I pulled out a small packet wra

e crushed herb

in royal court cosmetics and activated by body heat, it trigge

g scarlet rash covering the entire face and ch

ve hours, the compound would metabolize completely and vanish

ecise pinch of the powder into Deena's cre

Deena's

ould order her servants to sneak back and retrieve her

t bride's veil on their wedding night, only to recoil in shee

smile touch

st installment of you

jar in a visible sh

nny, my personal handmaiden, slipped int

red and puff

ring. They say... they say the Elder is exiling you to the frozen wasteland

and looked into her

ood, the only person in this venomo

"I leave for Blackwood Keep at dawn. It is a dangerous

idn't h

r knees, grasping

go. Even if Blackwood Keep is a dragon

ead throug

ger in this room, Penny. We aren't going there

r trunks, I looked out toward

unforgettable wedding catastrophe. Second, establish absolu

living corpse with a

the ultimate clinical challenge-and the sharpe