Chapter 2

The moment I reached the Nine Heavens, the sky and earth changed color.

I hadn't thought that after thirty thousand years, though the Demon God's power had been cut by more than half, it could still command such force.

I had only just begun to worry that an omen like this would draw unwanted trouble.

But behind me the celestial soldiers and generals cried out, their faces bright with delight.

"This must be an illusion conjured especially for Julia Pruitt's birthday. The Heavenly Sovereign truly dotes on that Julia."

"Compared to her, the Sovereign's Consort is too pitiful. They say Julia took a fancy to her tail feathers, and the Heavenly Sovereign tore them out without a word. She writhed on the floor in agony and was finally carried back to her room, and she never made a sound after."

The pain of it cut through me to the bone.

I flicked a spell from my fingers, and two burning red handprints bloomed on the soldiers' faces at once, their wails filling the air.

The whole path had been strewn with flowers of every color and red silk. I followed it, and it led me to Julia's palace.

Les Stewart stood with his arms around her, straightening the tail feathers in her hair.

"I have to say, this hairpin made from the tail feathers is truly dazzling. In all the world only you are worthy of it."

"Poor little Ellie, though. They say when the Crimson Phoenix tribe has its tail feathers plucked, the pain is like a blade to the heart."

"You're too kind and too soft-hearted. That was nothing but her excuse for not wanting to give them up. Look, when I pulled her feathers she didn't shed a single tear. Where's the agony in that?"

Yes, Ellie shed no tears—not because there was no pain.

It was because her time was ending, and her tears had already turned to lifeblood.

The Crimson Phoenix's Weeping Blood.

My Ellie had been in agony past all bearing.

I could hold back no longer. I rushed forward and had just raised my hand to teach this shameless pair a lesson.

Les caught sight of me and frowned, his face full of displeasure.

"Elisa, what are you doing here again?"

"I already told you, I'll return it to you after tomorrow's birthday banquet. Why must you cross Julia at every turn?"

"Look at how petty you are. There's not an ounce of a Consort's dignity in you. You're an embarrassment. Get out of here at once."

I knew this man before me.

At Ellie's eight-hundredth birthday, he had stood at her side, watching her make her wish with eyes full of tenderness.

And it was also him who had torn out her tail feathers with his own hands and killed my Ellie.

Ellie looked like me, but in the fine details there were always differences.

He had shared Ellie's pillow for ten thousand years, and yet he couldn't even tell that much apart.

"Do you have any idea what the tail feathers of the Crimson Phoenix tribe truly mean?"

I forced down my fury and demanded it of him.

But his face held nothing but contempt.

"Here we go again. I'm sick of hearing it."

"Aren't they just something given to you by that mother you've never even met? I've said it—I'm only borrowing them for a day, and I'll return them when I'm done."

"Your mother hasn't come looking for you in all these years. She's probably long dead. It's a stroke of luck for her that anything of hers is good enough to catch Julia's eye."

"So this is how you've treated Ellie all along?"

My fists clenched tight, my eyes fixed on Les, and I bit the question out through my teeth.

Les looked utterly lost, eyeing me up and down with suspicion.

"Elisa, what game are you playing now, talking such nonsense? How I've treated you—don't you know that yourself?"

Julia came toward me with a smile, her hand brushing carelessly over the hairpin in her hair.

"Since you've come, sister, there's actually a favor I'd like to ask of you…"

"You're so noble, sister, the only blood of the Crimson Phoenix tribe left. Might I ask you to perform a Dance of a Hundred Birds for us…"

She hadn't finished before a red handprint was already blooming on her face.

The tail feathers came to lie obediently back in my palm, and I stroked them slowly, as if I were stroking Ellie herself.