Chapter 3

I don't know how I made it back to my own room.

Only when I looked down at my feet did I realize I'd gone out to find my mother, the empress, without any shoes.

By the time I came back, the soles were nothing but blood.

The sight should have horrified me, yet I felt no pain at all.

The family love and the love I had clung to had died long ago, on that one day.

But my maid went pale with fright.

"Princess, why are your feet bleeding?"

She was already scrambling for medicine as she asked.

I have no one I can trust now, but this maid is the exception. She's the little fox I brought back from the Fox Clan.

I held her hand and told her everything.

Before she could react, I sent her out, quickly, to bring my aunt back to me.

After my father, the emperor, died, by rights my aunt should have taken over the Phoenix Clan.

But out of regard for me, she let my mother, the empress, care for me, meaning to hand the phoenix throne to me the day I cultivated into a golden phoenix.

Then, the moment my aunt went into seclusion to cultivate, my mother sent me away.

If my aunt ever learns everything that's been done to me, she'll stand up for me and take back everything I've lost.

My spiritual core is destroyed, yes, but once my aunt comes, everything will change.

And in time, I'll wash the stepdaughter and her father in blood.

Not long after Vixen left, a servant came with word that I was to dress up and go out to receive a guest.

I knew who that guest was, but I had no grounds to refuse.

Because I have no spiritual power now, and I don't want to hand them an opening.

Dressed and made up, I came to the Jade Pool.

Before I even stepped inside, I could hear the people within laughing and chatting.

Dragon Clan soldiers stood guard at the door, so I knew Greg's parents had come to arrange the marriage.

I walked in and saw Greg holding Cecilia's hand.

Both families' parents were saying, "Look at them, what a match. It's as if heaven itself made them for each other!"

Lauren Driscoll sighed. "Fine, fine. Then we'll do as Greg wishes and marry Cecilia in instead."

With that, she raised her hand.

The servants opened the betrothal chests, all of it precious, every kind of rare treasure you could name, proof of how much she valued this daughter-in-law.

All of this had been mine to begin with, the throne included.

Greg reached out, took Cecilia's hand, and led her before my mother, the empress. "I, Greg, will cherish Cecilia well for both of you. Please set your minds at ease."

My mother and my stepfather exchanged a glance, thoroughly pleased. When I walked in, the whole mood of the Jade Pool turned cold at once. Quite a few of the immortal clans were there too.

The servants murmured among themselves, all of them pitying me.

"Will the eldest princess make a scene?"

"Her spiritual core is destroyed, every bit of her spiritual power drained away. Now she's lost her throne, and she's losing her betrothed too. Just think of it, poor thing."

"You don't know the half of it. As a child she was thrown out to a foreign clan by Her Majesty the empress, never once knew the empress's affection…"

"Shh, keep your voice down, be careful she hears you."

In everyone's eyes, today I was surely going to make a scene.

But from childhood I'd learned to hide my strength and bide my time. When you don't yet have the power to spar with your enemy, the one thing you must not do is act rashly.

And my arrival had already put every one of them out of humor, except Lauren, Greg's mother.

"So this is Ruby!"

"My, she carries herself with real dignity and grace. She has quite a lot of her father's old phoenix presence."

"Such a pity, though. The Demon Clan destroyed her spiritual core and drained her spiritual power dry."