Even though I could never win against Master's relentless coaxing, I still obediently took my medicine for six years. But he kept those words of mine close to his heart.

After I recovered, nothing sour or bitter ever appeared on my dinner table again.

I took the pot from Matron Thornwell's hands and, as if I couldn't feel the scalding heat, drank half the soup in one long gulp.

The remaining half I poured out beside Master's body.

I wiped my mouth. "Not bad, old man. But the blood mixed in makes it a little fishy."

"Have a taste yourself. Pay attention next time you make it."

That was what finally shattered Matron Thornwell's composure.

The tears she had held back for so long broke free all at once.

"Lynara, there won't be a next time. Your master is dead!"

Oh, right. There wouldn't be a next time.

Fine. Since Master couldn't look after me anymore, it was my turn to protect him for once.

I unfastened the cloak Master had sewn for me with his own hands and draped it over his body. My voice was calm. "Matron, watch over Master. Don't bury him."

"He'd be too lonely by himself. I'll find him some company for the grave."

Matron Thornwell couldn't stop me. All she could do was weep and beg me to come back alive.

I carried my short sword and walked to the Nine Heavens.

The Jade Stairway crumbled to dust behind me, and the whole celestial realm shook to its foundations.

Celestial soldiers rushed forward, blocking me outside the Celestial Gate.

The one leading them was none other than my senior brother from the Dawnveil Sect, Master's proudest disciple: Edwin Ellison.

He stared at me in surprise, brow furrowed. "Lynara, if you've come to seek the Sovereign's favor, you should keep your head down and your voice low."

"What's the point of making such a scene?"

I didn't bother looking at him. My eyes stayed fixed on the Celestial Gate. "Tell Aldric Voss to come out."

"Tell him an old friend has come to visit."

Edwin let out a weary sigh.

"Lynara, have you lost your mind?"

"We're mere mortals. If not for this stroke of fortune, how could we ever have ascended to immortality and stood before the Sovereign?"

"'An old friend.' You're not embarrassed to say that out loud?"

Only then did I turn to look at Edwin, each word falling like a stone. "You call Master's death a stroke of fortune?"

Edwin faltered. A flicker of guilt surfaced in his eyes.

Rosalind Adams, the second disciple, had just arrived. She rushed to Edwin's defense the moment she saw his expression.

"Lynara, how dare you speak to Edwin that way?"

"Master's death wasn't our doing."

"If you want to blame someone, blame Master for being born with celestial bones. We simply seized the opportunity that presented itself."

Looking at Rosalind's face, utterly devoid of remorse, all I felt was that Master had never been worth the love he gave them.

Edwin and Rosalind were the first disciples Master ever took in.

He treated them no differently than he treated me.

He poured every ounce of his heart into raising them, even putting off having children of his own.

That was why, after all those years, Master and Matron Thornwell never had a child by blood.

Matron Thornwell would grumble about it from time to time, but that foolish old man would just laugh and wave it off. "It's fine. I trust my disciples. When the day comes, they'll see us properly buried."

He was wrong, in the end.

But I knew that foolish old man.

He believed, to his last breath, that people were born good. Whenever his disciples made mistakes, he always gave them a chance to make things right.

I never agreed with that. But I didn't want him to die with his eyes open, restless and unsettled.

So I did what Master would have done. I gave Edwin and Rosalind one chance.

"I'll handle avenging Master myself. I don't need your help."

"Go back to the Dawnveil Sect now. Stay with Master and Matron Thornwell."

"Carry on Master's legacy. Make the sect flourish."

Rosalind had been spoiled rotten by Master since she was a child, and her temper was as foul as they came.

The second she caught the commanding tone in my voice, her face soured.

She shoved me, her voice shaking with fury. "Lynara, who do you think you are?"

"How dare you speak to your senior brother and sister like that?!"

Edwin stepped between us, his expression the picture of composed reason. "Lynara, don't be rash."

"The Dawnveil Sect was always a small, unremarkable sect. Master spent his entire life trying to make it flourish and never could. What chance would we have?"

"Besides, all of us have ascended to immortality now. Isn't that a glory the sect can be proud of?"

He reached out and took hold of my arm.

"Come now, be good. I'll take you to see the Sovereign. I'll make sure you get a fine celestial rank..."

But before the last word left his mouth, my short sword was already buried in his chest.

Edwin never even had time to react. He crumpled to the ground, eyes wide and glassy, dead before he hit the stone.

Every celestial soldier in the vicinity went rigid with shock. Blades sang free of their sheaths, all pointed at me.

Rosalind stumbled back two steps, her face white. "Lynara, what kind of cursed thing are you holding?!"

She asked because Edwin had already ascended. Immortal energy shielded his body.

An ordinary weapon couldn't have come within a foot of him.

So in her mind, my blade had to be something unholy.

I raised the short sword, letting the light catch its edge. My voice was flat and cold. "Cursed? No demon is worthy of wielding this."

"But you'll find out what it is soon enough."

I crouched beside Edwin's body and used the blade to carve out his heart.

"Since our dear senior brother had no heart to speak of, his heart's blood might as well serve a better purpose. A blood offering for my sword."

"Lynara, you vicious monster!"

Rosalind's eyes went red with rage. She summoned her weapon and lunged at me.

But at the critical moment, a celestial soldier beside her seized her arm and hauled her back, his hand trembling as he pointed at the sword hovering above Edwin's corpse.

"Lady Rosalind, look. Your junior sister's sword... something's wrong with it. It's drinking the blood on its own."

Rosalind didn't care. She scoffed. "Cursed objects never play by the rules. What's so strange about that?"

The soldier shook his head frantically. "No, you don't understand. You've only just ascended."

"In all the millennia since creation, there has only ever been one sword that craves the heart's blood of immortals..."

Rosalind blinked, clueless. "What sword?"

The soldier's lips trembled around two words: "Soulreaper."

Rosalind's jaw dropped. The color drained from her face.

But before she could gather her wits, a voice split the air from the void above, heavy with authority that needed no anger to terrify.

"Silence!"

"I destroyed that demon goddess with my own hands. Soulreaper was shattered by my power. It no longer exists."

"You will not spread such baseless fear!"

I knew that voice. I knew it the way you know the sound of your own heartbeat. Aldric Voss. My enemy for as long as I had drawn breath.

And the one who had wounded me deepest of all.

He was right about one thing. I was the demon goddess he claimed to have destroyed.

I was also the only other true god who had escaped the Primordial Wastes alongside him, the only one who had survived the cataclysm.

The year the Wastes were annihilated, the two of us had nowhere left to go. We set aside our enmity out of necessity, clinging to each other to survive.

For thousands of years after that, Aldric treated me well.

Demon gods are born cold-blooded. He was the one who taught me how to cry and how to laugh.

Under his guidance, I slowly learned to live in the world beyond the Wastes.

So when he told me he wanted to take me to the Nine Heavens, that he would look after me for the rest of my life, I agreed without a second thought.

Three thousand years as husband and wife. Every one of them devoted. Every one of them tender.

Until Aldric met a mortal woman, and everything veered off course.

That woman was Elara, the one he now called his wife.

Elara was flesh and bone, purely mortal. She could not set foot in the Nine Heavens. The only way was to replace the mortal essence inside her body with celestial energy, or with the power of a god or demon.

Aldric searched every corner of the Nine Heavens and found no justification to take what he needed from anyone else.

So he turned his attention to me.

He deliberately led the others to discover my true nature as a demon goddess, then rallied all three realms under the banner of righteousness to bind me with Demonbane Nails.

I was already pregnant by then. My powers had waned, and I had no strength left to fight back.

I begged him to spare me. Begged until my voice broke. But all he left me with was a single, weightless phrase: Good and evil cannot coexist. Then he ripped the demon essence from my body and shattered my soul into nothing.

Even Soulreaper was ground to dust beneath his heel.

It was the child in my womb who saved me.

He sacrificed his own life to lock my three ethereal souls and seven corporeal spirits together before they could scatter.

After a long silence, I reformed into a physical body, but only that of a two-year-old child.

My heart was full of hatred. I knew I was no match for Aldric, yet I still set out on the road to the Nine Heavens to take my revenge.

But my bones had barely knit and my demon essence had yet to coalesce. I couldn't even defeat a minor imp.

Just as a wolf demon was about to swallow me whole, a pair of large hands scooped me into a warm embrace.

The old man whose eyes already creased with wrinkles looked down at me, heartache plain on his face. "How's a little thing like you out here all alone with nobody looking after you?"

"Don't be scared, sweetheart. This old man will keep you safe."

I assumed his kindness was a passing impulse. I never imagined he would go on protecting me for years.

The year I pieced Soulreaper back together, I was nine.

I planned to make one last trip to the Nine Heavens and drag Aldric down with me, even if it killed us both.

But the night before I meant to leave, my master brought me a beggar's chicken. It wasn't particularly good.

He had no idea I was planning to go. He just scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, and said, "Lynara, you haven't been eating well lately. You're getting too thin. I went all the way down the mountain to learn this recipe from a famous cook in town."

"Go on, try it. If it's no good, I'll go back and learn again."

"And if you like it, I'll make it for you every single day."

I blinked, caught off guard. Suspicion crept in before I could stop it. "Why are you so good to me?"

My master stroked his beard and smiled. "Because I think of you as my own daughter."

"If my little girl starved, what kind of father would I be? I'd be heartbroken."

"I'm already old. I don't want to spend whatever years I have left crying my eyes out."

In that moment, looking at the white hairs that had grown in from worrying over me, I felt the walls around my heart crack for the first time in years.

So there was someone in this world who loved me after all.

All at once, I didn't want revenge anymore.

I buried Soulreaper beneath the hibiscus tree and buried all my hatred along with it.

But Aldric shattered my hard-won peace with his own hands, all over again, and dug my hatred back up from the roots.

I lifted my gaze toward the sky where his voice had come from and spoke, each word deliberate and distinct. "Aldric. It's been a long time."

Before the last syllable faded, a flash of white light split the air.

In the space of a blink, Aldric appeared before me with Elara Abbott in his arms.

He looked exactly the same as before. That face, beautiful enough to ruin kingdoms, hadn't aged a single day.

The woman cradled against him glowed with the same vitality.

Aldric looked me up and down, his brow furrowing. "This Sovereign has never laid eyes on you. What do you mean, 'a long time'?"

Oh. I had almost forgotten. After my body reformed, my appearance had changed completely.

No wonder he didn't recognize me.

But my attention wasn't on him. Every ounce of it was fixed on Elara, and I had no patience to spare for Aldric.

I stared at Elara, unblinking. "You're looking well. Rosy cheeks, bright eyes. My master's bones must be serving you nicely."

Back then, my demon essence had only granted Elara passage in and out of the Nine Heavens. Without immortal bones, she still could not ascend to godhood.

Aldric had once considered taking my demon bones instead, but the skeletal frame of an ancient demon goddess was far more than a mortal body like Elara's could withstand. He'd been forced to abandon the idea.

It had taken him all these years of searching to finally find my master's bones, the perfect match for Elara.

My words landed, and understanding dawned across Aldric's face.