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like the Spirit of Cruelty.
    She tried to stay in bed until the violence stirring inside her quieted. Raeche yearned, as she did at times, to hurt him. She did not know how she would–he was far stronger than she, in body and Spirit–but she wanted more than anything for him to feel even half her pain.
    When finally she rose, she realized that Dark had come. Taritana had already made her visit because a small plate with pieces of bread, meat, cheese, salted berry sauce, and a pitcher of klova juice were on the bureau.
    Her stomach grumbled. She sat at the bureau, eating quietly, examining her mind and body to determine if she felt better or worse. She wanted to see Rucha. Rucha always eased her heart, but the girl was surely asleep. Raeche would not disturb her.
    With a sigh she looked around her quarters, her trap, her cage. She paced and grew furious. Then she walked past the dark liquid. It sat on the tall table where Taritana placed important things–or, rather, things from the Emperor. In a clear container, the liquid stirred, sparked as if it were in motion. She eased closer to the squat bottle. It seemed lit from within, flashing red, orange, and brown against the wall behind it. Raeche picked up the small card folded next to it.
     
    A day you do not choose to celebrate, yet a day for which I am thankful. This is not an apology.
     
    The Emperor had written the card in his own hand. For a moment, she did not know what he meant. Then she realized. Each ring on this day, Raeche had been melancholy and inconsolable. This time, it had passed. She had nearly forgotten it. Her birthday, the day on which she had clawed free of her despicable mother only to be shackled to the Emperor.
    She lifted the bottle then pulled a heavy stopper carved like three leaves from the top. After sniffing the priceless scent, she dabbed some on her throat and wrists. The smell–wild and calming, like the still center of a forest–warmed her. Extremely rare and usually reserved for formal events, Black Seed Extract was the most expensive scent in the Empire. Yet there was another use for it.
    On some special occasions, it was used as drink. Even though she had never tasted the elixir, she had heard of its effects. Black Seed Extract eased the Spirit, opened one to their truest and deepest emotions, darkened the eyes, and rushed a warm current through the body.
    She bent to grab a glass from the cooling tray then went to her bed with the Black Seed extract and glass in hand. Tonight, she would have a small celebration of her birthday. After all, she needed to finally sort through the strangeness of these last days, of the tension mounting between her and the Emperor.
    A tiny sip from the glass as she sat alone in the center of her bed caused her muscles to relax and she smiled. Yes, this would help.
     

 

 
    Chapter 9
     
    The Emperor’s chamber was separated from hers by mere curtains. They might have been a wall formed from the thickest rock. As long as they had been married, the curtains had never been parted. The rare times he came to see her he left his room by his door then knocked at hers. She did the same. Lately, Raeche had become deeply dissatisfied with the cleanliness of the curtains. She had them cleaned but no matter how many times the men and women came in with ladders, buckets, sprays, and some Spirit-driven contraption that dried the fabric as it went, Raeche was not satisfied. She had ordered them taken down and sent to the Clear Pool, but the Emperor heard and refused to have it done, insisting they wait until the temperature rose so that Raeche did not take a chill from the huge room that was naturally difficult to heat evenly. When she asked that the chamber be modernized, the Emperor appeared horrified. This chamber had not been changed in centuries and would not be for centuries to come. It was in that room that a king became an emperor, a kingdom became an empire. Raeche knew the story but she did not care and