Chapter 2

Before I left for the untamed wilds, Aiden kissed me like he couldn't bear to let go.

He begged me to reach him through the water mirror on the night of the lovers' festival, so we could mark it together even from apart.

As luck would have it, a demon beast ambushed us that day. So I wouldn't break my promise, I threw everything into cutting it down fast, took a grave wound, and nearly lost my right arm.

But the water mirror on his end stayed silent, hour after hour.

Only the next day did Aiden tell me he'd waited until I fell asleep. I even felt guilty over it and apologized to him.

Now, thinking back, it's almost funny.

I looked him in the eyes.

"But you said you'd never take a concubine."

Aiden looked away.

"That's right. I have no respect for men who keep three wives and four mistresses, and I won't wrong Della."

"So, Jan, let's divorce."

He set a divorce document down on the stone table.

"Jan, you're the brave lady general of the Ninth Heaven. You can always stand on your own. But Della is too fragile. She's already mine, so I have to marry her, and I have a duty to care for her for the rest of her life."

"This manor, and all the rewards from quelling the rebellion, I'm leaving to you as compensation. From now on we're still comrades in the army, still friends. You can hate me, but don't make things hard for Della. I can't stand to see her guilty or unhappy."

My heart clenched all at once, so tight I could barely breathe.

And at the same time, it struck me as ridiculous.

He used to despise Della for being weak and useless, a vine that could only cling to someone else.

I'd fought with him over it more than once.

Now it was the other way around.

I couldn't hold back the fury. I slapped him hard across the face.

"Aiden, you make me sick!"

Not a flicker crossed his face, but a warning edged into his voice.

"Janice, I know you've got a fire in your chest, that you won't feel right until you let it out. If you want, you can even take a blade to me. But you'd best not go looking for trouble with Della."

"Otherwise, the same hand that can raise you to deputy general can turn you into an ordinary immortal who isn't even fit to set foot in the military camp."

"Becoming the first lady general of the Ninth Heaven was your dream, and the Griffin army is your life's work. You suffered so much, gave everything for hundreds of years. Surely that wasn't to end up with nothing. Am I wrong?"

I stared at him, unable to believe it, my fingertips crushing the divorce document into creases.

Aiden was the God of War, my direct superior, and the man who'd shared my pillow and knew me best.

He was threatening me.

Before he left, Aiden left me a jar of salve to bring down the swelling in my palm, and then had someone carry off the plaque of the War-God manor.

Looking at this manor, so full of memories, that could no longer be called a home.

The tears I'd held back for so long finally fell.

The next day was Della's monthly day of rest.

When I reached her manor, she was directing the servants to pack her things.

Last night the servants at home had told me Aiden had set up another manor. It seemed he meant to move there.

Seeing me, Della lowered her head, ill at ease.

"Sister, you've only just come back from the front. You should be resting a few more days. Why have you come all the way here..."

I tossed the cosmos pouch into her arms.

"I came to return these relics to their rightful owner. What, am I not welcome?"

Della's face flushed faintly. She said in a small voice, "Then what tea would you like, Sister? I'll go prepare it."

I said nothing. My eyes went to the trunk on the floor, not yet closed.

No wonder Aiden had left so lightly yesterday. I'd meant to have someone pack up his things and send them over.

Only to find his study already emptied, his clothes and every private belonging gone.

They'd already been moved here.

While I stood there stunned, a parrot I knew came flapping out from the back courtyard.

It was the pet Aiden had brought back from the mortal realm two years ago.

He'd raised it like a son, teaching it to talk whenever he had a free moment.

It swept past me and landed on Della's shoulder, calling out.

"Mother Della, Mother Della."

I remembered how, before I left for the untamed wilds, Aiden had just taught it to say "Papa."

He'd told me that by the time I came back, he was sure he'd have it calling me "Mother Jan."

It had learned, all right. It just wasn't calling me.

I looked at Della and laughed, the sound bitter with contempt.

"Why bother packing at all? Isn't it nice right here?"

"After all, the whole year I was out there risking my life, the two of you were building your love nest here."

Guilty, Della held the cosmos pouch back out to me, uncomfortable.

"Sister, these relics are my compensation to you. Please keep them..."

I let out a scoff.

"Compensation? Della, when that fox-clan fiancé of yours changed his heart and fled the wedding, when he drove you to the brink of taking your own life, it was me who rushed to Verdant Hollow and hacked off his tail to avenge you. For wounding an outsider without leave, I was punished with a hundred strokes of the military rod."

"When you said you had no face left to stay in Verdant Hollow, it was me who brought you to the Ninth Heaven, gave you a manor, arranged for you to study under a master relic-crafter so you'd have a skill to live by, and pulled strings among my immortal friends so you could take commissions before you'd even finished your training."

"Even the fine raw materials you used to make your relics came from my private stores. Seven hundred years, you and I as sisters. As long as it made you happy, there was nothing I wouldn't do for you."

"But you live in the manor I gave you, carry on with my husband, and then use my own things to compensate me. Don't you find that funny?"