They called Arabella Zhang a foolish daughter—a pawn placed in the Regent’s house to watch and to be watched. They laughed when she arrived battered, pregnant, and mute with fear. They didn’t expect her to bite back. A single desperate bargain—exchange a life-saving secret for protection of the child—turns the tables. She can touch the rot clinging to people: a whisper of spirit, a flare of heat, a secret stitch that quiets pain. With that power she heals a man the court calls untouchable, and in exchange she asks for nothing but paper: a promise and her unborn child’s safety. Now the Regent’s mansion is a powder keg. Poisoned medicine, a public shaming, a framed murder, and a magistrate who eats at the mouths of ghosts—every slight becomes a blade. Arabella will not let her child be buried in the rumors of others. She will pull threads until the whole tapestry that trapped her unravels—by exposing betrayals, trading favors, and letting the dead speak. The storm she becomes is not only for herself; it’s for every quiet thing they tried to crush.
14 Chapters
