Back at the Crown Palace, once Olga left for the night, Cixi soaked in a warm bath to wash the exhaustion from her bones and climbed into the wide bed. She pulled the covers up to her chin and kept her eyes on the bedroom door, waiting for Cassian to return. Minutes stretched into an hour, and he still did not come. Somewhere in the quiet between one breath and the next, sleep claimed her, only to be pulled upward by a sudden, icy jolt.
Cixi floated in mid-air above the mattress, staring down at her own physical body lying still and pale beneath the sheets.
"Damn it," she whispered in bitterness. "The curse is still not broken."
Before she could even try to force herself back into her body, an invisible current seized her soul and yanked her through the walls of the Palace. The city blurred beneath her in a streak of dark wind until her soul stopped floating above rotting leaves in the middle of a dense forest.
