The capital changed overnight.
Phoenix flags replaced dragon ones on half the palace walls.
People started calling me "Your Majesty" in the streets.
Children drew pictures of a woman in black with fire wings.
I hated it and loved it at the same time.
I moved the court to the main throne hall every morning.
I sat on the lower consort seat beside the empty dragon throne... but everyone knew who gave the orders.
I freed every concubine who wanted to leave.
I opened the rice stores to the poor.
I executed three more ministers who tried to hide money.
And every night I wrote letters to Taehyun.
Long letters.
About the weather.
About the trials.
About how the bed was too big without him.
I never sent them.
I kept them in a lacquered box under the bed.
On the forty-second day after I took the capital, a rider arrived at dawn.
Covered in blood and ice.
He fell at my feet in the throne hall.
"Message from His Majesty," he gasped.
My heart stopped.
I opened the scroll with shaking hands.
It was Taehyun's handwriting... messy, like he wrote it during battle.
My phoenix,
The war is over.
I am coming home.
One month.
Wait for me on the throne.
I kept you a promise.
Keep me yours.
—T
I read it three times.
Then I stood up in front of the entire court and cried like an idiot.
People cheered so loud the roof shook.
That night I did something crazy.
I climbed to the highest tower in the palace... the one that could be seen from miles away.
I lit every lantern red.
Then I hung a phoenix flag the size of a house.
Every person in the city saw it.
The north would see it tomorrow.
A message to Taehyun:
I kept the throne warm.
Hurry home and claim it... and me.
I slept in his black dragon robe again.
And for the first time in months, I dreamed of him alive.
Coming through the gates.
Dropping his sword.
Running to me.
The war was over.
The real fight... becoming his empress for real... was just beginning.
And I was ready.