SHE IS OUT TO TORMENT

MAYA

"Philomena," Edward called out, his voice a low, disbelieving whisper that hung heavy in the midnight air.

Hearing that name roll off his tongue sent a cold shiver straight down my spine. That single word was how I knew, with sickening certainty, that the blinding moonlight and my ancestral magic had stripped away my cover. I had transformed back into Princess Philomena.

A few feet away, lying broken in the dirt, Maria let out a strangled gasp. Her bloodshot eyes were wide with a terror deeper than any pain I had inflicted on her body. "You..." she choked out, her trembling, blood-stained finger pointing directly at my face. "It's... it's you..."

They were all staring at me. Edward, Maria, and the few guards who had rushed into the courtyard after hearing the commotion, stood completely frozen, as if time itself had stopped.

I panicked internally. I could feel the silver aura vibrating across my skin, burning through my veins like liquid fire. Desperate to hide my true face, I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled on the dark, earth-bound energy of my maid's vessel. Slowly, excruciatingly, the golden-red waves of hair receded back into dark locks. My high royal cheekbones softened, and the ethereal glow dissolved into the cold night air as I gradually transformed back into Maya.

The moment my maid's face returned, Maria let out a hysterical screech, scrambling backward into the dirt like a terrified animal.

"Don't let her back into the house!" Maria cried out to Edward, her voice cracking with pure panic as she clutched her broken ribs. "She's cursed! She's a demon! Edward, don't let her step foot inside!"

Edward didn't answer her. In fact, he still hadn't spoken a single word since he uttered my true name. His face was a mask of unreadable shock, his amber eyes completely fixed on me as if trying to tear through my skin and read my very soul. Without a word, he turned his back on Maria's wailing form and just kept walking toward the palace doors, his long strides heavy and deliberate.

How could the Goddess of the Moon do this to me? I wept in my heart as I stumbled after him, cradling my bleeding arm. Why grant me this divine strength only to expose my greatest secret before my trap is fully set?

By the time we got back inside the main palace, the heavy atmosphere of shock was shattered by a chorus of panicked screams echoing from the servants' quarters.

Guards and maids were gathered in a tight, terrified circle near the back hallway. In the center of the floor lay the cold, lifeless body of Sarah, one of the junior kitchen maids. Her eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the ceiling, her tray of silver goblets scattered across the floor.

"What happened here?!" Edward growled, his Alpha voice instantly commanding order over the chaotic room.

The head housekeeper stepped forward, her hands shaking violently as she wiped tears from her face. "My Lord... she just dropped and died! She was walking down the hall, and suddenly she gasped, her face changed into Princess Philomena's face for a few seconds, and then she fell straight to the floor, dead!"

A collective gasp echoed through the hallway.

I stood near the doorframe, my breath catching in my throat as the sheer weight of what happened washed over me. The violent surge of ancient magic I had unleashed during my fight with Maria hadn't just affected my own body—it had ruptured the thin boundary between the spirit realm and the living world within the palace walls. The lingering residual energy of Philomena's old soul had touched the weakest vessel in the house, consuming poor Sarah's life force before burning out.

It was a tragedy, but in a twisted turn of fate, this horrific event helped me.

Instead of knowing that I, Maya, was actually Princess Philomena reincarnated, the pack elders, the guards, and the servants now firmly believed that Philomena's restless spirit was possessing random people throughout the territory. To them, my brief transformation in the courtyard wasn't a secret identity being revealed—it was simply the dead princess's ghost briefly taking over my body to attack Maria.

"She is out here to torment us!" Maria shrieked from behind us, supported by two guards as she limped into the hall, her body bruised and bloody from our brutal battle. "I already chained her spirit with dark mountain blood! I bound her soul to the grave, and yet she still roams around this palace! She wants revenge!"

Her frantic words only confirmed what I had long suspected, Maria had used forbidden black magic to bind my soul when she murdered me. But my grave rituals had broken those chains, and now her own guilt was eating her alive from the inside out.

Edward stood silent in the middle of the hallway, his jaw clenched tight as he stared down at the dead maid, then slowly turned his gaze back to me. The mystery of his dead bride was haunting his house, but for now, his suspicion was shifted from Maya the maid to Philomena the ghost.

In the days that followed, the palace descended into a quiet, eerie nightmare.

Maria had severe injuries all over her body—broken ribs, deep black-and-blue contortions, and fractured wrist bones—all injuries she had gotten from her fierce physical fight with me. Because I was still officially the lower-ranking Luna and maid in the eyes of the pack, Edward ordered that I take care of her recovery.

Despite everything she had done to me, I still nursed her and treated her injuries every single day.

Every morning and evening, I walked into her dimly lit bedchamber carrying bowls of warm water, fresh linen bandages, and soothing herbal salves. I wrapped her broken ribs, cleaned her torn skin, and applied the cooling herbs to her swollen face. I did it with a quiet, icy composure, never once gloating over the victory I had won in the courtyard.

My calm presence, however, drove Maria into absolute madness.

Every time I reached out to touch her wounds, Maria would flinch violently, her skin turning pale, her dark eyes darting around the shadows of the room in sheer terror. The power dynamic between us had completely shattered. She knew what I was capable of. She knew that behind my quiet maid's demeanor lay an invisible, terrifying force that could crush her bones in seconds.

"Get away from me," she would whimper, her voice trembling as I applied the healing ointment to her arms. "Don't touch me..."

"Hold still, Maria," I would reply softly, my voice completely devoid of emotion as I pulled the bandages tight. "If these wounds do not heal properly, you will be left with scars."

The physical pain was nothing compared to the psychological torment breaking her mind. Every night, the entire palace could hear her screaming from her bedroom.

"She's here! She's in the corner!" Maria would cry out in the dead of night, her hysterical sobs echoing through the quiet stone corridors. "Edward, save me! She's standing right by the curtains! Philomena is looking at me!"

I would sit quietly in my own room down the hall, listening to her agonizing cries. She was trapped in a prison of her own making. The ghost she feared wasn't standing in the corner of her room; it was sitting right beside her bed every morning, carefully wrapping her wounds and preparing for the final day when the truth would finally set us all free.