Reborn To Change My Fate-Chapter 175 - Hundred And Seventy Five

The stone room was filled with the harsh light of the lanterns. The shadows had fled, leaving Senna exposed in the center of the room. She looked wild, her hair matted with sweat and dust, her eyes darting back and forth between the people standing before her.

"Senna," Derek said. His voice was deep and final, like a judge reading a sentence. "You have confessed all your crimes. Captain Odis heard every word. The guards heard every word."

Captain Odis stepped forward, his face grim. He tapped the scroll in his hand.

"It is all written down," Odis said. "Murder. Treason. Use of forbidden arts. There is no escape this time." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Senna shook her head violently. She blinked, rubbing her eyes with her dirty hands.

"No," she whispered. "No!"

She looked at Marissa. But she didn’t see just one Marissa. She saw two.

One Marissa stood by the door, wearing the simple white burial gown, her face clean and calm.

The other Marissa—the one who had been the "ghost"—stood by the coffin. She was also wearing white, but her face was painted grey, and her neck was red.

Senna’s mind spun. The room tilted.

"What is going on?" Senna shrieked, clutching her head. "Why are there two of you? Am I mad? Is this a spell?"

Marissa walked forward. She moved calmly. She reached into the pocket of her gown and pulled out a small, folded paper packet. She opened it. Inside was a fine, white powder.

Marissa stepped close to Senna, who cowered away. Marissa brought the paper to her lips and blew gently.

Pfff.

A cloud of white dust drifted into Senna’s face.

Senna coughed, waving her hands. The powder smelled sharp, like mint and vinegar. It stung her nose. She blinked rapidly, tears filling her eyes.

"What did you do to me?" Senna gagged.

"Look again," Marissa commanded.

Senna rubbed her eyes one last time. She blinked. The room seemed to sharpen. The blurry edges vanished. The voices disappeared. The double vision cleared.

She looked at the "ghost" by the coffin.

It wasn’t Marissa.

It was Lily.

The maid was wearing a white dress identical to Marissa’s. Her face was painted with grey powder to look like a corpse. She was wiping the fake red makeup from her neck with a cloth, looking at Senna with pure disgust.

Senna gasped. She looked back at the real Marissa standing in front of her.

"It was all your imagination," Marissa explained, her voice cool and logical. "You saw what you feared most."

Marissa reached into her pocket again. She pulled out a small, dark pill. It had a strong, distinct smell—sweet and musky, like rotting flowers.

She held it up to the lantern light.

"You are from the West, Senna," Marissa said. "So I figured you would know this drug. ’The Ghost’s Breath.’ It causes hallucinations. It makes the mind see enemies in the shadows."

Senna’s eyes widened. She recognized it immediately. It was a common trick used in her homeland to scare people.

"How..." Senna whispered. "How come I didn’t notice?"

"You said it yourself," Marissa replied with a small, cold smile. "I am clever."

She crushed the pill between her fingers, letting the dust fall to the floor.

"I ground the pill into a fine powder," Marissa explained. "I mixed it with the funeral incense burning in the room. The smell of the sandalwood masked the smell of the drug. As soon as you walked in, as soon as you took a breath, you were drugged."

She pointed to herself, then to Derek and the guards.

"We took the antidote before we came in," Marissa said. "But you... you breathed it all in. Your guilt did the rest. You turned Lily into a monster in your own mind."

She gestured to Lily.

"You tricked me," Senna sneered. Her voice was full of hate.

Marissa chuckled. It wasn’t a happy sound. It was the sound of a woman who had won a hard game.

"You think it is only you who has the knowledge of Western medicine?" Marissa asked. "You think you are the only one who knows how to use herbs and tricks?"

Marissa took a step closer.

"We returned your own tactics, Senna," she said. "You drugged Derek to make him see what he wanted. I drugged you to make you see what you feared. It is poetic, don’t you think?"

Senna trembled. The humiliation was worse than the fear. She had been outsmarted. She had been played like a fiddle. She, the master manipulator, had been tricked by a noblewoman and a maid.

"You..." Senna hissed.

She looked at Derek. He was looking at her with nothing but contempt. He didn’t see her as a person anymore. He saw a criminal.

She looked at Captain Odis. He was looking at her like she was a bug he was about to squash.

She looked at Marissa. Marissa looked calm. Victorious. Alive.

Something in Senna broke.

The last thread of her sanity snapped. She had lost everything. Her home. Her love. Her freedom. And now, her pride.

"I won’t let you win," Senna whispered. Her eyes burned with a manic light.

"Then I will have to kill you again," Senna screamed.

She moved fast.

She bent down, her hand reaching under the layers of her skirt. She pulled.

Shing.

A short, sharp knife appeared in her hand. It had been hidden in a sheath strapped to her thigh. It was a last resort. A weapon for a desperate woman.

She lunged.

She aimed for the source of all her pain.She aimed for Marissa.

"Die!" Senna shrieked.

Marissa’s eyes went wide. She saw the glint of the steel. She tried to dodge. She threw herself to the side, her feet tangling in the long burial gown.

She stumbled, losing her balance.

Senna was fast. The knife came down in a deadly arc.

Derek moved.

He stood next to one of the royal guards. The guard was holding a bow and a quiver of arrows, ready for trouble.

Derek snatched the bow from the guard’s hand. In the same motion, he grabbed an arrow from the quiver.

He didn’t aim. He didn’t think. He simply drew and released.

Twang.

The sound of the bowstring was sharp and loud in the small room.

The arrow flew. It was a blur of motion.

It struck Senna in the chest.

Thud.

The impact stopped her mid-lunge. The knife fell from her hand, clattering onto the stone floor just inches from Marissa’s foot.

Senna gasped. Her eyes went wide with shock. She looked down at her chest. The arrow was buried deep, the feathers sticking out.

She staggered back.

One step. Two steps.

She lost her balance. Her heels caught on the edge of the wooden platform.

She fell backward.

She didn’t hit the floor. She fell into the open coffin.

Crash.

Her body landed in the wooden box with a heavy, hollow sound. The impact knocked the wind out of her.

Marissa, who was still falling from her dodge, felt strong arms catch her.

Derek had dropped the bow and lunged forward. He caught Marissa by the waist just before she hit the ground. He pulled her up, holding her tight against his chest.

"I have you," Derek whispered, his voice shaking. "I have you."

Marissa clung to him, her heart hammering. She looked over his shoulder. She looked at the coffin.

Senna was lying inside. The box that had been meant for Marissa was now holding her enemy.

Senna gasped. Blood bubbled up from her lips. She tried to lift her head, but she had no strength. She looked up at the ceiling of the stone room.

She looked at the edges of the pine box.

"No," Senna wheezed. "Not... here."

She tried to reach out. She tried to grab the side of the coffin to pull herself out. But her hand slipped.

She looked at Derek one last time.

"Derek..." she whispered.

But Derek wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Marissa, checking her face, checking her for wounds. He didn’t spare a glance for the woman dying in the box.

The light faded from Senna’s amber eyes. Her hand fell back onto her chest, next to the arrow. She gasped one last time. A long, rattling breath.

And then she died.

Silence filled the room. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the living.

Captain Odis walked over to the coffin. He looked inside. He checked for a pulse, though he knew there wouldn’t be one.

He stood up and looked at Derek.

"No pulse, Your Grace," Odis said quietly. "She is dead."

Derek nodded slowly. He didn’t let go of Marissa.

He looked at the coffin then back at Marissa.

"Close it," Captain Odis ordered.

The guards stepped forward. They picked up the heavy wooden lid of the coffin. They placed it over the box.