A Cage of Spun Shadows

An ordinary morning enjoying spiced tea goes terribly wrong when Sikara Valdemar tastes arsenic in her cup - and suddenly remembers her past life. She realizes she is the doomed villainess of the novel 'The Sun's Ascent', destined to be executed. Embracing a quietly ruthless pragmatism, Sikara begins a cold, calculating campaign of revenge. Her survival plan is simple: cure Rurik, an abused child locked in the estate's dungeons who is possessed by a terrifying dark spirit, and use him as a distraction while she escapes to a quiet frontier village. But she completely underestimates the monster she is grooming. While Sikara plots her political moves, Rurik is secretly butchering anyone who dares insult her, hiding their bodies in the shadows. Years later, after successfully extracting his curse, Sikara sends Rurik away and prepares for her peaceful escape. Instead, he returns as a towering, blood-drenched tyrant. Having seized the empire's armies, Rurik locks down the borders, refusing to let his savior out of his sight. With a manipulative fake saintess plotting her demise and Sikara's most trusted ally revealed as the true mastermind behind her suffering, can she outwit the monsters she created?