“Stella. I’ve come to take you home.”

I stood behind him, unable to move.

Winter wind passed through me.

Something inside seemed to collapse.

It was so quiet.

Those few softly spoken words struck harder than a scream.

He was insane.

He didn’t believe in gods or ghosts.

Yet for my ashes, he would kneel his way up nine hundred and ninety-nine steps.

I followed.

One step.

One bow.

Gradually, I saw the statue more clearly.

The closed eyes above us didn’t belong to a simple figure of mercy.

It was Ksitigarbha, the bodhisattva who vowed not to attain Buddhahood until hell was empty.

The one who delivered the souls trapped there.

My ashes lay beneath the lotus pedestal.

Vivian had feared I would return as a vengeful ghost.

So she had built this statue and placed me beneath it, before the Steps of Passage.

To keep me from moving on.

And the man I hated most while alive was bowing his way toward me.

Tears filled my eyes.

“Stop. Please, Lucian.”

He had never bowed to gods. He had acted as though heaven itself ranked beneath him.

Now he bent his knees and lowered his head to bring my ashes home.

Alive, I had mistaken my enemies for benefactors.

Dead, I could only watch someone who loved me suffer.

I could do nothing.

Guilt and helplessness pressed down on me.

Rain began.

It grew heavier.

Sebastian’s assistant opened an umbrella over him.

“Sir. You haven’t recovered from your old condition. You shouldn’t get chilled.”

Sebastian watched Lucian, frowning.

At last, he sighed.

“With her gone, nobody can stop him.”

Nine hundred and ninety-nine steps could exhaust someone simply walking.

Lucian climbed on his knees in the rain.

I stayed beside him.

Water soaked his clothes.

I had never seen him like this.

Thunder broke overhead.

He swayed in the wind.

For a moment, I thought he would fall.

“Please stop.”

I couldn’t tell tears from rain anymore.

I tried to pull him back.

My hands passed through.

Miles arrived with his men.

They followed silently. Nobody dared stop him.

The stairs seemed endless.

He kept climbing.

I could feel the ashes beneath the statue.

They were mine.

But I was so tired.

I didn’t want him to suffer for loving me.

I would rather he hated me.

At the last step, his knees struck the stone.

He looked at the urn.

Warmth slowly entered his eyes.

His pale mouth curved into a smile.

“I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”

He forced his exhausted body upright.

Through the cold rain, he approached and lifted the urn into his arms.

As though it held the most precious thing in the world.

Then he swayed.

And fell.

“Sir!”

Miles and the others rushed forward.

Before I could think, I was there.

This time, I caught his hand.

Cold fingers closed beneath mine.

I couldn’t tell which of us was colder.

He felt it.

Joy broke across his eyes.

“Stella…”

“I don’t care about you.”

I seized the last chance and forced the words out.

“Nothing you do will move me. Julian is the only man in my heart.”

The joy dimmed.

Broke.

It felt like dying again.

But I couldn’t soften.

My three chances were used.

“I hate you. Alive or dead, you’re the person I hate most. Stop loving me.”

As the last word left me, I lost the feeling of his hand.

He clutched the urn tighter.

His face changed.

Blood spilled from his mouth.

“Sir!”

“Luc!”

Miles and Sebastian crowded around him.

I backed away.

I couldn’t bear to look at his face.

This time, surely, I had hurt him enough to make him let go.

“Why do this to yourself?”

The blind monk’s sigh came from behind me.

Pity softened his voice.

I knelt before him.

“Please. Help me move on.”

“Let go, and you may be released.”

Let go.

I looked down at my spirit.

So faint now.

Perhaps my mother was all that still held me here.

I bowed to him, gave Lucian one last look, and forced myself to leave.

Back to my mother’s room.

I had barely appeared when several men burst in.

They bound her and took her away.

I recognized them.

Vivian’s men.

At last, she was making her move.