The artist was a woman named Seraphine Dusk. No one remembered her origins, only that she had once been a princess herself, betrayed and left for dead. Now, she painted with oils rendered from midnight roses and the tears of discarded lovers. Her price was never coin. It was a single strand of hair and the name of the person who had broken you.
One autumn evening, a woman named Elara stumbled through the gallery’s creaking door. She was beautiful in a ruined way—her emerald gown torn at the hem, her dark eyes swollen from weeping. Around her neck hung a locket containing the miniature of Prince Aldric, the man who had promised her a throne and given her a public scandal instead. princess fatale gallery
A week later, the gallery received another visitor. It was the duchess. Her hands were raw from clawing at the prince’s empty sleeves. “He doesn’t know me,” she sobbed. “He stares at the wall and whispers another woman’s name. I want you to paint me as the one he should have chosen.” The artist was a woman named Seraphine Dusk
And in the corner, leaning against a cracked easel, was a small self-portrait Seraphine had painted years ago. In it, she was young. She was smiling. And beneath the smile, in letters no bigger than a sigh, were the words: The first Fatale is always oneself. Her price was never coin
“I want him to suffer,” Elara whispered, slamming the locket onto Seraphine’s mahogany desk. “He left me for a duchess with a better bloodline. Paint me as the woman he lost. Make him regret.”
“It is done,” Seraphine said, stepping back.