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Yexue drew a sharp breath, taking a step back to give me more space.

I picked up the bow and arrow and turned my attention toward the target across the field. The quicker we finished the game, the quicker I could leave.

A deep breath. I waited for the glimmer of gold to guide me. I had to hit the bull’s-eye this one. I couldn’t afford another mistake. I drew the bow at the same time that Yexue leaned a little too close and whispered, “I love you,Fei.”

I stopped breathing.

The arrow veered off course, missing the target completely.

Yexue was grinning like a boy who’d just won his new favorite toy at the night fair. “You’ve lost.”

For a moment, I had half a mind to drive the silver point of my bow straight through his heart. “That was cheating!”

“I didn’t touch you.” He flashed that torrid smile again.

“I want to kill you.” Maybe if I killed him, this bargain would be void, no more wishes. Only blood.

If Yexue was dead, wouldn’t the war between Lan and Rong automatically end? It wouldn’t be the most noble way of accomplishing peace, but peace was peace. If Yexue’s death was what it took to save—

“I’ll sign the treaty,” he said, and everything stopped. “And I’ll save that pitiful prince of yours.”

I stared at him. “Really?”

“This is what you wanted, right? Peace for the land, and your prince safe and sound.”

I stared at him. “Were you going to save Siwang and sign the treaty all along?”

“Of course.”

“So all of this was pointless?”

He leveled a stare at me, his face serious. “I’ve been ready to stop fighting for a long time. As long as you are loyal to Rong, as long as your family lives in Rong, I won’t touch these lands. There are plenty of other kingdoms for me to conquer…but not this one. Not your home.”

Yexue watched me, a small smile on his face. Perhaps he wanted me to cry or jump for joy and thank him for his kindness….

I laughed. “Do you know what I hate the most about people like you and Siwang?” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself, and Yexue’s smile vanished. “I hate that the two of you are always in control of everything. It has not escaped me that in all of this”—I gestured at the shooting range around us—“I am a mere pawn. You took me to Longyan because you could. Siwang sent me away because he could. And now you are saving him because…you can. Every decision is made by the two of you, by the men who think so highly of themselves, never me.”

“I thought you would be happy that I am saving Siwang.”

“I am. But I hate that the power is never in my hands. They say I am destined to be the empress of all empresses, but what use is an empress if she has to wait on the whims of her emperor?”

He softened. “I would never ask you to wait on me, Fei.”

“That is not the point. And I don’t expect you to understand. You are a prince who can bring people back from the arms of Death and raise an army of supernatural soldiers. You and I, we are not the same. Even if we are both cursed by prophecies we do not want, and magic we do not know how to wield. Perhaps one day when you understand what it feels like to be this powerless, I might finally fall foryou.”

His lips thinned. “In that case, I’ve changed my mind; I want something in return for my mercy.”

There it was. I should have known this was too good to be true. I braced myself. “What is it that you want?”

“I will honor this agreement only if you are patrolling these borders.”

I frowned and was about to ask why when I realized…“If you can’t have me, then you won’t let Siwang have me, either?” I raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps this is for the best, for me to be thousands of miles from both of you.”

“Do you always have to think so little of me?”

“I will stop thinking so little of you when you do something to prove that you are not that little.”

He rolled his eyes. “I am giving you exactly what you want, Fei: I am giving you power. Tell your emperor that this treaty is valid only if you are here governing these borderlands. Here you will have power. You can raise an army of your own and be the person you want to be, not the girl the gods demand that you be.”