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“Show yourself!”

More rustling.

My breath hitched when the shrubs parted to reveal the last person I expected to see in these woods. There, among the snow-laced branches and pines, half crouched, was the Prince of Lan: Yexue.

Was he here to hunt the tiger as well?

I saw the reason he was half crouched. His hands were pressed against a crimson spot on his right leg, where an arrow was lodged.

White feather, black shaft, the arrow of the imperial guards, and it had gone straight through his thigh. Not a shot intended to kill, just to keep him from running.

A hostage was a hostage, regardless of their status or the polite titles the court gave them.

I lowered my weapon. “Rong’s arrows have a code to them. These black-shafted ones contain a slow-releasing poison and a numbing agent that will make you lose feeling around the infected area. The two of them are relatively harmless by themselves, but mixed together? If someone doesn’t clean that wound and apply an antidote soon, the circulation will stop, the flesh and nerves will begin to die, and you will lose that leg. If the poison spreads to the bloodstream, you will die a slow death.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Lan Yexue pulled another blade from his robes, teeth bared like a wolf ready to fight.

“Skies, how many knives do you have?”

“Come any closer, and I’ll make you regret the day you were born.” His voice was deep and raspy and would have been irritatingly pleasant if he hadn’t been threatening my life.

I should have heeded his warning, jumped back onto my horse, and gotten on with what I had come here to do.??????was an underrated mantra that more people should follow.Don’t meddle in the affairs of others, and mind your own business.

But…He and I were both outcasts on the run, albeit in different ways. If I were the one wounded, I would want someone to help me.

I held his gaze with my chin tilted high. Siwang had taught me never to look away from a predator, never to let them know my fear. “May I ask what the Prince of Lan is doing so deep in these woods?”

“I could ask the same of the future Empress of Rong.”

I deepened my smile, glaring daggers to match the one in his hand. “Sharp words from a man bleeding to death.”

The prince’s lips curled. “If you know what’s good for you, you will cease your bragging, turn around, and run as fast as you can before I decide to kill you. My hands have been soiled enough tonight. What’s one more to the tally?”

His words were an angry rumble of thunder against the dark night, yet his paling lips and sweat-beaded forehead told me there was no lightning behind those empty threats. He was just an injured wolf baring his fangs, trying to chase me away because he was scared I might kill him before he killed me.

“You are lucky you are not the prey I came here to hunt,” I replied, then pulled out the small vial ofwan ling duthat I kept on me at all times. It was a concoction made from ten thousand poisons. One that could serve as both a weapon and an antidote in times of need. “????,” I explained. “Use poison to counter poison.The imperial healers said all antidotes at their core are poison, and the only way to treat poison is with another form of poison. And this pot ofwan ling duwas specially formulated by them as an emergency treatment.”

Wan ling duwas very valuable. The only people who had it outside of the emperor were me, Siwang, and General Ma.

The dagger in Yexue’s hand lowered, though his eyes continued to burn with ire. “And what do you want in exchange for this great antidote?”

“Nothing.” I set down my bow and arrows and knelt beside him. At eye level, the venom in his eyes perished with a slow exhale, as if he was finally letting go of the breath he was holding.

He lowered his blade till it rested on the ground beside him, but didn’t completely let go.

“Men,”I grumbled.

I pulled out a handkerchief from my winter coat, wrapped the small pill of poison with it, then crushed it so that it would apply easily to his wound.

“Why are you helping me?”

“Why indeed? Considering that you’re the prince of an enemy nation, I hope I don’t one day regret this. But I can’t leave you here to die. Especially since…”

Since it is my fault that Rong conquered your homeland.

“I don’t need your charity, Lifeng Fei.”

“This isn’t charity.”This is balm for my own guilt.“Can you handle pain? I need to shave off the arrowhead and pull it out of your leg before I can apply the antidote.”