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More than once, I caught Fangyun standing next to their room, weeping.

I packed my bags the next day, and left a note because I couldn’t bear the thought of a real goodbye:

I’m going hunting. I am sorry money is tight. Let me make this right.

I had not put my family through all this turmoil to stay put in a run-down cottage.

There were questions to be answered, and a prophecy to be broken.

Back in the cave, when Lan Yexue had asked whether I knew where to find the stargazer who had sealed my fate, I had said I didn’t—and it wasn’t a complete lie.

I didn’t know where the stargazer was, but I had ideas.

In the palace, every secret had a price, and it didn’t take much more than a few gold bangles to find out all there was to know about the stargazer and her family.

Part Two

Empires Rise, Empires Fall

18

Everybody expected the war to be over before the ice melted and spring spun green leaves and delicate bulbs from the lingering frost.

It wasn’t.

Twelve Months Later

19

Some nights, I dreamt of him.

Through the ravenous dark, he whispered to me. A lulling melody of haunting incandescence.

Some nights, I saw him in a candlelit study, hunched over maps.

Other nights, I saw him on the battlefield, surrounded by red-eyed demons baring bloodied fangs.

But tonight was different.

Tonight, I was not a shadowy wraith following him through his life.

Tonight, Lan Yexue turned, and his eyes met mine, and he uttered a single, spine-chilling word.

“Run.”

20

Seasons came and seasons went.

I never wrote the letters to Siwang. When the pearly white powders ran out, I smeared rouge so the phoenix’s mark looked like any other birthmark. Sometimes, when I was short on money to buy the pigments, I simply wore a headband to cover it.

For some reason, by covering the mark I lost my abilities to glimpse the future. So I did it sparingly when I could.

I hid well in plain sight, disguised as a man traveling alone.

A year passed in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, snow softened to water the earth and spring was upon us again. The air grew warmer and sweeter with every passing day.

I woke in the cold bunk of the only inn in Duhuan, a city to the west of the empire, closer to the Lan border than I liked. I was surrounded bythe stench of men and the damp scent of mold—two things I’d rarely experienced during my time inside the palace.