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Snap.

“Fangyun!”

Slow steps. The beast walked out from the shadows, until finally, I saw his beautiful, porcelain face.

Lan Yexue.

I stumbled back. His eyes were red, and in place of teeth, he had fangs like the tiger that almost killed us a year ago.

“It’s been a long time, Fei,” he purred.

I tried to run, but he was faster. I tried to fight, but he was stronger.

Before long, he had his hand around my throat, a wicked smile on his lips.

“Miss me?”

I jerked awake just as his fangs came down on my throat.

35

When Siwang came to watch us practice, I kept my head low.

In the evenings, I ate with him.

I never mentioned the kiss, and neither did he. Instead, we talked about more important things, like war and strategy. He bounced ideas off me, told me the dire situation of the front lines, and I told him about my year in exile. About the people I had met on my travels, and the everyday struggles of a normal civilian, far from the palace—this interested him more than anything else.

Days passed.

After our evening combat practice, I was tasked with cleaning up. So I gathered all the wooden swords and took them to the armory. On my way back to the barracks, I spotted Siwang in the stables.

Foolishly, I approached without invitation, and his guards stopped me at first sight.

Siwang smiled, waved the guards away. “That’s Little Li. He is allright.”

Guards were not in positions to question princes, so they stepped aside.

By now, people were used to seeing me talking to Siwang, and rumors were spreading like wildfire: that the prince had found a new lover in a foot soldier. This gave me a newfound fame around camp. People stared and whispered everywhere I went. I felt like Lifeng Fei again, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about this.

We are not lovers,I had tried to tell my comrades whenever they asked.

Then what are you?

I didn’t know how to explain things without exposing the truth: that we had grown up together and he was my best friend. Though he did kiss me a few days ago, neither of us ever brought it up, so was it really a kiss?

A year ago, I would have fought these rumors tooth and nail, declared that I felt nothing for him. But the more time we spent together, the more I longed for more.

“You were at camp when I arrived. I remember seeing Beifeng on my first day here.” I leaned against Beifeng’s stall doors as Siwang tended to the horse.

“I was.”

“And you didn’t say anything, because…?”

Siwang shrugged, turning the full heat of his gaze on me. Degree by degree, my skin grew warmer. “I wanted to bide my time, see why you came, how you were doing.”

“Did you recognize me immediately?”

“How could I not? I think about you every day. After you left the palace, I pictured your face every night before I went to sleep, and hoped I might see you again in my dreams.”