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“Ah, no. Don’t think so highly of yourself. I’m taking in the room where you are going to seduce me.” He made an exaggerated inspection of the room. “A little dusty, that bed looks a little small for both of us, and it doesn’t look very sturdy. Fear not, if we break it I will reward the innkeeper handsomely.”

I sneered. “Me,seduceyou?”

“That’s what you said in your letter, isn’t it?I am alive and well, and I will not waste my time here behind enemy lines. I will gather military secrets for you however I can. I know you don’t want me to be involved in this war, but in calamity there is no innocence, and no sacrifice too great in the need to protect those we love. If seducing Lan Yexue is what I must do to save you, then I will.”

I felt sick.

The smile fell from Yexue’s lips. He rose to his full height and stepped into the room finally, closing the door behind him. My hand reached for the dagger that wasn’t there. Suddenly, this room felt suffocatingly small. “Women like you, raised in safe, manicured gardens, will never understand the evil that exists in this world. Did you not for a second wonder why an old lady was tending a tea shop in the middle of nowhere? And did you honestly think it prudent to give that letter to the first person you saw on this trip?” Yexue sighed. He didn’t look angry, just…disappointed.

I stared at him; I didn’t know what to say and wanted to curse Fate for not warning me that the shopkeeper was not trustworthy.

Perhaps this was the problem. I was too dependent on the power the gods gave me, too dependent on the protection of the palace and my old status as the future empress of all empresses. Bathed in Siwang’s light, my life was so easy. Everything always worked out because Siwang made sure it did…. Without him, what was I? Without my magic, what was I?

You can’t do anything right, Fei.That familiar voice crept up again.

“Why did you do it?” Yexue’s voice pulled me back into the moment. “When I said you should do what you wanted, this was not what I meant.”

He took a step forward, and the butterflies in me hardened to fear, heavy in the pit of my stomach. “I don’t trust you.”

The prince stopped midstep, eyes wide as if what had left my lips were knives, not words. His face twisted, a suppressed wince. The shadows of anger dispersed, just like that. “Congratulations, I am seduced. Your wish is my command when it comes to anything else, just not when it comes to Rong Siwang.”

He took one step forward, then another.

I tried to back away, but there was only so much space between these four walls, and before I knew it, he had me backed against the small writing desk.

His hands came to rest on either side of me.

I tried to shift backward and put more space between our bodies, but Yexue was leaning in, one of his long legs gently pressed against my knees.

My heart was thudding in my ears now, and no matter how quickly I drew my breaths, I didn’t seem to have enough. I couldn’t tell if my pulse was quick from fear, or…

“Fifteen moons,” he whispered. “What would you say if I said Ihave thought about you every night of the past fifteen moons? Not the empress of all empresses, but the girl who was brave enough to defy fate, and kind enough to save the heir of a crumbling dynasty. Did you know the gods created us on the same night, Fei?”

“You were also born at New Year’s Eve?”

“In the midnight hours between two lunar years,” he whispered, his hand reaching out, those doe eyes so soft as he watched me, so different from the man I had known from campfire stories.

However, looks could be deceiving. As his hand touched my face, I took advantage of the moment and seized the dagger strapped to his waist, and pressed it to his neck.

Yexue smiled. “Do you always have to ruin the moment by holding a knife to my throat?”

“I don’t think it’s fair that you have a knife and I don’t.”

This time, Yexue let out a low chuckle. “Fine, you can have myknife. Do you need anything else? The clothes I’m wearing, the mortal body I’m inhabiting? It’s all yours; just say the word, Fei.”

Gently, his hand let go of my face and trailed up to the hand holding the dagger, and I remembered how fast he was. This was a man who moved as fast as shadows, was strong enough to tear men apart with his bare hands. He would have stopped me if he’d wanted to, easily.

He could also snap my neck right here and now if he wanted to.

“Daggers like this one can’t hurt me anymore,” he murmured, so softly. “Not if I don’t want it to.”

The last time I’d tried to stab him, the blade had quite literally bounced off him as if I had struck a statue of stone. But as his fingertips brushed mine, I could tell that he was made of soft flesh just as I was.

I pressed the blade harder against his throat, and he simply smiled,as if he truly didn’t care. Still, he leaned back, just a little, giving me some space.

“If peace between Rong and Lan is your goal, then this is not the way to win me over. In fact, this little scheme makes me want Rong Siwang on his knees in the very throne room where I knelt for his father so many times before.”

My heart leaped in my chest, remembering all the nightmares of Siwang in the throne room, and the blade that swung down. Was this the moment I was seeing? Was Yexue destined to kill Siwang?