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I shook my head. “It won’t come to that,” I said. “He hates his mother and her policies.”

“No offense, Scarlet, but you’re not the most unbiased source,” the Paper Alchemist said. “The House of Li has been decimated, so our options are quite limited. He can be agreeable to us, or he can rule with a knife to his back. It’s his choice.”

“He’ll help us,” I said. “I’m sure of it.”

The Paper Alchemist nodded. “I hope, for all of our sakes, that you’re right.”

“When are you planning on doing this?” I said. When no one answered, I tried to stand up, swaying because my legs were still numb. “Please, we need to do it as soon as possible. She’s taken my cousins.”

“It depends on how fast you can get us her blood,” the River Alchemist said.

I nodded quickly. “Okay. I’ll get it for you as soon as I can.”

“Zilan.”

I turned. The Moon Alchemist pressed a vial into my palm, closing my fingers around it, her hands warm. “I know you want to save your family,” she said, “but please be careful. If the Empress finds out that her alchemists are against her, this will be over before it’s even begun. She won’t give us a second chance to strike.”

“I can do this,” I said, a promise to myself. This time, there would be no mistakes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

I opened my eyes to the gold-embossed ceiling of the prince’s room, a swirl of painted cranes and diamond whirlwinds sparkling across my vision. I blinked a few times before I realized the prince was shaking me.

I was on the floor, legs twisted under me, Durian peeping in my ears. I vaguely remembered bursting into the prince’s room and telling him about my cousins and the plan to get the Empress’s blood, then the world went black halfway through a sentence.

“Zilan?” the prince said, somewhere above me. “You need a healer,” he said, standing as if to fetch one.

I shook my head, sitting up. “I’m fine,” I said, but the prince was already speaking to his guard in the hallway. What would his healer find if he examined me? Would something about my pulse give away the fact that I was dead? He hadn’t noticed anything when fixing my tooth, but surely this would be a more thorough investigation.

“Wait!” I said.

The prince turned around. “Zilan, you need—”

“Can you get the Moon Alchemist?” I said.

The prince frowned.

“She’s a healer,” I went on before he could argue. “I’m more comfortable with her than with your male physicians.”

The prince’s expression softened. “Of course,” he said. “If that was the problem, you should have just told me earlier.” He turned to the guard. “Go bring the Moon Alchemist here, please.”

He sat down on the bed with me and waited, his hand on my knee so gentle that I felt guilty for deceiving him. The Moon Alchemist arrived soon after, her hair down, a bag of stones clutched in her hands.

“What happened?” she said to me, ignoring the prince.

“Zilan has been fainting,” the prince said.

It’s not that simple, I thought, but didn’t want to contradict him. The Moon Alchemist studied my expression for a moment, then turned to the prince.

“You can wait outside, Your Highness,” she said. “This may be a...women’s matter.”

The prince looked disappointed but stood and shuffled to the door.

The Moon Alchemist crossed the room and pushed my legs to the side, sitting on the bed in front of me.

“What’s going on?” she said.

“I don’t know,” I said, staring at my hands in my lap. “I didn’t faint.”