Page 10 of The Nightblood Prince

“You are lucky you are not the prey I came here to hunt,” I replied, then pulled out the small vial of wan ling du that 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.

“ 以毒刻毒 ,” 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 of wan ling du was specially formulated by them as an emergency treatment.”

Wan ling du was 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.”

His placed his blade in my hand. “Pain is an old friend.”

“Good. Because I am no doctor. If you don’t want the imperial guards to find you, I’d suggest you keep quiet.” I snapped a piece of bark from the overhanging foliage. “Chew on this when you want to scream. If the imperial guards find us, we are both dead.”

“Are you going to remove this bleeding arrow or not?”

I sneered. After two years as a hostage, Lan Yexue still saw himself as the prince of a mighty empire, not the son of a crumbling dynasty that ruled over a handful of failing cities, barely enough to call itself a kingdom anymore.

The Empire of Lan used to rule over half the continent; however, it had been in decline for centuries.

Its last era of stability was when Yexue’s great-grandfather reigned.

And things had only gotten worse since his father fell sick and his uncle took over the duties of regent.

If the rumors were true, Yexue’s ailing father was not long for this world.

Was this why he wanted to go home? To see his father one last time, or to stop his uncle from taking the last thing that was his?

“This is a good place to stage an escape attempt,” I said to fill the silence as I cautiously shaved off the arrowhead, careful not to leave any splinters.

“If you make it deep enough into the mountains and find a cave to hide in, you might be able to wait out Rong’s hunters.

When the hunt officially starts, these mountains will be swallowed by chaos.

That will be your best shot at escaping.

Too bad—with this injured leg, you are not going anywhere for a while. ”

“Do you always talk this much?”

In one swift motion, I had him against the tree he was leaning on, with his own blade pressed against his throat. “If you want my help, you’d better show some gratitude. Otherwise, my face might just be the last face you’ll ever see.”

To my surprise, Prince Yexue didn’t flinch or cry or retort with something just as vicious. His lips twitched. He was…amused?

“I want to help you,” I told him. “But that doesn’t mean I am here to take your endless insults like I owe you something.”

“Very well, my lady.” His smile was beautiful, contagious. The sort that took up most of his face, like a flower that had finally bloomed. There was a single dimple on each side of his face.

“Try not to scream. I’m going to pull the arrow out now; this is the worst part.”

The Prince of Lan nodded. I put one hand on his thigh and the other on the arrow. I could feel the heat of his body burning through the fabric of his clothes, and my cheeks burned, too.

When I pulled, the arrow came away in one piece, and Yexue didn’t so much as wince. He watched me with interest the entire time, as if pain really was the old friend he’d so boldly claimed it to be.

I tried not to linger on this. I didn’t want to imagine what kind of trauma one would’ve had to experience to be so indifferent in the face of pain.

“Why are you helping me?” he asked again as I began applying the antidote to his wound, making sure to be careful with the dosage; this antidote was a poison itself, after all.

“ 都是天涯流落人 ,” I replied after I was done.

We are both outcasts on the run. “If I don’t help you, who will?

” I got up and retrieved the small bottle of bloodroot ointment that I’d originally prepared for myself in case of emergencies from my satchel.

“A physician with proper medicine and training would have done a better job. However, the closest doctors all work for the Rong emperor and would rat you out if you sought their help. I’m the best option you have right now.

Wherever you intend to go, take this with you. ”

He took the bottle, and a strong herbal smell burned my nostrils as he opened it. “Good stuff.”

“Try not to die on your way home. If the Prince of Lan died under our supervision, it would only spark more conflict between our borders. I don’t know about you, but I have seen enough bloodshed to last a lifetime.”

Yexue arched a brow. “You are Prince Siwang’s betrothed—when would a girl like you ever see bloodshed and war?”

I smiled. “When would a girl like me ever see bloodshed and war, indeed.”

“May I ask, why is the future Empress of Rong on the run?”

“I’m not on the run. I’m just…running.” I ripped a piece of fabric from his robe. It wasn’t a proper bandage, however, it would do.

“You don’t have to do that,” he protested when I tore another piece off his robe. “The leg will heal by itself.”

“That will take weeks. Wounds don’t just magically heal by themselves overnight. If I don’t bandage this for you, it will become infected and you might still die.”

His lips parted, then closed, as if he wanted to say something then decided against it. “Are we running from the same people?”

“I guess.”

The prince eyed the arrows strapped across my back. “Do you know how dangerous these mountains are at night? Have you not heard of the Beiying tigers?”

I laughed. “Why do you think I’m here?”

He cocked his head. There was that half smile again. “To impress the emperor?”

“Are you interrogating me?” I asked.

“Just trying to get to know the girl who’s saved my life.”

Knowledge and secrets were the most valuable currency.

There was a reason they said the most powerful person in every room was not the richest, or the person who held the highest status, but the person who knew the most secrets.

“From now on, if you want to ask a question, you will have to answer one of mine first.”

“Ask away,” he replied. “It’s the least I can do to repay your mercy.”

My fingers paused, surprised that he’d agreed so easily. “When did you escape?”

If the answer was in the last couple of hours, then the guards couldn’t be far behind him. I should get on my way before we were both caught.

Sneaking out to hunt before the hunt officially began was something Siwang could defend by shrugging it off as me being competitive and childish.

Being seen with another man in the middle of the night?

That was another thing altogether. Memories of Lijian were still fresh. I didn’t want that to happen to Yexue, because Siwang might not be satisfied with a simple exile this time.

“I left a little after we returned from the hunt, so almost three hoursago.”

Long enough for the sentry to notice.

“My turn to ask questions. I assume you’re here to hunt Beiying tigers to win the emperor’s wish. What could the future Empress of Rong, the girl who has everything, want and not have?” His eyes were curious yet sharp, carefully observing me.

I bit the inside of my lip and ripped off another piece of his robe as a bandage. I had to make it tight, apply as much pressure as possible to stop the bleeding, which seemed to be slowing—there wasn’t half as much blood seeping through the bandage as I’d expected.

I wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, but I swore color was already returning to Yexue’s sharp face.

“I’m waiting,” he pressed.

“Freedom,” I replied curtly. A half-truth.

“What do you mean?”

“My turn,” I said quickly. “How far away are the imperial guards? Do you know?”

“Far,” he told me.

“You sound sure of that.”

“I am.”

“How?”

The corners of his lips twitched the same way they had this morning.

The almost-smile of someone who knew something I didn’t.

“A question for a question, Lady Lifeng. You aren’t very good at following your own rules, are you?

” he taunted, dark eyes glistening in the moonlight.

“Since you are so kindly tending to my wounds, I’ll answer this question for free.

I am sure because those men are all dead now. ”

I jerked up, eyeing his immaculate white robe, not a stain of blood in sight except for the crimson patch at his leg. His sleeves, the part of clothing that got soiled first in a fight, were pristine.

“You can’t have killed them.”

“Why not?”

“Because.” I gestured at his clothes. “If you had, you would be covered in blood.”

“Maybe I’m just very good at killing people without getting my hands dirty,” the prince replied, his dark eyes fixed on me.

A coldness slithered between my shoulder blades, something primal, urging me to run.

He is a demon. Words whispered behind cupped hands when Lan Yexue had first come to court two years ago.

I tried to laugh. He was lying. He had to be. “Oh, and how many men were there?” I asked, as if I were in on the joke.

“Twenty-seven.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not possible. You can’t have killed twenty-seven men by yourself.”

“I can take you to see their corpses if you don’t mind venturing down the mountain again.”

Did he think I was born yesterday? As stifling as the palace was, I didn’t grow up under a rock. “If you want to lie, you should pick a realistic number. Like five, or—”

The familiar tingle prickled between my brows. Flashing fangs and talons, long like ivory blades, lunging from the shadows, in a motion to slash open Prince Yexue’s throat like he was made of wax.

The blade! my better judgment screamed, but my body didn’t listen.

“Run!” I cried, and pushed Yexue out of the way just as the tiger pounced from the trees.

I rolled back: a futile attempt to buy myself a few rapid heartbeats of time as I grappled for a weapon. My fingers grasped the hilt of the blade Fangyun had given me in the same moment that icy claws slashed down at me, tearing open my clothes and flesh. Pain exploded, and I heard a cry.

The sort of cry I had heard only in my nightmares, torn from the throats of humans thrown from city walls, plunged into infernos, or slashed open by some cruel soldier.

Focus.

The tiger raised its giant paw again to draw another lash across my body. This time, without the padding of my winter coat, the blow would be even deadlier than the last.

I pulled Fangyun’s blade from its sheath. When the tiger brought down its claws, I thrust the blade into its eye.

A mighty roar, enough to make the trees shiver in fear.

I pushed the blade deeper and deeper, until my hand was hot with blood, until the tiger fell into a convulsing heap next to me.

I let out a wheezing exhale.

“Fei!” Prince Yexue cried, his hands grasping at my now ruined robe, trying to cover me for modesty’s sake.

I laughed, or I wanted to. I couldn’t breathe. There was no air in my lungs. Blood gushed out into the snow, fast like a fountain, leaving crimson stains on his silk robes.

He had lied. There was no way he could kill twenty-seven people without getting a drop of blood on his hands.

It had been maybe a handful of heartbeats since the tiger’s claws raked over me, and already blood soaked my clothes an impossible shade of red. Even in my visions, I had never seen so much red.

Luckily, everything was so cold I barely felt the pain.

Your plan is not going to work. Fangyun’s words echoed.

I wished she were here to tell me I told you so.

You were right, sister. The plan didn’t work.

At least I took a Beiying tiger with me. At least I didn’t die for nothing. With me gone, Rong would stop waging war in the name of my prophecy and Siwang’s supposed destiny of becoming the emperor of all emperors.

Yexue stripped off his robe and pressed it to my wounds to stop the bleeding the way I had done for him mere minutes ago. 好人有好报 , I guessed. Good deeds really do come back around.

Empires rise, empires fall. I just didn’t expect it to happen so fast.

The gash in his leg was a lot easier to bandage than my mutilated body. If I were him, I wouldn’t even know where to start.

“I’m…going…die.”

“You are not going to die,” he hissed.

Another almost-laugh, even fainter this time. Darkness began to blot my vision. That’s not up to you, my dear prince.

As I closed my eyes, I felt his hand grab my face. “If I want you to live, not even Death himself can take you!”

I smiled and hoped that with me gone, Yong’An would not burn like it did in my dreams, and everyone I loved would live long and happy lives.

Darkness fell heavier and heavier.

Selfishly, I didn’t want to go.

There was so much I hadn’t seen or experienced yet.

I wanted more than this.

I wanted more than a life unlived.

I wanted…

“Do you want to live, Fei?”

Yes.