Page 14 of The Nightblood Prince

Hooves thundered after me, riders chasing prey.

I’ve been caught was my first thought.

I won’t go down without a fight was my second.

I reached for my arrows by instinct, bow already sliding from my back.

But when I turned, arrow nocked and bow drawn, fingers at the edge of a deadly shot, all the air vanished from my lungs, because I was not staring into the eyes of a predator or even prey. I was staring into the wide eyes of the one boy I could never hurt.

At my heels wasn’t a small army of guards and soldiers, or captains with brandished swords here to capture and return me to that sweltering palace.

It was Siwang.

My stern, beautiful Siwang with his bronzed face and moon-carved eyes, lips exquisite and plush like blooming petals. His face of immaculate angles, as if molded by the creator goddess Nüwa herself. A haunting sight that always stopped me in my tracks.

When our eyes met, I expected his face to soften from vicious bloodlust to the tender benevolence I was used to.

It didn’t.

A snap of the reins, and his stallion charged forth with all the might of a thoroughbred raised for the battlefield. Siwang drew his weapon. If the bow he’d used yesterday morning was reserved for stags and wolves, then this was something else entirely.

Carved to hunt a whole other species of beast.

Then the vision blurred at the edges without warning. One moment shifted into the next in rapid succession….

Hoofprints in freshly fallen snow.

The bloodied corpse of a Beiying tiger abandoned at the riverside, the beautiful blade Fangyun had given me not a day earlier lodged deep in its eye. My surname, 历峰 , carved into its gilded hilt.

Siwang’s scowl, lips downturned at the edges.

A piece of my torn coat in his gloved hands, retrieved from the tiger’s claws.

Dawn easing into the horizon, slow and creeping.

A launched arrow.

Blood splattered across fresh snow.

Yexue.

I woke with a gasp to wintry blue daylight as the impending dawn chased the night away from behind heavy gray clouds that dusted fresh snow along the terrain.

My wet lashes were clumped with frost. Yexue was already awake, putting out the fire and tending to my horse. From the ashes, he pulled out two eggs, likely stolen from a nearby nest, and was about to give one to me when I uttered: “We have to go.”

He smiled. A beautiful sight, with none of the caution and fear I had expected. Were all princes this fearless, or did his magical blood gave him a special recklessness? The egg was warm. I would have cradled it between my hands if we weren’t running out of time.

I tried to push myself to my feet. My head spun at the sudden movement, and my legs felt like noodles, going soft under my own weight. Yexue was at my side before I knew it, letting me lean on him to stand upright.

“They are coming. We must go. Now, ” I said.

There was no trace of fear on Yexue’s porcelain face.

I waited for him to ask how I knew, and clutched tight to the secret I had hidden for so long.

Yexue had bared his own magic to me last night and saved my life. If I had to give away my own secret to get us out of these mountains alive, it would be fair.

Right?

Before the stargazer disappeared, she had told me there was a power inside me, something magnificent and dangerous.

Be careful, child, she had told me. You are more powerful than you realize. But men do not like powerful women.

“We’d best get moving, then,” Yexue said finally. The look he gave me was one of understanding, not confusion. As if he already knew my secret. “Are you coming with me, or will you wait for your prince and leave your fate to the entitlement of men?”

“I…”

“If you want to run, this might your last chance, Little Goddess.” I didn’t like this nickname he had given me.

“Come with me.” His hand grasped mine and pulled me to him in a way that would have caused a scandal if anyone saw.

“Siwang isn’t going to let you leave. He’ll keep you at his side and make you his empress even if he must force you.

That’s not the kind of life you want. That’s not the life you deserve. ”

My heart writhed like a small fluttering bird, slamming against the confinement of her cage. “And how do you know what I deserve?”

“Because you are brave, and courageous, and good. Good people deserve to be free, Fei. If the stars won’t give you all that you deserve, then let me. ”

“You don’t know me, Lan Yexue.”

“What I saw last night was enough. Come to Lan. There, I will make sure you can do whatever you want, be whoever you want. Forget about conventions and duty—it’s about time we break some of these ancient rules. And if I must go to war to give you what you deserve, then so be it.”

That vision of blood-splattered snow flashed again.

Lijian’s blackened eye and bruised cheeks when he announced that his family was moving away from the capital.

“Rong is the most powerful empire on the continent. There is a reason why you were sent here as a ward in the first place. Why Rong has conquered half the continent in just two decades.”

“Are you…worried about me?” Yexue chuckled and placed his hand on the top of my head and ruffled my hair, just a little. Like I was a child who had just said something cute. “You are not the only one who wants to defy your destiny, Lifeng Fei. I came to Yong’An for my own reasons.”

I remembered his questions from last night. “You came to the capital to find the stargazer?”

Yexue shrugged, clearly unwilling to disclose anymore. “Think about what you want to do, Little Goddess. Not what you should do. I can take care of Rong. I can even get your family out of the capital. I’ve told you: I’m not scared. If anything, they should be the ones who fear me.”

“Siwang isn’t like the guards you escaped from. He’s trained by the best martial artists on the continent. You won’t beat him so easily.”

A crooked smile. He really was so arrogant. “Do you want to bet?”

“You are not immortal, and you are not a god,” I reminded him. “I watched you bleed yesterday. I don’t want to watch you bleed again.”

“Nothing has killed me yet.”

“Hubris is a vice that has gotten many heroes killed in history.” I pushed myself off the cave floor and stumbled toward where my horse was tied. “We need to leave, now.”

“Is this your way of agreeing to let me risk my life for you?”

“Things might be worse for you if they find you riding alone, your robe stained with blood while I’m nowhere to be found. I can’t go to Lan with you, but I can bargain with Siwang when he catches us.”

Yexue broke into a victorious grin. “You would sacrifice yourself for me?”

I looked away. “Don’t flatter yourself. If I’m going back to the palace anyway, I might as well save your life so that you owe me one more life.”

He helped me onto my stallion, and I held on tight. We rode southwest to avoid the camp as snow fell slowly.

In my dream, Siwang would find the tiger’s corpse just as the snow stopped falling.

I prayed that we’d be far from here by then.

As we moved through the icy terrain, I tried to keep alert, to listen for the thunder of distant hooves and induce another vision from Fate.

But no matter how hard I squeezed my eyes, I saw only darkness, felt only the cold wind slashing my cheeks and the sturdy breathing of Yexue against my body as I clung on tight.

“What happened to my bow?” I asked, realizing it wasn’t on the saddle.

“The pretty one with both ends dipped in silver? I left it at the riverbank.”

“You what ?”

“I had to either leave that bow or leave you on the riverbank.” Yexue laughed. “How did the empress of all empresses come to be so versed in archery, anyway?”

I smiled. “Do you disapprove?”

“I’m just curious. I didn’t expect that the emperor would let his docile daughter-in-law learn something so…” Yexue trailed off, as if trying to find a word other than unladylike.

“He didn’t. But I wanted to learn, so Siwang taught me.”

I felt Yexue tense at this. “Siwang?”

I smiled. “Whatever I want, Siwang always—”

An arrow whizzed past us.

Then another, and another, each one meticulously aimed so it missed us just closely enough to catch our attention.

Two dozen men in a dispersed formation moved through the icy trees at lightning speed, with Siwang leading the pack, a spray of snow misting in his wake.

Already, this wasn’t how things had played out in my visions.

I clung to Yexue a little tighter. “We have to stop. The longer we delay the inevitable, the more impatient Siwang will get.”

If I wanted Yexue to escape these mountains alive, I couldn’t tempt Siwang’s wrath. As was tradition with hostage princes, Rong was responsible for keeping Yexue alive and unharmed. Though nothing in the agreement said they couldn’t punish Yexue as they saw fit.

Cut off a finger or two, or maybe his whole hand, depending on how daring Rong felt. And for a hostage prince to be caught with the future empress would make Rong very daring. If Siwang could exile Lijian for sharing sweets with me, what would he do to Yexue?

Over my shoulder, Siwang’s usual elegant and princely mask had hardened into something stoic.

“We have to stop,” I repeated. “I can get you out of this alive, but we must concede.”

“You underestimate me, Little Goddess!” Yexue shouted over his shoulder, loud enough for Siwang to hear. The distance between our horses was shrinking by the second. Soon Siwang and his men would catch us, and there would be nowhere to run. “Close your eyes.”

“Yexue, you are outnumbered! I don’t care what magic you have, you cannot fight twenty-something men by yourself!”

“Watch me.” Yexue pulled the horse to a sudden halt. The stallion reeled, front legs kicking high. Yexue grabbed my hands to keep me from falling. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.”

“Fei!” Siwang cried.

By the time the horse calmed, Siwang and his men had us surrounded.

“Close your eyes. I don’t want you to see this,” Yexue repeated before he leaped off and drew his sword from its sheath with a thunderoushiss.