Page 17 of The Nightblood Prince

L et me do the talking, he’d repeated over and over again on our way here. Let me handle this.

“You and the Prince of Lan spent the night in a cave together ?” The emperor’s voice was low and stern like rumbling thunder.

Chastity was a fragile thing, and the single hint of a rumor was all it took to ruin a girl’s reputation. Great empires had crumbled because of lineage rumors. The emperor would never let a girl of questionable chastity become the Empress of Rong.

Maybe I didn’t need the pelt of a Beiying tiger to change my destiny after all. Maybe all I needed was a rumor with a dangerous yet beautiful prince who was not Siwang.

The emperor’s lips thinned with barely contained rage. I thought he might raise his hand and slap me, or draw a blade and grant me a swift end.

In the end, his eyes roamed past me. The emperor’s wrath refocused on my still-kneeling father, who had remained silent.

I glanced at Siwang for help. His face had returned to its usual nonchalance. The emperor and Siwang were standing while Father and I were on our knees, waiting to be allowed to rise again. To my left was a gilded table with cups of still-warm tea and decadent cakes dusted in sugar.

My stomach grumbled, finally. From the moment I’d woken up until now, I had not had even a single drop of water, let alone anything to eat. It was a miracle my stomach lasted through the emperor’s lengthy accusations without protest.

Siwang put a hand on his father’s arm. “Let Fei have something to eat first. She must be hungry.”

The emperor huffed. With a wave of his hand, a silent permission to rise was granted.

“Fei, Minister Lifeng.” Siwang helped us up, making sure to hold me steady when my legs quaked under me, my head dizzy from the sudden movement. “Here.” He guided me toward the table and pushed forward a plate of red bean cakes.

I took one bite, then another. They were sweet and soft, and my stomach rumbled for more, but I paced my bites.

Each bite must be small enough to swallow at a moment’s notice in case your father or husband calls upon your attention.

Lessons taught by the palace ladies. I fought the urge to shove the entire thing into my mouth and chew with my mouth open out of spite.

This was not a time for rebellion.

“How many people know about this?” The emperor’s attention shifted to Siwang.

“No one outside of this tent. Not anymore, at least. The only people who knew Fei was missing were the guards who went into the mountains with me.”

The soldiers Yexue had killed.

The emperor nodded, pleased, then turned his attention to Father. “What about the maid who found Fei’s room empty?”

No. Father tensed under the emperor’s attention. “Your Majesty…”

“Have the maid and everyone she might have told killed before sunset. If anyone asks, when Siwang ventured into the mountains to capture Lan Yexue, Fei followed because she was scared he’d get hurt. She got lost and was cornered by the Prince of Lan. Luckily, Siwang saved Fei.”

“No, please! They didn’t do anything!” The words came so suddenly I almost didn’t recognize the sound of my own voice.

“The palace ladies have already instructed the maid not to say anything, Your Majesty,” Father interjected.

“Have them killed as well. Everyone who might know anything about that night needs to die,” the emperor replied.

“We must protect her reputation at all costs. A couple of lowly maids are nothing in the grand scheme of things. To be on the safe side, we should hold Siwang and Fei’s wedding as soon as possible.

夜长梦多 , long nights are often fraught with dreams. The longer we wait, the more problems we will run into. ”

“Father,” Siwang protested. “We’ve talked about this. Fei and I are—”

“This is for your own good, son. If we wait any longer, we’d risk more incidents like this one. You cannot let the prophecy fall into another man’s hand.”

I hated it when the emperor spoke as if I weren’t a real, breathing person with a beating heart and feelings and ears.

I took a deep breath, gathered the courage I’d been saving for the last seventeen, almost eighteen, years.

It was now or never. If I wanted control over my own life, or even the slightest essence of freedom, I had to do this.

Regardless of the cost. “Your Majesty, are you not curious about why I went into the mountains that night?”

The emperor’s eyes sharpened when his attention fell back to me, as if irritated by the remembrance of my existence.

Just like the maid whose life he’d carelessly forfeited with just a few words, I was a mere pawn in his eyes. My only value was that string of words uttered seventeen years ago under a cursed constellation, and the phoenix’s mark between my brows that had become a symbol for his military campaigns.

“I went into the mountains to hunt the Beiying tigers,” I confessed after the pause.

The emperor forced a smile, feigned amusement. “Look at you, not yet Siwang’s wife and already thinking of ways to honor me with your filiality. No wonder the gods chose you to be the empress of all empresses.”

“No.” I choked. My heart hammered against my chest like a frantic dove, willing to break every bone in her body and paint herself bloody if it meant she could soar the cerulean skies one last time. “I didn’t do it out of filiality, Your Majesty. I did it to break my betrothal to Siwang.”

Originally, I’d planned to do this before all the high-ranked officials, hoping some of them would think of their own daughters and support me in my fight to seize my destiny.

If I didn’t make a scene, the emperor could easily sweep this under the rug, paint the request as a girl’s cold feet.

However, a private disobedience might be safer than a public disobedience right now.

The emperor would never let a girl speak to him so brashly in front of the court.

“You want to break your betrothal?” The emperor let out a low, chilling laugh. “You want to break your betrothal to Siwang…?”

Without warning, he grabbed the ceremonial sword at Siwang’s hip and drew the blade from its sheath with a screech.

“Father!” Siwang cried, reaching for the blade without thinking.

The emperor pushed him away, still laughing.

“Your Majesty!” Father fell back to his knees in an instant, repeatedly slamming his head against the ground, as if this could earn the emperor’s mercy.

“You don’t want to be Siwang’s bride?”

“No, Your Majesty,” I replied. Firm in my decision with all its consequences. I did not want to die, however if this was what it would take to change the future and save everyone I loved, then I would do it. “I donot.”

“You don’t want to be the Empress of Rong?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Well.” The emperor shrugged. “If the empress of the united Warring States isn’t going to be the Empress of Rong, then I guess she won’t be anyone’s empress.” The emperor raised the blade over his head.

“Your Majesty!” my father cried. “Please! It is my fault! I should have raised her better!”

I closed my eyes and waited for the blade to fall, resisting the urge to remind my father that he did not raise me. For the emperor took that from us. I was just an infant when he robbed me of my life the first time. What did it matter if he robbed it a second time?

“I wish for Fei to live!” Siwang cried. My eyes snapped open, and I saw that Siwang had thrown himself in front of me, using his own body as a shield against his father’s wrath.

“Last year when I killed the first Beiying tiger of the hunt, you told me I could have anything I wanted. This is what I want. For Fei to live.”

Siwang.

The emperor laughed. A hollow, bitter sound.

Then, for the first time in my life, the emperor looked at me. Really looked at me, as if for the first time he saw not an asset but a person worthy of his true attention.

The moment didn’t last long. The emperor’s gaze shifted back to Siwang, and he shook his head.

“You useless boy,” he said through gritted teeth, then dropped the blade.

It fell to the ground with a shuddering clang.

“How many times have I warned you, Siwang? Never get attached to anyone. Never bestow anyone your real emotions. An emperor cannot afford to feel. Because as soon as we care about something or someone, it becomes our weakness.”

Siwang reached back until his hand found mine. He squeezed tight—to comfort me or himself, I wasn’t sure. “I don’t want to lose her, Father.”

“Then marry her.”

“No!” I protested.

The emperor’s gaze turned venomous in the blink of an eye. “This isn’t the time or place for a woman to speak!”

“No,” I repeated through gritted teeth, louder this time. “I’m not marrying him.”

“Lifeng Fei, you little—”

“Father,” Siwang interrupted before his father could pick up the sword and finish me once and for all. “This is mine and Fei’s marriage. Can we have a moment of privacy to talk this through?”

“What is there to talk about?” the emperor bellowed. “The two of you are getting married. End of discussion!”

“Your Majesty.” My father spoke up with a trembling voice, head still bowed. “Since His Highness has asked, maybe we should give them a moment, let them smooth things out themselves? It is their marriage, after all.”

“ Please, Father.”

The emperor stared at his son in disbelief, rage simmering beneath his suntanned face, so much that the graying hairs of his beard quaked ever so slightly.

After a strangled eternity, the emperor shook his head. He shot Siwang one last look before he exited the tent, Father following at his heels.

It wasn’t until they were both gone that I let go of the breath I was holding.

“You okay?” Siwang asked, his voice soft.

“I’m fine.”

With a heavy exhale, Siwang rose to his feet, putting some distance between us.

He poured himself a small cup of tea from the pot, then another for me. “Are you sure you want to do this, Fei?”

“I am.”

Siwang nodded. “How long have you been planning this?”