Page 58 of The Nightblood Prince

Yexue laughed and handed me a piece of scallion pancake from his saddlebag. “The cooks are probably asleep—this is the best you are going to get until morning.”

I reluctantly accepted the food from him and took a bite. It was slightly stale, but the moment I ate it and my stomach was less empty, I felt better.

One of the guards went in first and handed a pouch of coins to the innkeeper. “Seven rooms,” he said.

“We only have one room left for the night, apologies.”

“One room?” I gasped.

“We will take it,” said Yexue. “The guards will sleep downstairs in the hall, and you and I can share the room.”

“Are there two beds, at least?” I asked the innkeeper, who shook his head. I wanted to throw up right there and then.

Yexue laughed. “You don’t expect me to sleep downstairs, do you?”

“I…” Rooming with him would help with the plan, but…“So what if I do?”

“Then you sleep downstairs. If you don’t want to share the bed, then don’t.”

“I will take the bed if neither of you want it,” said the youngest of the guards.

“Can I have some pillows and blankets for my men, please?” Yexue asked the innkeeper.

“Of course.”

I looked around the space. It wouldn’t be the worst place I had spent the night, but the hall was cold and there were only low tablesand cushions. My back was on fire from riding all day. “Fine, we will share.”

And…a chance to stay in close quarters with an exhausted Lan Yexue was a chance to pry more military secrets from him.

Yexue flashed a smile. “One room it is, then.”

The room was bigger than I had anticipated.

A small bed in the corner and a bamboo tea table at the center, surrounded by two chairs that looked a little unsteady from use, and a desk to the far side of the wall.

The entire room wouldn’t take more than five steps to cross, however after a long day on horseback, just having stable ground under my feet was a blessing.

When I stepped inside, Yexue remained close to the threshold, leaning against the rickety doorframe with half-lidded eyes that trailed my movement. Suddenly I wasn’t so tired anymore.

Lan Yexue looked like he wanted to devour me.

With a face as beautiful as his, if Yexue had been another man and I had been another woman, I might have let him.

But he was the Prince Regent of Lan. He was the enemy. And I was already in love with Siwang.

Still, my heart beat a little too fast, and I could feel warmth creeping onto my cheeks. I looked away, though cautious not to turn my back on someone like him.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I said. This wouldn’t be the first time that the two of us had spent the night together, yet the privacy of a closed room felt more intimate compared with the cave of last time.

“Just taking in the view,” said Yexue.

“Me?”

“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, seduce you ?”

“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 I have 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?

I pressed the blade harder against his throat, watching the flesh dent from pressure. If I tried to cut him, would he let me? More importantly, would he bleed like a mortal, or would this blade shatter upon impact like he was some divine god? “If I tried to kill Siwang, would you—”

“I will kill you,” I said before he could finish. “If you so much as touch Siwang, I will kill you with my bare hands.”

Those doe eyes suddenly went cold. I fought the urge to shrink back farther against the wall.

“I hope you know that the more you try to protect your precious little prince, the more I want to hurt him. If I sucked him dry until every last drop of him was within me, would you care for me the same way you care for him?”

Yexue didn’t wait for an answer before he pulled away again, just a little. Still close enough that he had me trapped between his body and the desk. Still close enough to make my blood sing and make my entire being feel like it was on fire.

“Tell me you don’t feel it,” he whispered after a moment. “Tell me you don’t think of me every night when you close your eyes, look for my shadow in every crowd, waiting for the day when our paths cross again.”

“I don’t.” It was the truth. Every time I thought of him, it was with rage or regret that I hadn’t finished him when I’d had the chance.

There was only one person I searched for in every crowd, and that man was not Yexue.

“Really?” Gently, he guided my free hand to his chest, until my fingers were hovering over the small patch of pale skin exposed by the loosened collar of his robe.

I let him guide me into the hems and touched his bare chest, and the low gasp he let out made something inside me clench. My fingers moved down, until I touched the spot where I had stabbed him.

There was a small bump of scar.

He is not invincible, I reminded myself. Lan Yexue was capable of pain, for I had inflicted it myself once upon a time. So why did my knife shatter the last time…?

“My wounds always heal,” he said softly.

“Except the one you gave me in that forest. It is the only thing that has ever scarred on my body. Something tethers us together, Fei. The fallen goddess and the monster…Perhaps you are my salvation. Perhaps you are the answer to all my worst fears. Because if the fallen goddess can love me, then I can be redeemed, right?”

I pulled my hand away. “I don’t think prophecies work likethat.”

“Don’t lie to me.” The leg that was pressed between my knees nudged forward until my legs parted for him.

“I can hear your heartbeat. You want me, as much as I want you. I can love you better than Siwang ever could.” When he leaned in and his lips brushed my cheek, my jaw, my neck, I held back the whimper in my throat.

I pushed him back. Just a little, my hand still touching his chest, fingers tugging against the hem of his robe, as if contemplating whether to pull him back in.

As if I were holding on to something that I shouldn’t.

“Do you want me, or do you just want to take something that you think belongs to Siwang?”

He laughed. “You don’t belong to him. You don’t belong to anyone, and don’t ever let the world make you think that.

One day when you stop loving him, you can always leave, no matter what the world tells you.

I hate you for choosing him and not me, over and over again, but I want you because you might be the single person in this world who is my equal and understands what it’s like, to feel suffocated by a destiny you did not choose. ”

I pressed my hand more firmly against his chest to keep him from coming any closer, for I feared what I might do when his lips finally touched mine. “We can’t always have what we want, Yexue.”

“I can,” he whispered. “If not tonight, then tomorrow night. If not tomorrow night, then the night after that. Eventually, you will give into this pull between us. I plan on living a long, long life, and I plan on making sure you do as well.”

“You are so…”

“Romantic?”

“Embarrassing.” It was better to end this now than to let whatever this was fester.

He winked. “You said you want to seduce me for military secrets. Well, you are fortunate that I am a selfless man. Who am I to deny you what you desire the most in this world?”

“I really regret putting that in the letter now.”

“Be careful what you wish for, Fei.” He came closer again, his strong hands toying with the collar of my robe.

I stopped breathing. I should stop him, but…I couldn’t, and I didn’t want to. I refused to admit it, but he was right.

As his fingers trailed up my thigh, it was enough to send my entire body tingling like fireworks. I couldn’t help but think, what if I pulled him in, what if I let him kiss me until I was faint. His eyes really were so beautiful. And his lips…

“Say the word, and I’m yours, Fei. I will get on my knees for you. I will beg if I must. I will move mountains, drain the oceans, set the sky on fire if that’s what it takes for you to look at me with a fraction of the desire with which you look at him.” His fingertips touched mychin.

We were so close now, and my heart was beating so fast. All I wanted in this moment was to lean in and taste the Prince of Lan for myself.

I didn’t do that. Instead, I pushed myself off the desk, and Yexue backed away. As he stepped back, the consuming heat on my skin began to quiet.

“It’s been a long day; we should go to sleep.” I went to the bed and threw him a half-shaped pillow that was just a sack and a couple of bird feathers. “You can sleep on the floor.”

“You are making me sleep on the floor?”

“Do you expect me to sleep on the floor?”

“We can share.”

I grabbed the other pillow. “ Fine. I will sleep on the floor.”

“You’re not going to crawl into my bed and seduce me for military secrets in the middle of the night?”

“ 黄鼠狼给鸡拜年 , 没安好心 .” Never trust a weasel who tries to get cozy with a chicken, his attentions aren’t pure.

“ 害怕我把你给吃了 ?” Scared I’m going to eat you?

I didn’t respond.

Yexue sighed. “My plan has worked: I now have the bed all to myself!”

He didn’t let me sleep on the floor, in the end. He offered the bed to me and went to sleep downstairs with his guards.