“I’m done here,” I said, shoving out of his grasp.
“No,” he said again, but with a different tone of voice this time. Then, to my astonishment, he drew his sword. “I thought it would come to this,” he said grimly. And I remembered with horror how he’d made me discard my weapons at the top of the mountain.
I shifted tactics as swiftly as a monsoon storm. “Don’t get angry,” I pleaded, reaching out to embrace him. I leaned in to press my lips against his, but he shoved me away, and not gently. As I stumbled, he pressed his blade to my back, prodding me forward.
“Move,” he ordered, his tone lethal. My heart began to thunder in my chest.
When I didn’t budge, he pressed his sword harder against my back, hard enough to draw blood. “I won’t ask twice,” he said, his voice now at its most dangerous—soft as silk.
“You of all people I never expected to betray me,” I rasped. “How can I trust you after this?”
He did not speak, but I felt his blade against me.
“I will despise you forever,” I threatened, choosing words that I knew would cut. “I will call you a monster with my dying breath. You are a fool if you think I will ever forgive you for this.”
“I won’t ask for forgiveness, then,” said Lei, and I was reminded of how cruel he could be.
I felt a sickening twist of fear in my belly. Lei took a step forward, and I was forced to yield or be cut open by his blade. I glancedback at him over my shoulder, but his face was a cold mask, nothing like the man who’d held me at night when I couldn’t sleep, who’d given me his qi rather than let me suffer. That man was gone; before me was a stranger.
As we approached the pool’s edge, I could see the water simmering, spitting, its slow ripples seeming to reach for me with hungry arms. I tripped on a rock; still he did not pause. The water was so near. And I was so afraid.
“I am a dragon.” Qinglong’s confession returned to me now. “I must desire more. It is simply the way of things.”
Just as the dragon could not exist without his greed, I could not live without my power. How could Lei make me go against my true nature? How could he ask me to ruin myself?
“Please,” I said, tears clogging my throat. “Don’t make me do this.”
I searched his face pleadingly, but there was no emotion there, and he had always been impossible to read.
“I-I can’t, Lei. I’m begging you. If you’ve ever loved me, if you’ve ever felt anything for me, please”—my voice broke—“please don’t make me—”
Doing what I never thought I’d do again, I knelt on the ground before him, ignoring the sharp rocks pressing into my legs. Heart throbbing in my chest, I prostrated myself before him.
“Please,” I said to the earth, humbling myself to the highest degree. “Please.”
I glanced at him through my parted hair, catching the fleeting moment when his eyes softened with pain. It lasted only a second, but a second was all I needed.
I sprang up and tackled him to the ground. His blade flew from his grasp as we tumbled together in the dirt, both struggling for dominance. Though his strength surpassed mine, my advantage layin my refusal to hold back. I scratched, clawed, and struck like a wild animal, driven by an unthinking fear. All I knew was that he was trying to take my power from me. And I would let no one stand in the way of my power.
Lei fought not to harm but to restrain, and this was his undoing. He tried to pin down my wrists, but I refused to be taken prisoner. I smashed my head into his with such force that we both began to bleed. Black blood dripped into my eyes as I clawed at his throat, scrambling for a choke hold.
“Meilin!” he shouted hoarsely. “Wake up—this isn’t you!”
But I could not hear him. All I could think about was my power, my power, my power. I could not give it up. Not when it had made me who I was today. Not when I was nothing without it.
My gaze lit upon the telltale glint of steel in his tunic. I lunged for it, and Lei tried to twist away, but then his eyes widened as he saw the protruding rock between us. He covered its jagged edge with his hand mere moments before my forehead collided with it. Stunned, I recognized that he had just saved me from a potentially fatal head wound. And yet the thought passed through me like mist, leaving no trace. I saw his vulnerability and dived for the dagger, wrestling it from his grip.
“Put the blade down,” he said warily. I gripped the dagger, wondering if I had the nerve to use it. But then his eyes narrowed on my necklace, my jade, and my heart hardened against him.
“The jade,” he said lowly. “It’s changed you.”
My jade throbbed against my skin. I wrapped my fingers around it, and in response, I felt the waters stir at my feet. I couldn’t explain how, but I knew then: if I walked away now, Hai Meilin would become a living legend, my name enduring through the centuries. The people would follow me, adore me, revere me. I would be the woman warrior who disguised herself as a man to join thearmy, who saved the Three Kingdoms, who brought the world to its knees.
The pull of the tides grew stronger, more insistent.
But if I entered the spring, if I let the waters take me, my story would be lost forever. History would forget my name and erase my great deeds from memory. When I died, it would be as if I’d never existed. Everything I’d fought for, everything I’d sacrificed. For nothing.
“Meilin,” warned Lei.
