“I will never ask for his forgiveness,” I hissed. “I’ve done nothing wrong. Lotus, I demand you—”
Before I could get the words out she’d fled. I yanked at my chains, which did nothing but jar the cold metal against my shinbones. Swearing, I tested the range my chains offered me. I could see my mother’s diary resting beside my bed, not a few feet away, but it was just out of reach.
“Sky!” I screamed, never mind that he was likely nowhere in thevicinity. He’d trapped me here, and the worst part was, he’d done it with my best interests purportedly at heart.
Didn’t I get to decide that?
I thought of the first time we’d fought, when he’d found out my true identity during the war. We’d resorted to violence back then too, and perhaps that should’ve been the first warning sign. Both of us had too much fire in us—we were both stubborn to the core. But Sky had been raised with the knowledge that he was always right. I had been taught to humble myself and admit wrongdoing—and I was so damn sick of it.
A key turned in the door. I tensed, wondering if he’d come to gloat. Instead, at the broad-shouldered silhouette that filled the doorway, I gasped in surprise—and relief.
“You came for me,” I said hoarsely.
Lei’s smile was joyless. “I thought you’d been a prisoner long enough.”
I let out a strangled laugh. “How did you—”
“No time for questions,” he said, but I saw Lily’s familiar shadow in the corridor before he shut the door behind him.
Lei crossed the floor in a few long strides, kneeling beside me with a metal ring filled with keys. But his hands stilled as his gaze fell over my face, lingering on the new purple-blue bruises circling my throat. Sky had left his mark on me.
Lei’s eyes had turned black. “He’ll pay for this,” he whispered, and I shivered at the brutality in his voice.
I shook my head. “I want to forget it. I’m leaving Chuang Ning. Lei, I’m going to find Zhuque’s eternal spring.”
He looked up in surprise, and I was relieved to see the haze of murder fading from his eyes. He began to test keys on my manacles. “The mythical spring?”
“It’s real. I spoke with a Ruan seer—and she saw that I would find it.”
He took this all in stride. “It can heal you?”
“If I choose to let it.”
Lei looked as if he didn’t understand but wisely saw it was not the time for questions. “I’m coming with you,” he said, as his third attempt opened the lock and the irons chaining me to the wall fell. I rubbed at my sore wrists as he helped me stand.
“What about your betrothal?” I asked him.
He shot me a sardonic look. “You know that was only for political reasons.”
I didn’t know that. “Then you’ll break the official treaty—”
“That treaty was always meant to be broken, sweetheart.”
Peering up into his face, I remembered the rumors I’d heard about Lei consorting with Anlai court officials. Had he been forming secret agreements with them, I wondered, agreements that stood outside the official treaty? For the official treaty had always been controlled by the ruling imperial family.
“I have the keys to those too,” he said, nodding at the slim iron bands I wore on each wrist, “if you want them removed.”
“No!” I said. “Destroy those.” I couldn’t take off my irons again.
He gave me a questioning glance. Only now did I notice that his complexion appeared unusually pale, a faint sheen of sweat glistening on his forehead.
“Are you ill?” I asked.
He grimaced but shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. Are you sure about your irons?”
I nodded, rubbing my wrists. “The dragon,” I explained tersely. “He’s been controlling me in my sleep. He used my personal guard to…” I faltered, not wanting to relive the night’s events.
Lei seemed to understand. “He can’t use me,” he saidmatter-of-factly. The straightforward way he said it made no sense—how could he guarantee something like that? And yet his levelheaded confidence reassured me. If I couldn’t trust myself, perhaps I could trust him.
