She swung the door open and entered the hallway, her mind a knotted mess on what she needed to do, when she ran headfirst into a wall of muscle. She almost fell back, but a hand snaked around her waist and held her steady. Her hands splayed on an impossibly hard chest and she stared up at eyes so blue they appeared violet in the cool lighting.
“O-oh!” Her heart rate spiked—and she wasn’t entirely sure it was from fear of being caught.
Nikator unhanded her almost immediately and stepped back. “Where’s Lady Li-ling?”
There was a coldness with his body heat gone, and Biyu instinctively stepped closer, as if she wanted to breathe in the scent of the ocean, spices, and everything else Nikator smelled like. Only to remember her place and stumble backward.
He hadn’t kissed her because he liked her, she reminded herself.
It had meant nothing.
They were enemies. It was better to be away from him. It was better to ignore these strange, warm feelings budding in her chest like an unwanted, festering disease. The scroll inher pocket reminded her even more than there was a barrier between them that no amount of kissing could breach.
“She left just moments ago.” Biyu tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and tried to keep the tremble from her voice. Her nerves were shot.
“She left you alone?”
“It was just a moment ago that she left,” she repeated. “Liqin wasn’t feeling well so she escorted her back.”
“And you were just alone here? Doing what?”
Biyu cleared her throat and motioned at the food at the table.
He lifted an eyebrow. “You were snacking.”
“I was.” She coughed and then quickly added, “I was hoping you or someone would come here to help me.”
“Help you with what?” Suspicion flashed over his eyes.
Biyu panicked—she couldn’t have him being suspicious of her now, not when she needed to get to her room and stow away the scroll in a safe location until she next saw her brother. What if he thought she was up to no good and searched her here?
“What’s wrong? What do you need help with? And why do you look like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like someone’s going to attack you.”
Her smile came out shaky and she lied, “I was scared Wu Jian would find me here, but it’s just you. A-anyway, I need to go back to my room, but I don’t know the way from here.”
Nikator looked at her strangely for a beat longer, but whatever suspicions he had he must have discarded because he waved her to one end of the hallway. “It’s this way.”
The scroll seemed to weigh her down even though she wanted nothing more than to rush to her own bedchambers. She tried to calm her racing heart as he led the way out of the room. This was the first step, she told herself. Soon, she and Yat-sen would have a solid plan to take back their throne and their subsequent freedom.
23
Biyu wrotea quick note to Yat-sen when she arrived to her room later that night.
I saw the white lotus in our gardens today.
It was beautiful, and it smelled just as you suspected.
The fragrance was stunning. I wish for you to smell it as well. Soon?
She tiedit to Jade and sent her on her way.
Biyu wasn’table to deliver the scroll to Yat-sen. Mostly because Jade wasn’t able to have that big an item tucked in her collar, and partly because there was no way for her to bump into her brother. She rarely ever saw him outside of events. Currently, the spell was tucked in her wardrobe beneath some folded clothes of hers. She couldn’t hide anything under hermattress anymore; after the marriage spell, Nikator had searched her room for the second spell she had—the forgetful spell—and confiscated it. He would likely know to search beneath the mattress if he suspected she was hiding something.
She and Yat-sen had exchanged a few quick notes back and forth. She had asked if they could move up their plan so Liqin wouldn’t have to marry Zihao, but he had written back that they couldn’t move their timeline that fast. She was sure Liqin would never forgive her if she found out that they were planning something like this without her—and that they could have changed her fate if they’d decided to speed up their plan. Her only consolation was that, hopefully, once they took back the throne, Liqin would be freed as well. Then she’d be able to leave Zihao and marry whoever she wanted.
