“I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered, a sob strangling her.
“What are you doing?” he asked, softer, his gaze landing on the parchment in her hand. “Get away from there, Biyu. Come back here. This must all be a mistake?”
“Nikator …”
“You couldn’t have—” He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe it. As if he didn’t think she had claws and teeth, like he had first suspected. And her heart clenched at the expression he wore, the dawning horror on his face. “Please, Biyu. Step away from there. Come back to me.”
“You know I can’t.”
“Biyu,please.”
Her face crumpled. She hated this. Hated that she was doing this to him. “I’m sorry.”
“You always have a choice.” His words came out pleading, eyeing the ward spell she held. “You weren’t behind any of this, were you? This is all a mistake, right? Someone put you up to this. Who?”
Her lower lip wobbled. She hated seeing the betrayal on his face, the way he was searching her face for something, and failing to find it.
Pain twisted in her chest and she wasn’t sure if it was her own, or if she was feeling his through the bond. She gritted her teeth together. He had to see that she had no choice. How could she continue living as a prisoner with no choices for anything in her life? Even the clothes she had were all chosen for her. The foods she was allowed to eat. The times she was allowed to leave. All of it was against her will. It wasn’t any way to live.
This wasn’t wrong of her to do. She had no choice.
“I’m sorry, Nikator, but … but I had to.” She picked up the paper. It had four smears of blood—Liqin’s, Biyu’s, Yat-sen’s, and Daewon’s.
“Put that down,” he said slowly. His hands clenched, and the disbelief seemed to fade to something else—something akin to rage, or maybe hurt.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Was it all a lie?” He looked like she had struck him. His lips parted, then closed. “Did you … spend time with me so you could dothis?”
“Nik—”
He laughed bitterly, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I fell for it all.Fuck. I knew—I knew you were up to something, but I thought … I thought things hadchanged. It was all a lie.”
“No,no.” Her eyes filled with tears and she hated how she couldn’t stop trembling. “That’s not?—”
Nikator lunged at her, and she ripped the paper in half the instant he tackled her to the floor. Her head almost bounced on the hard surface, but he wrapped his hand around it to dull the impact. Still, the air was knocked out of her and stars danced in her vision. She struggled to sit while he wrestled the two halves of the parchment from her hand.
“Stop—” she started.
He tore it away from her and pieced it together as he rose to his feet.
He skimmed over it quickly and his face went slack, a fire burning in those sapphire eyes of his. “What have you done?”
“I didn’t have a choice! I’ve been a prisoner my whole?—”
The sound of rumbling erupted all around them. Biyu clutched the side of the table and hoisted herself up as the palace trembled and dust fell from the ceiling. The tremors halted, but air grew dense with magic. Thick, roiling, and pervasive. Shecould taste it in her mouth—like ash. Like something trying to spark to life. Like something that had been slumbering for a long time and was finally unleashed.
Nikator’s wide eyes met hers. They both seemed to come to the same realization: Yat-sen’s powers had returned.
29
Nikator didn’t waitfor her. He unsheathed his blades—the metalzingedlethally as they sprung free—and sprinted out the door. Biyu scrambled after him, her skirts whipping over her legs. He was headed to His Majesty’s rooms; she could tell that much by the twisting paths they were taking. She tried to keep up, but he was too fast, and even with the obstacles in his way—the corpses and the occasional intruder—he sped through.
He busted down one of the doors and entered. By the time Biyu reached it, her breathing was labored and her legs were shaky. It was a large sitting room of sorts, and it was in complete disarray. Magic lashed through the air in shadow whips and bluish-purple fog filled the air. She blinked through the thickening magic to find Yat-sen on the floor, Drakkon Muyang atop him with his hand wrapped around her brother’s throat.
Her heart stopped.
“Yat-sen!” she screamed.
