Anshi immediately protested, “It’s just a little rain. The matter at hand—”
“I know what’s at hand!” I yelled, startling everyone with the volume of my voice. “But now is not the time to talk about lies and intentions. Ren and I have nowhere to run anyway. And we can’t risk his fever returning. So,please, Anshi, for now, let’salltake shelter, and then we can talk.”
The desperation in my words seemed to pierce through her stubbornness. To her credit, she wasn’t entirely without rationality after all. She nodded, placing her hand on the hilt of her sword in warning. “Fine.”
Ren tucked the seal into his overcoat, ignoring Anshi’s glare. “Where, Siying?”
“My home. It’s not far from here.”
His head snapped up, and he stared at me. “I didn’t know your family lived in Baimu. Why did you never mention it?”
“I didn’t think it important,” I said, scanning the path ahead.
“But you knew I was coming to Baimu.”
“That was your business.” I turned back to him. “I didn’t expect my family to become involved.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry about that.”
I tugged on the end of my braid. Perhaps I’d withheld the information from him in the beginning out of spite. But I felt none of that toward him now.
“There’s no point in being sorry,” I said more gently. “Come along. I’m sure my family will be thrilled to meet a prince and a warrior from Wen.”
Anshi held up a hand. “Wait. If we’re going to your family’s, then I should remove your bindings.”
I arched my brow at her. “Really? You’re not worried?”
“This one’s too weak to run,” she said, reaching for the rope around Ren’s wrists. “So if you try anything funny, I can easily impale him with my sword.”
“What a pleasant thought,” Ren said.
I agreed with his distaste, but I was also secretly impressed by Anshi. Who knew she had enough manners not to enter a holy establishment with a pair of hostages, including the monastery’s priestess? She still had some sense of propriety, it seemed.
After Anshi freed my tired wrists, I took the lead, comfortable in this part of the woods. My feet moved automatically, as eager as I was to travel home.
I could feel Anshi’s disapproval searing into my back, but I wasn’t about to decide the fate of our kingdom in the middle of a rainstorm. We could deal with our problems at the monastery. Perhaps after we’d all changed into dry clothes. And after I’d checked on my father. Ren wasn’t going anywhere for a while anyway.
I was so distracted imagining my family’s reaction, I almost didn’t hear Anshi calling for me to wait.
I paused mid-step, pivoting around to see Ren standing beside a tree, his shoulder propped against the trunk for balance. Anshi hovered beside him, holding up her lantern. She looked almost worried. For once, thoughts of my family were overshadowed by thoughts of another—Ren.
“Ren!” I closed the distance between us in three long steps and held back his talisman to find his eyes. “Ren, are you feeling ill again?”
“I’m… all right,” he breathed. “Just a little… dizzy. It’s likely all the walking and circling and climbing and… walking.”
“You said walking twice.”
“I meant to.” He smiled shakily. “It’s called… emphasis.”
“You’re not all right, Ren.” My eyes flitted nervously over his strained expression as I cradled his face between my hands, ignoring the light twinge in my wrist. “You need human qi.”
“No,” Ren insisted, reading my mind. “Don’t… don’t give me any more of your qi. Remember the repercussions.”
“There are no proven repercussions! Unless you want to die right here in this forest, you’ll let me—”
“No.” He squeezed his eyes shut, then reopened them to hold my stare. “Please, Siying. If you won’t obey me as a prince, I ask you to respect my wishes as a—friend.”
I hardly noticed the way he tripped over that last word, or the way Anshi had stepped back awkwardly. Instead, I seethed at his stubbornness, unable to comprehend how carelessly he was treating his own life. But I knew that I couldn’t force him. Not with this.
