The shansen smiled. “Insurance that the wedding will go as planned.”
“My enchanter is preparing his own insurance.”
All lies. I stared blankly ahead as the servants brought out a new dish, one of the final courses. It was a whole pheasant, braised with imported red wine and resting on a bed of glowing embers that sent sparks flying up to the ceiling. The guests clapped at the chef’s finesse and skill.
The smoke wafted to my nose, tickling my anxiety. Edan no longer protected A’landi. That duty was now left to me—to make sure this wedding happened.
If not, the shansen would strike. And A’landi would burn.
I barely heard Chief Minister Yun announce, “Let us toast Lady Sarnai.”
“Yes,” Emperor Khanujin said. “To her health and beauty.”
The court raised their cups to me, unaware of the gleam in the emperor’s eye.Iknew he was reveling in the secret knowledge that the shansen’s daughter was writhing in her apartments, brutally injured.
I raised my cup and drank. The alcohol sent a wash of heat over my cheeks and made my lips tingle, but it was not strong enough to wash away the cold seeping into my blood.
As I set down my cup, a familiar face swirled in the cloudy liquid. A low, thick laugh rumbled from its depths, making my hands tremble.
Bandur.
Suddenly, the shansen and emperor’s guests vanished. In their places appeared ghosts with long white hair and sharp, gleaming teeth. Shadows leaked from their lips.
Sentur’na,they called, a word—aname—I did not know. Their arms reached out to touch me, and I jerked away.
Go back to Lapzur!I wanted to scream.Stop following me!
Sentur’na, we are waiting for you. It is beginning. You cannot escape.
All ghosts, except one: in the shansen’s place sat a demon.
It wasn’t Bandur, who took on the form of a wolf. But a tiger I’d never seen before. A tiger whose scorching red eyes seared into me.
You cannot escape.
Fear bristled the back of my neck. “Who are you?”
The demon merely smiled, raising its cup to me while the ghosts clamored:
GIVE IN, SENTUR’NA. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE. GIVE IN—
The fire in the center of the table burned higher and higher as the ghosts chanted. Wine splashed out of their cups, staining my vision red.
Enough! My dress flared, and I flung my wine into the fire.
The ghosts vanished. The tiger demon in the shansen’s place vanished. The fire roared, and my bronze cup rattled and rolled off the table until a servant caught it.
I blinked.
No more ghosts. Only ministers, their wiry beards wet with wine, gawked at me. Even the servants had frozen in place to stare.
The shansen stared too, a deep frown furrowing his thick brows.
“Are you all right, Sarnai?” the emperor asked icily.
Wine dripped from my fingers, and a servant hastily dabbed a napkin at my hands. Another servant refilled my wine.
“Yes…,” I started to say, but then I looked into my cup.
