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“I am glad that you do not.”

Wordlessly, I rested my head upon his chest, sliding my arms around him, stealing his warmth for a moment of comfort. As he clasped me tighter, my fingers glided lower to his waist, brushing the smooth orb of the Sky Drop Tassel. A faint flicker of my power, almost imperceptible, and my energy was leeched from the stone—our link severed. As I pulled away, breaking the embrace, regret yanked at my heart until I thought it would break.

“I don’t want to lose you,” he confessed in a low voice. “I am sick with fear.”

There was so much more I wanted to say to him—tender assurances, words of promise, yet they stuck in my throat. For in truth … I was sick with fear too.

SLEEP ELUDED ME THAT night. From the deep stillness it was far from midnight, closer to the edge of dawn. Rising, I crossed the room to throw the windows open. As the cool air rushed in, the rustling of unfamiliar trees teased my ears, my skin prickling with unease. I felt like a child again, afraid of the monsters lurking in the shadows. Even then, I had wanted to drag them out into the open, to look them full in the face—as nothing could have been more terrifying than the nightmares in my mind.

Not this time.

Someone knocked softly upon my door, unexpected at this hour. Light streaked from my palm, illuminating a lantern, as I hastily pulled on a yellow robe and tied a sash around my waist. My hair, unbound, fell over my shoulders.

“Come in.” I grabbed my bow from the table, more a force of habit than from expecting any real danger.

The doors slid open, Wenzhi standing in the entrance. I lowered the bow at once.

“Are you sure, Xingyin?” He asked gravely. “Not too long ago, you wanted to shoot me.”

“Not too long ago, you deserved it and worse.”

“What about now?”

That inflection in his tone, the light in his gaze stirred something in me. “Why are you here, Wenzhi? Don’t you have other things to do this late at night—petitions to read, court officials to terrify? Sleep, perhaps?”

Concubines to bed. The unwelcome thought seared, and I discarded it at once.

“Undoubtedly,” he agreed, leaning against the doorframe. “There are many other places I should be, which would be far more welcoming than your cold reception.”

“Perhaps you should seek them out,” I said icily, closing the door, but his hand shot out to grip the wooden panel.

Only now did I notice his attire, unused to seeing him in such finery. His moss-green brocade robe was embroidered with dragons that reared up amid swirls of silken mist, a belt of silver links fastened around his waist. A crown rested on his head—different from his father’s—a carved gold headpiece set with an emerald.

“I could not sleep either,” he confessed. “Would you come with me?”

I hesitated. “It’s late.”

“It’s not far,” he assured me.

As I nodded, moving away from the entrance, he strode into my room toward the windows. A cloud was already hovering there, as though he had known I would agree.

“Why not through the door?” I asked.

His nose wrinkled. “I’m not my father. I do not want or need a guard tailing me at all times.”

And there were few threats he could not handle on his own.

He climbed through the window, dropping onto the cloud. I did not take the hand he offered, grasping the wooden frame as I slipped out. The cloud soared high, circling the palace, the wind gliding through my hair. When we came to a halt, I turned to him, my eyebrows arched. “The roof?”

“I know your fondness for them,” he said lightly.

Something tightened in my chest. He meant the times I had found solace upon my rooftop in the Jade Palace, as I stared into the sky longing for home. And yet it was also where we had pledged ourselves to each other, and where I had almost shot him to make my escape. I shrugged aside the past, both the good and the bad—for with tomorrow so uncertain, I would yield them no place tonight.

The tiles here were carved of iridescent stone that gleamed like they had been dipped into a rainbow. Yet the true beauty of this place lay in the endless horizon encircling it. Glowing lanterns floated through the air, borne on some enchanted breeze. The arched roofs of the buildings below shone like jewels. And beyond the bank of violet-gray clouds curved the Golden Desert, aglitter as stardust.

The wind teased at Wenzhi’s hair, draping long strands across his face. “Thank you for coming with me. This is where I came whenever I wanted to be alone. I’ve wanted to bring you here for a long time, even before I knew what it meant.”

He lowered himself upon the tiles, resting an arm upon a raised knee. While his expression had always been aloof and unreadable, there was a new gravity set into his features.