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Another arrow plunges forth, grazing my calf. It stings, but I drag myself onward, blood trickling down my leg.
“That was your last warning,” Prince Zixin calls out. “Come back or I’ll find an easier target—one right here.”
Dian. My feet stagger to a stop, my blood cold as I swing back. Prince Zixin moves out from the trees before me, an iron breastplate covering his white robe, a bow in his hand, the tip of his arrow pointed at me. He’d shot at me, he’d struck. The prince who sat by my bedside to tend to me doesn’t exist—only the hunter, the killer. And I’m his prey.
Over a hundred soldiers follow him, forming a circle around us. One restrains Ruilin as four others drag Dian forward, her hands shackled behind her back with chains of glittering metal.
Dian’s eyes blaze, her face glistening with sweat as she struggles against the iron that binds her. Hope flares as her ring shimmers, the chains around her wrists jangling—
“Stop or she dies.” Prince Zixin swings his arrow toward Ruilin, its point glinting. Another soldier swiftly presses his sword to her throat, the edge puckering her skin. They used Ruilin to catch my sister, likely following her when she escaped. Dian wouldn’t have surrendered any other way.
“How dare you threaten me?” Ruilin stares the prince down even as her voice cracks with fear. “My father won’t forgive you. Is this how you treat your guests?”
“Guests should respect their hosts, not scheme against them.” Prince Zixin’s eyes are shards of ice. “Nor do I need your father’s approval for anything I do.”
He tosses his bow to a waiting soldier, then stalks toward me—grasping my chin to lift my face to his. I try to wrench away but his grip is too tight. His gaze flicks toward Dian, then back to me. “Who is she to you?”
“I don’t know her.” I won’t endanger Dian; I won’t give him another hold over me.
His mouth curves, thin and cruel. “You’re lying. Just as you lied about being sick.”
I reach for my dagger—but he seizes my wrist, yanking me closer. His arm bands around my waist as I writhe against him. I yank one hand free, clawing at him—but he catches it, forcing both behind my back. With a deft twist, he spins us into a hateful embrace where my back is pressed to his chest, my arms locked to my sides.
I fight a burst of shame, forcing myself to calm as his soldiers stare at us. From the corner of my eye, I catch Dian tilting her head at Ruilin. I must help her—only then can Dian strike.
“I wonder what the gossips will say tomorrow?” I twist around to glare at the wicked prince. “That His Highness had to restrain a girl to stop her from running away?” I kick at his shin, hard, but he doesn’t even flinch.
“Wild creatures must be tamed,” he says in a wintry tone.
Grasping my strength, I ram my elbow into Prince Zixin’s side with all my force. As he curses, his hold loosening, I wrench free, grabbing my dagger and bringing it to his face. But he knocks my arm away and reaches for me again. At once I dart aside, then race toward Ruilin’s captor, slashing his shoulder with my dagger. He gasps, dropping his sword, and I pull Ruilin away.
As we run, more guards rush toward us—stumbling—a tremor rippling through the ground. Ahead, an unearthly light flares from Dian’s eyes, a flowery scent winding through the air. Thick vines burst from the earth, fleshy tendrils curling around the soldiers’ ankles. Chaos erupts, a few racing away and shouting in alarm, some hacking at the vines with their blades. As the iron saws through the fleshy stems, my heart sinks—but I make myself move. I can’t let them use us against Dian. If only I had magic to help her, to do something other than run.
As Ruilin and I sprint away, I swing around to check whether Dian is safe. Her magic flows into the earth, vines and roots slithering to form a barrier around her. Yet her hands are still manacled, her face pale—how long can she hold off the soldiers? I won’t trade my freedom for my sister’s. In the Palace of Nine Hills, her danger is greater than mine.
“Go ahead,” I tell Ruilin, my feet already slowing, turning back—
Two soldiers emerge from the side, heading toward Dian. Their hands are sheathed in gloves of iron links, glittering with that hateful sheen. They move with deadly purpose—terror fisting in my chest.
“Be careful, Dian!” I race to her—as does Ruilin. But soldiers stream toward us, forcing us to run around them. I’m still a distance from my sister—my heart beating too fast, exhaustion creeping over me, the dreaded dizziness spilling through me once more.
Dian’s eyes pinch as she summons more gnarled roots to erupt from the earth, hurtling toward the soldiers. But then a large soldier leaps forth, throwing himself against Dian, careless of his safety. A vine lashes him away, too late—as Dian is flung to the ground. She rolls up, but the pair of gloved soldiers dive at her now. Despair grips me as I force myself to move quicker, but guards crowd my path. I slash at one with my dagger, yet another knocks my weapon from my hand, shoving me to the ground. Pain erupts across my back—but it’s nothing to my anguish as the soldier wraps his iron glove around Dian’s neck, throttling her. As she struggles in his grip like a fish on a hook, her eyes go wide—the vines and roots around her trembling, then going still… releasing the soldiers from their coils.
“Let her go!” I scream, kicking and scratching wildly at the soldiers restraining me.
Prince Zixin stalks toward Dian, trapped in his soldiers’ hold. As he lifts her hand, the shackles clink. Moonlight strikes Dian’s ring, the petals of her flower quivering—a hundred times more beautiful than the withered one clasped around my neck.
His gaze slides from Dian to me. “Who is she? Why would she come to save you? Why are you protecting her?”
When I don’t reply, the soldier tightens his grip on Dian’s throat, a gasp fracturing from her. My nails dig into my palms, cutting deep. From the side, Ruilin cries out as she struggles with her captors.
“Take the magic-wielder’s ring,” Prince Zixin commands.
“No! Don’t hurt her!” I cry out, almost pleading now. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. I’ll—”
Prince Zixin’s eyes are blacker than coal as he turns to me. “I already know everything I need to. Those who won’t bend to my will—I will break.”
The guard wearing the iron gloves rips off Dian’s ring, his face contorting with strain. Blood mists the air, a scream shattering the quiet, racked with unearthly suffering. Dian’s eyes go blank, closing, as she collapses to the ground—my heart twisting as though wrenched apart.
