Page 119 of The Scarlet Alchemist

“Oh, but I’ve already helpedyou, Scarlet,” the Empress said, tracing the prince’s jaw with the tip of her knife. “Both you and Hong, actually. As you may have noticed, neither of you is dead yet. Do you think that’s a coincidence?”

I thought of the monster that had shoved me aside and devoured the Paper Alchemist in my place. None of them had even glanced at me, let alone tried to kill me.

“The two of you are only alive because I needed a backup plan,” she said.

My grip tightened on the metal. “What do you mean?” I said.

“This morning, there were fifteen alchemists in the entire world who knew how to make life gold, but it turns out that all of them are traitors. You know what I do to traitors, Scarlet. But I had to save at least one of you to make me more life gold, and you were always my favorite.”

“Why me?” I said, my throat closing. Why would she want to keep me around rather than someone like the Moon Alchemist, who knew so much more?

The Empress shrugged. “You have a certain sharpness about you that reminds me of myself when I was younger. And you flaunted your weakness right under my nose. I didn’t even have to leave the palace to find him.” She looked pointedly at the prince, and I began to understand why it was so important to have both of us alive. As long as she threatened one of us, the other had no choice but to obey.

“I thought your siblings were the better leverage, at first,” she said, “but do you know what they told me? That you wished they were dead.”

I shook my head, hands trembling against the bars. “That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s inconsequential,” the Empress said. “They were disposed of. You might have cared for them, Scarlet, but there’s a difference between someone you care for and someone you would do anything for. I needed the latter, and luckily, I’ve found him.”

I let myself fall forward, my face crushed against the cold metal of the cage. Did my cousins really think I wouldn’t have saved them? Had they died believing that?

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” the Empress said. “You two can wait in the dungeons while I select a new crop of alchemists. Scarlet, you will teach them what you know, and when they can make gold to my satisfaction, I’ll let both of you go. Officially, you’ll be dead, but you can run off somewhere else.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said through clenched teeth. The moment I taught another alchemist to make gold, the Empress had no reason to keep me alive.

“It doesn’t really matter if you do,” the Empress said, her blade scoring another line across the prince’s throat, “because you won’t let him die.”

Tears burned down my face. The fire blazed behind them, the floor coated in blood, and I realized at last that I had lost. My family was dead, and it had all been for nothing. I would be the Empress’s slave until she grew tired of me.

The prince moved suddenly, and at first I thought he was foolish enough to try to wrestle the knife away from the Empress, but instead he pressed the blade harder into his throat, splitting skin.

The Empress flinched backward, but kept her grip firm on the knife. “Hong—”

“Do it,” he said.

Her eyes narrowed. “Do you think I won’t?” she said.

“I know you will,” he said, his voice unwavering.

“Li Hong, stop it,” I said, slamming a fist against the cage. “None of this matters if you’re dead! There’s no one left but you to put on the throne.”

He shook his head slowly. “Yiyang and Gao’an are alive.”

The Empress frowned. “They’re not,” she said, though she no longer sounded certain. Had she really not known? It seemed that out of all of us, the Moon Alchemist was the only one half good at keeping a secret from the Empress.

“They may be disgraced, but they’re still the Emperor’s children,” the prince said, his gaze burning gold. “You know where they are, Zilan. Bring them back here.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head furiously, wishing I could wrench the bars apart. “I won’t.”

The prince smiled sadly, his eyes wet as he clutched the Empress’s hand around the blade. “You heard her, Zilan. I’m just a weakness. Without me, you can stop her.”

“I can’t!”I said. “I’m in a cage and I don’t have my stones! There’s no one left to help me!”

“Stop talking about what you can’t do,” he said, a cruel echo of the words I’d once spoken to him. “You can, Zilan. If anyone can, it’s you.”

“I hate you!”I said, thrashing against the bars, the sound quaking across the floor. “You can’t just die and leave me here to fix everything!”

“Zilan,please,” he said, tears falling freely down his face. “In my whole life, I’ve never done anything meaningful. Please, just once, let me do something that matters.”

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