Page 17 of Empire's Curse

Muyang rose to his seat. “It’s decided then. Yin Daiyu, you will be my wife.”

6

Daiyu pacedin circles around the room, her mind growing more tangled with every stride. Lanfen sat on the cushioned couch in the center of the room, her hands distractedly dancing over the intricate carvings of a slithering dragon on the armrest. She had been silent the entire time.

Wife. Wife? Wife!?

Daiyu must have heard wrong because there was no wayDrakkon Muyanghad saidshewas to be his wife.

She didn’t even want tobehere, much less be anything to the emperor.

But when she was whisked away into these fancy chambers with sprawling rooms divided by glass curtains, windows covered in aquamarine shaded paper screens—she came to the realization that the emperor did, in fact, choose her.

It was impossible. She didn’t fit the beauty standard with the nobility—not with her tanned skin, which clearly showed her commoner status. Nor did she have any backing from an affluent and influential family.

Daiyu leaned against one of the jade-lacquered pillars in the room and ran a hand over the silk dress she wore. Lotuses were embroidered all along the dark green skirts, traveling up to thesapphire-colored sash, and even across the right lapel of her tunic. The one thing she truly couldn’t complain about was the lavish dresses she had been given. She had never worn something so fancy.

She also couldn’t complain about the food, or the constant scented baths, or the lack of work … Truly, she couldn’t complain about much. But it was only because she knew this was all temporary. There was no way she was going to go along with this absurd plan of being the emperor’s concubine. Or wife. Or whatever the hell he wanted to do with her.

Her plan still hadn’t changed: take Lanfen and get out.

But now there were complications, and she couldn’t wrap her mind on how to solve them. For one, the emperor knew what she looked like. Two, he knew her name. Three, if she ran, wouldn’t he come after her and potentially murder her and her entire family for rejecting him? Drakkon Muyang was known to be a vicious, cruel man, and going against him likely meant death for her and everyone related to her.

“Daiyu, what will we do now?” Lanfen folded her hands on her lap. Her anxiety was palpable, seeming to fill the room with waves and waves of tension. “Will you marry the emperor?”

The only good thing out of this arrangement was that Lanfen was saved from the emperor’s eye, but even then, Daiyu couldn’t say for certainty if that wouldn’t change if they stayed here. Because if Drakkon Muyangonlywanted Daiyu, why didn’t he dismiss the rest of the ladies in the palace? Why was Lanfen still here? He must have been planning on takingmoreconcubines after marrying Daiyu.

“Daiyu?” Lanfen was staring at her intently, and it took Daiyu a second to remember she had asked a question. She opened her mouth to reply, but another voice called from behind her.

“I’d love to know the answer to that too.”

Startled, Daiyu screamed and whirled around, while Lanfen jolted upright from her seat. The masked mage was leaning against the other pillar in the room, his head tilted to the side. Themask he wore this time was a dazzling cerulean and emerald color, reminding her of a water dragon.

The mage pointed at Lanfen. “Are you planning on stabbing me with that?”

Daiyu followed his gaze to her sister, who had a hairpin in her hand, the sharp end of it aimed at him. “Lanfen?—”

“Who are you?” Lanfen asked, wide-eyed and trembling.

“Lanfen! It’s okay, I know him.” Daiyu rushed to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder. “This is the man I was telling you about, the one who will help us.”

She blinked, lowering the hairpin. “You know him?” She eyed his green robes. “He’s … He’s a mage.”

“Then you know how stupid it is to point a”—he stared at the hairpin, as if unsure what to call it—“weapon, at me.”

Daiyu rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip. “A mighty mage like you, afraid of a hairpin? That’s hardly a weapon! I’m sure you can just …” She waved at the silver hairpin with a butterfly on one end of it, “make it disappear if you wanted to?”

Surely, if he could teleport from one location to the next, a measly hairpin must have been child’s play against him?

“It’s the insult that makes this all the more offensive.” He lifted his shoulders, sounding mock hurt. “You didn’t tell heranythingabout me? The heroic man who was going to rescue you both?”

Daiyu stifled a laugh, the tension in her knotted chest loosening. From the corner of her vision, Lanfen was watching her closely. “It slipped my mind.”

“I can imagine. How did you manage that, by the way?” He pushed himself off the pillar and sauntered to the couch, where he unceremoniously plopped down on it. “You came here to rescue your sister and instead, you’re going to marry the emperor now! If I weren’t a mage, I would have suspected you of concocting some sort of spell to win the emperor’s heart, with your sister as an excuse to weasel your way in here.”

Heat flushed over Daiyu’s face at the accusation. “That’s not what happened. I truly did come here to rescue her.”

“Yes, yes.” He waved his hand dismissively and crossed his ankles together as he leaned deeper into the cushions of the couch. “That’s why I prefaced it by saying that if Iweren’ta mage, I would have thought differently.”

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