Page 30 of Empire's Curse

The pond grew colder the deeper she went, and at one moment, her foot slipped and she fully submerged into the water. The coldness sent a shock through her system and she bobbed up to the surface, inhaling sharply and kicking her legs and arms to keep herself afloat. Icy water streamed down her face and she blinked rapidly against the late afternoon sun. She shifted her attention to Muyang, who hadn’t moved from his position on the bench and watched her with mild curiosity. She couldn’t even bask in triumph at letting him realize she knew how to swim, for fear that he would force her to do something outrageous—like sink underwater, or hold her breath for as long as she could.

He didn’t say anything and only stared at her, his expression neutral, and when the minutes ticked by without an order from him, Daiyu grew braver. “Your Majesty,” she said, unable to keep the irritation from her voice, “do you wish for me to keep floating like this or to actually dive into the water anddrown? If it’s the latter, I hate to inform you that I have no plans of dying”—even for you, she omitted—“and I would very much appreciate being allowed to get out.”

She waited for him to either lash out or laugh, but he did neither. He waved his hand forward as if uninterested by her response. “I’ll grant it.”

Before he could change her mind, she quickly swam to the bench and stepped out of the pond. A gust of wind blew over her and she quivered in the cold. Her dress clung to her every curve and she covered her breasts with her hands for fear that he could see too much. Her teeth chattered and she lowered her head. “Please allow me to go back to my room, Your Majesty.”

“No.”

She jerked her head up. No?

“Daiyu.” Her name rolled off his tongue so easily, and she trembled. His gaze darkened as he stared up at her. “I have a few questions that have been bothering me about you. If you can answer them, I’ll be satisfied.”

She dug her elbows into her sides and huggedherself tighter, her lips quivering as another kind of cold overtook her body. This one more frigid than any body of water.

Did he realize she had been lying to him? Did Feiyu mention that she wanted to wipe her from his memories?

“Yes, Your Majesty?” she squeaked.

He propped his elbow on the armrest of the bench and tilted his head against his closed fist. There was a shift in his mood because the energy all around him seemed to dampen and darken. She couldn’t explain it any other way than that it seemed like a darkness cloaked him.

It was then that she became aware that she was staring down at him, and she quickly dropped herself to her knees and pressed her hands onto the grass. She couldn’t hide the tremor that wracked through her thin frame.

Muyang sighed, and she winced, waiting for him to snap.

“Daiyu, lift your head.”

She did as she was told and peered up at him. He was only a foot away from her, and yet he appeared all too close. All too powerful, and much too indifferent.

“Why did you switch places with your sister?”

She licked her wet lips and tasted the briny, iron tang of the pond water. “My sister is too young and she—” She lowered her gaze, swallowing down the dryness of her throat. “She loved another, so I took her place so she could be with her true love.”

It was a simple lie, one of many she had told him at this point. But it was the only thing she could think of without making herself out to be a sister-stepping, ambitious girl. Although it would probably do well for her to have him think negatively of her—and thus cast her aside—for some odd reason, she had a feeling that if she did that, he would kill her for a petty reason. Like tricking him into thinking she was something she wasn’t.

“How noble,” he said dryly.

“I didn’t think I would be chosen,” Daiyu murmured. “Especially since … you haven’t chosen anyone before.”

Muyang’s face seemed to be carved from stone as he lookeddown at her, as unreadable as he was moments ago. “Li Jia told me that when she first saw you, you were holding a basket and told her you were doing laundry for the women in the Lotus wing. Why were you pretending to be a servant?”

“I was lost and needed help to get back to the Lotus wing.” Her lips quivered and it took everything in her to hold his gaze, to tell him she was truthful when she wasn’t.

“How did you leave the Lotus wing without anyone noticing? There are guards posted everywhere.”

Her hands grew clammy and she tightened her hold on the grass. “I slipped out when they didn’t notice.”

“Why did you leave?”

“Because …” Daiyu’s voice lowered to a whisper. “Because I was hungry and wanted to eat something in the kitchens.”

“But you have plenty of food in the Lotus wing. Calling a servant to bring you something to eat is easy to do.” His eyes seemed to darken even further, and she squirmed beneath that oppressive stare. She felt like a butterfly whose flimsy wings were pinned down and who aggressively tried to break free but was unable to.

She wanted to vomit. This felt infinitely worse than when she had been poisoned and dying, because here, she was under the careful eye of an executioner.

She chose her next words carefully, the lies rolling off her tongue easily. “The other women don’t like me much, so they don’t … they don’t like when I call for things. Like food, or assistance, and the maids don’t like me much either, since I come from a poor family. I’m much worse off than any of the other girls, so no one wanted to … to tend to me.”

His silence was deafeningly loud, and she wanted to sprint away from him, to lose herself in the palace halls, scream for Feiyu to warp her out, and to disappear from him forever. And yet she was still a bird trapped in a gilded cage, and if he chose to clip her wings or wring her neck and replace her, he could do just that.

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