Page 75 of Empire's Curse

Nikator’s eyes widened in shock and he shook his head profusely. “Oh, no. His Majesty freed us.”

“Oh.” The awkward, itchy feeling seemed to subside, but not entirely. She shifted in her seat and fidgeted with her sleeves, unable to look away from him. He didn’t look like he was mistreated in any way, and she assumed he was well taken care of if he was a part of Muyang’s special forces, but a part of her wondered if he was forced to be this way. Forced into this lifestyle of being a special warrior. Surely, Muyang hadn’t freed him and the others out of the goodness of his heart? For all of them to end up like this?

“His Majesty freed us and helped raise us,” he continued, resting his chin on his closed fist as he leaned toward the window. A glassy, faraway look entered his eyes. “It was fun up until four years ago. We used to travel all over the world. There was no placewe hadn’t visited—or at least it felt like that as a child. But now we’ve settled down here.”

“What happened four years ago?” She laced her hands together. “Isn’t that when His Majesty took the throne?” She would have thought he would be thrilled that Muyang achieved his goal of taking the throne, but the youth appeared jaded.

Nikator sighed loudly and his breath fogged the ends of the window. When he turned back to her, his smile was faint. “Many things have changed since His Majesty took the throne. The dynamic of all of our relationships is different now and we’re no longer children running amuck in a faraway adventure.”

She wanted to ask more, but something in the air told her not to push it. She folded her hands together and let the silence envelop them both. The carriage bumped along the path, jolting them both with every rock or uneven ground it rolled over. The only sound from outside was the clomping of horse hooves and the crush of snow from the wheels of the carriage.

After a moment, Daiyu quietly said, “I think … someone is after me.”

“What?”

“I think someone’s after me,” she said, louder this time.

Nikator blinked at her like he had heard wrong and then shifted his attention to the window, squinting through the glass panes as if to find someone lurking in the trees. “Here?”

“At the palace.” She picked at something beneath her nail and tried to calm her nerves, all of which screamed at her to keep this to herself. He hadn’t shown her any signs that she couldn’t trust him, but with so many enemies around in the palace, she didn’t know who to trust with information and who not to. But she was going off on a limb here that maybe he’d be okay to talk to about this. “I was poisoned a few weeks ago at the palace, so there’s clearly someone out there who wants to kill me. Maybe they’re jealous that the emperor chose me? I don’t know. But it’s just too much of a coincidence for me that I’m poisoned and then a few weeks later kidnapped from the palace. And, to make it worse, myfamily’s rice paddies—our livelihood—are then burned down. I truly think someone is after me.” She blurted the words out in one sentence, and even to her own ears, she sounded slightly deranged and fearful. “I know it sounds crazy to think that someone would be after me—I mean, I’m anobody—but I really do think?—”

“You don’t sound crazy.” A tiny wedge formed between his eyebrows. “Thatisa matter to be concerned about. Like you said, there are too many coincidences. If I had to give my input, I’d say it’s probably a noble family that wants you dead because they wanted their daughter to be the first to be chosen by His Majesty. Or maybe it’s a noblewoman who’s jealous that you gained His Majesty’s favor instead of her.”

Hearing the words out loud made it seem all the more real, and Daiyu’s stomach knotted itself together like tangled thorns. “I assumed that too, but why would they target my family?”

“Maybe so you pull out of the royal selection?”

She couldn’t help herself—she snorted. “As if I have that kind of a choice.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” he said with an easy grin. “Vita and I will be there to protect you. Now that you’ve brought it up to my attention, I’ll be extra vigilant to look out for any threats. So worry not.”

Even though he said it so chipperly, Daiyu couldn’t ease the anxiety clawing up her throat. Because as much as she liked Nikator and Atreus, they weren’t loyal toher. They were loyal to Muyang, and once Muyang’s circle of women grew, they wouldn’t prioritize her safety—only the safety of whoever His Majesty favored at the time. Right now, that might have been her, but who would it be months from now?

She needed to figure this out herself, she decided as she stared out the window at the colorless scenery, her mind traveling to the palace. If she wanted to survive in the royal court, she needed to be just as vicious and cunning as its emperor.

26

Going backto the palace was as lackluster as the first time she had been cooped up inside her fancy, jade towered room. The servants treated her as though she hadn’t left in the first place—coldly, stoically, and without emotion—and she didn’t recognize the guards patrolling her hallway, other than Nikator, who would stay outside her door until Vita, her true personal guard, arrived. And there was no telling when that would be.

Daiyu was just another unimportant face in the palace. Nobody came rushing to her or offered her sympathies for everything she had gone through—not that she expected it—but she hadn’t thought the court would bethiscold toward her. It probably had to do with the fact that she wasn’t the emperor’s wife yet, so she was seen as replaceable.

She certainly felt that way.

She fished out the one-jade bracelet Feiyu had given her and placed it atop her tea table, sat on her couch, and called out, “Feiyu! I know you can hear me.”

Tapping her fingers against the armrest of the couch, she waited. Out of everyone who she expected to visit her, Feiyu wasdefinitely one of them. And he was, sadly, the only one. Yet the masked mage hadn’t made an appearance at all. Not yesterday when she first arrived, and certainly not today.

The air shifted and Daiyu heard his boots click against the polished floors. She turned just in time to find the green-robed mage a few feet away from her doorway, a red and black dragon mask covering his face. Upon seeing her, he gave a small bow.

“You’ve returned,” he said without a hint of surprise.

“I’m sure you realized it yesterday.”

“I did.” He waltzed toward the couch and plopped himself on the one adjacent to hers. He unceremoniously, and impolitely, propped his feet on the table and sighed as he reclined into the many plush crane-embroidered pillows adorning the velvet couch. “Is it me or do you sound disappointed that I didn’t visit you immediately? I thought you’d like to rest.”

“I’m not disappointed. Not at all.” She crinkled her nose at how close his feet were to the platter of assorted nuts acting as a centerpiece on the tea table. “I just figured you would visit at some point to see how I was doing. Ididget kidnapped, you know. Right from under your nose.”

He steepled his fingers together and bobbed his head. “Yes, I’m aware, and Ididvisit you earlier, remember?”

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