Page 13 of Dynasty of the Wicked

“I am not meant for such glory,” she whispered and then clamped her mouth shut. She had said that out loud, she realized with mounting embarrassment. Her cheeks flamed with color and she explained, “I am, as you said, the wicked princess.”

He was quiet for a moment and she couldn’t bear to look at his face, for fear of what she would find—disappointment, probably.

“But you wish to escape, do you not? Surely, you can compromise your …morals.” He tilted his head to the side, and the shadows of the room cast a darkness over his face so she could only make out his frown. “Women can be powerful too, Princess. I like women with teeth.”

She froze, unsure of what he meant. When he didn’t elaborate, she asked, “Teeth?”

“Yes.Teeth.” Feng Mian raised his hand and grazed his fingers over her jaw. A trial of fire erupted over her bruised skin, and despite the chill in the damp cell, her body grew hot. Her heart raced as he leaned closer to her. “I like my women with teeth and claws and sharp words. I like my women wicked.”

Zhi Ruo swallowed down the unexpected feeling building in her chest. “What are you talking about?”

“I am saying that you could become very, very powerful.” He brushed a remnant of a tear off her cheek with his thumb. “If you marry me, right here, right now, we can form a magicked bond that will allow you to wield my magic. I can help you harness it and then we can escape.”

Whatever trance he had on her broke in that moment. Zhi Ruo twitched back, breaking free from his touch. Marriage? With him? This had to be a joke. A cruel, cruel joke.

His magic was corrosive, evil, and dark. If she bound herself to him and used his magic, then she would eventually succumb to its cursed energy. Even she knew that much about magic, despite being shielded from it her whole life.

All of this was a lie. His soft voice, his gentle caresses, even his honeyed words about the type of women he liked. It was all to get her guard down, for her to trust him, and then foolishly tie herself to his explosive, life-sucking magic.

“Are you serious?” Zhi Ruo jumped to her feet, her hands bunching up together.

Feng Mian’s jaw tightened. “It isn’t that bad.”

“You …” She wanted to hit him.

He didn’t care if she died in the process of wielding his magic, so long as he was able to escape. She wanted to laugh at her stupidity; at how she almost fell for it. How starved of love was she that sweetened words could trick her so easily?

She hated that, for a moment, she had felt special.

“I will never bind myself to you like that,” she snapped, putting distance between them until her back hit the bars of the cell. Her heel connected with the corpse and she grimaced as the man’s blood seeped into the hem of her dress. It only solidified her opinion that this was wrong. That Feng Mian’s brutal beauty was just an illusion. A deceit that would ruin her. “I would rather be patient and wait for my father’s men to rescue me than to marry such a violent, horrendous, nasty beast such as you.”

He clambered up to his feet too, his expression dark as he crossed the distance to her. “Your father’s men? Are you daft, Princess? No one will come to rescue you here.”

“That is not true. My father will not abandon me.”

Feng Mian tipped his head back and laughed. She flinched at the sound, hating how beautifully haunting it was. He turned back in her direction, his unseeing gaze flicking over her. “Your father has already abandoned you, Princess. No one will come to rescue you. Either you save yourself, or you die here. A pathetic, slow death that will be no one’s fault but your own and it will be then that you remember that you are unloved and unworthy of your father’s court.”

She slapped him, and this time, he let her. Her hand stung and she breathed out heavily, tension pulling her muscles taut. “You are a cruel beast,” she whispered, hating the tears that stung her eyes.

“And you are a petulant princess who puts her trust in those who have already proven to be disloyal to you. Have you not been disappointed enough times?”

“My father would never do that.” Father might have disliked her, but he wouldn’t do such a ruthless thing to her. He would never leave her fate to the Kadians; she was still his flesh and blood. “My father,” she spoke, her words gaining heat and strength, “my people, my empire will not abandon me. I may be a wicked princess, but I am still a princess of the Huo empire. I am more than worthy?—”

He chuckled, running his fingers through his long, silver-threaded hair. His teeth gleamed like that of a monster who had eaten the flesh of its enemy and licked itself clean in victory. His powerful, muscled frame trembled with his laughs and she straightened her shoulders at how vicious he appeared.

She hated him, she decided.

She would wait for Father’s men. There was no way she would be abandoned here, where these evil Kadians could do whatever they wished with her. Even Father wasn’t so terrible as to leave her to such a fate.

5

Minutes later,two Kadians entered the hallway of their dungeon space and Zhi Ruo braced herself into the corner of the wall to make herself seem even smaller. The two soldiers shouted something when they found the corpse. One of the soldiers was short and stout with a doughy, young face, while the other was lanky and tall, though not as impressive and foreboding as Feng Mian, who sat on the floor of the cell unperturbed, even as the Kadians hurled insults at him.

“Shit!” The shorter of the two drew his sword and pointed it at their cell, his eyes narrowing to slits. “I don’t know why we keep this bastard alive if all he does is keep causing trouble,” he sneered to his partner in their tongue, before barking at Feng Mian, “Hey! Get up!”

“Do you understand them?” Feng Mian asked her quietly.

“Get up!”

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