Page 83 of Dynasty of the Wicked

She still didn’t like the way everyone treated him more like a pet than a child, and she supposed she understood to some degree—hedidlook like a foreign creature, with his scales, and horns, and sharp teeth and nails—but he was almost humanoid enough that she wanted to treat him like a normal child. She stared over at him, her shoulders dropping at his small face, and the heavy chains that were massive for his thin wrists.

Feng Mian placed a hand under her chin. “Princess,” he muttered so only she could hear. There was concern in his voice, and when she turned to him, his white eyebrows were knitted together. “Don’t get attached to him.”

“Why would you say that?” Her heart clenched. “He’s?—”

“I understand, but he belongs to Chanming.”

Anger flared within her. “He doesn’t belong to anyone. He is adragon,Feng Mian.No onecan chain a dragon, you know that.”

There were so many myths of people trying, and failing, to tame a dragon, to exploit the grand creatures into following their orders. All of those tales ended with fire and ash.

Feng Mian’s mouth pursed into a straight line. He tucked her hair behind her ears distractedly. “I understand that, I truly do. I, personally, was not interested in Chanming’s ridiculous plan to steal the dragon child, and I certainly played no role in killing its mother, but as the dragon is currently, he belongs to Chanming, and Chanming believes that to be true. Whether or not the child follows him when he’s older, that is a different story.”

“Why do you follow him? Why is he yourbestfriend?” A harshness entered her tone and she wanted to step away from him, to escape from his tender touches. “He is nothing but cruel. He reminds me so much of … of …” Her throat closed up and she searched Feng Mian’s pained expression for something. “Of my father.”

His silver eyes widened a fraction of an inch.

“You know he is cruel,” she started again. “So why?”

“It is complicated.”

“No, it’s not. He is terrible, Feng Mian. Why do you stay?”

“He was there for me when no one was.” His shoulders dropped and she could tell that this conversation saddened him. She wondered what it must have felt like, to befriend someone and watch them slowly become a monster, and to continue to follow them. “I can’t abandon him that easily.”

“Even if he becomes as terrible as my father?”

Feng Mian closed his eyes.

“Answer me.”

“I …” He grimaced, like it was hard to speak. “I don’t know.”

“He claims to own a dragon, chains him up, and is brutal toward him. He threatens you. He doesn’t save you when you’re captured by the Kadians. He orchestrated the deaths of my family, and he would kill me in an instant if he could, and yet …” She stared at him, hoping to see a glimmer of reluctance, but all she found was sorrow. “And yet you stay by his side.”

“He was not always cruel.”

“But he has changed.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Feng Mian, he is no longergood. I don’t know if he was ever good—perhaps your judgement was clouded when you were younger, seeing how you wished for someone to stand by your side—but what I see now is a calculating, cruelroyal. And yes, I have known royals my whole life, so I know what I’m talking about. He is just as vicious as my own brother—” Her voice warbled as the memory of Wanqing’s face flashed in her mind, with a dagger buried between his eyes. She had never liked him, had feared him her whole life, but he was still her brother. “If he does take the throne, then it won’t make a difference whether he sits on it, or my father, because they both are vicious and they both are the same.”

The muscles on Feng Mian’s jaw jumped. “What do you propose I do? Abandon him? Run off with you? I am too deep into this, Princess. I cannot just …” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing out steadily. “I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s never too late to change sides.”

His eyes flashed. “You wish for me to change to your side? To your father?”

She flinched at the vitriol in his voice.

“If he is the same as your father, then it is better to remain on myterriblefriend’s side, than your father, who is a stranger.”

“It’s not my father’s side—” Her voice came out small. “It is …myside.”

She had thought he would be more understanding, and maybe even sway to leave Chanming, but even though he wasn’t convinced that his friend was a good choice, he still seemed to be a better choice than anyone else. She could understand him to some extent, seeing how her father was just as brutal, maybe even more, but at least with her father, she had a place in the world, in the empire. Under Chanming’s rule … she had no place.

Feng Mian’s eyes softened, but she could see the uncertainty that swirled beneath the surface. It was all too complicated.

“Here.” Zhi Ruo held up her wrist and guided his hand to it. She changed the subject quickly. “How about you put that mark on me?”

His hesitation returned. “Are you?—”

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