Page 12 of Dynasty of the Wicked

“Trust me, I’ve tried everything I can.”

They were quiet for a moment longer. Zhi Ruo finished the beef and hugged her knees to her chest even tighter than before. She was still hungry and the salted beef made her thirst worse, but it was better than nothing. It was only now that she didn’t have any more food that her eyes begun to sting again. She blinked the tears away, but they returned, the pressure intensifying.

Don’t cry.

A strangled sob escaped from her lips and she tried clamping them together to keep from sobbing, but it was too late. Her face crumpled up and she wept. She pressed her eyes against her knees and drew herself into a tighter ball.

The Kadians had her imprisoned.

Nobody had protected her at the palace.

Did anyone even care that she was stuck here? Or were they still fawning over Ying Yue, who most likely was safe and tucked away in bed at the royal palace?

What unimaginable horror awaited Zhi Ruo here?

“Do you wish to escape?” Feng Mian’s voice softened, but when she raised her eyes to meet his, there was a grim determination set on his handsome face. His lips were pursed together in a strange expression she couldn’t pinpoint—teetering between disappointment, resignation, and displeasure.

Zhi Ruo wiped her face with the back of her hands. “Of course.”

“There is a way for us to escape fairly quickly.”

Hope kindled in her chest and she inched closer to him, eyes wide. “Really? What is it?”

The old man scurried closer to them, though not close enough for Feng Mian to reach through the bars and bash his body against the metal rods. He wrung his hands together, the darkness obscuring half his face. “Escape? What are you planning?”

“Nothing, old man,” Feng Mian said. “Mind your business or I’ll gut you.”

“Let me help?—”

“No.” This time, he turned sharply to the left, as if he could see into the cell. His tone dropped. “I’ve already promised to kill you when I can. Don’t hasten your death.” He slowly shifted his body in Zhi Ruo’s direction and spoke more softly, as if sensingher fear. “Let me sit next to you, so I can tell you my plan in secret.”

Zhi Ruo blinked at the sudden gentle quality to his voice. It almost made her believe that he too could be kind, that he could be anything other than devastation. She bobbed her head, but then realized he couldn’t see it, and said, “Y-yes—” She cleared her throat, hating how weak she sounded. “Yes, I’ll allow it.”

Feng Mian rose to his impressive height and it took all her control to keep fidgeting and blushing when he came to sit beside her on the filthy floor. Their knees touched, and Zhi Ruo could feel the heat crawling up her flesh. She had been around beautiful people before, but no one as wickedly handsome as him. Just being so close made her heart flutter. She was sure that if there wasn’t a corpse a few feet away, the old man glaring at them from the cell over, and the smell of decay and piss everywhere, she would have been caught up in his beauty and whatever deception laid behind this kind veneer.

He leaned closer to her, his mouth grazing the shell of her ear as he spoke. “There is a way for you to wield magic, Princess.”

Zhi Ruo hesitated at hearing those words. Women were forbidden from wielding magic. It was a known fact around the empire that women were incapable of handling it since their nature was more emotional, thus the power too great for them. Men were more capable of it and the heavy responsibility that came with it.

Even at the royal palace, only her brother attended magic lessons from Father’s appointed mages and even though Ying Yue had mentioned her interest in magic, Father hadn’t allowed her to. If he didn’t want to bend the rules for his favorite child, why would he allow Zhi Ruo to do that which he forbade?

“I … I am unsure,” she finally said, her stomach tightening in apprehension. She twiddled her thumbs together and focused on a dark blood splatter on her sleeve.

“You could become very powerful,” he continued, and she shivered despite his warm breath against her bare neck. “The royal family is blessed with powerful magic. You just need to learn how to wield it. I can help you.”

“It is forbidden …”

“By whom?”

She finally glanced at him and nearly bumped her nose against his. She sucked in sharply. She hadn’t realized he wasthisclose. His long, silvery lashes framed equally gray eyes, and she found it hard to look away. His lips were so close. She wondered, briefly, what it would be like to lean into him, to press her own mouth against his. To kiss someone so handsome. Ying Yue would have been jealous.

Zhi Ruo snapped out of her reverie and quickly averted her gaze. She hated the direction of her thoughts. “By my father,” she breathed out in response. She wove her hands together to keep them from traveling to the gap between them both. “By everyone in this empire.”

“You could become more powerful than any of them. Then, at that point, it wouldn’t even matter.”

She thought about it for a moment, what it would be like to bepowerful. For people to cower in her presence. For no one to say any wicked words about her. For people to respect her.

But she couldn’t imagine it. She could only see hateful gazes and sneers.

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