Page 23 of The Nightblood Prince

I remembered his questions from last night. “You came to the capital to find the stargazer?”

Yexue shrugged, clearly unwilling to disclose anymore. “Thinkabout what youwantto do, Little Goddess. Not what you should do. I can take care of Rong. I can even get your family out of the capital. I’ve told you: I’m not scared. If anything, they should be the ones who fear me.”

“Siwang isn’t like the guards you escaped from. He’s trained by the best martial artists on the continent. You won’t beat him so easily.”

A crooked smile. He really was so arrogant. “Do you want to bet?”

“You are not immortal, and you are not a god,” I reminded him. “I watched you bleed yesterday. I don’t want to watch you bleed again.”

“Nothing has killed me yet.”

“Hubris is a vice that has gotten many heroes killed in history.” I pushed myself off the cave floor and stumbled toward where my horse was tied. “We need to leave, now.”

“Is this your way of agreeing to let me risk my life for you?”

“Things might be worse for you if they find you riding alone, your robe stained with blood while I’m nowhere to be found. I can’t go to Lan with you, but I can bargain with Siwang when he catches us.”

Yexue broke into a victorious grin. “You would sacrifice yourself for me?”

I looked away. “Don’t flatter yourself. If I’m going back to the palace anyway, I might as well save your life so that you owe me one more life.”

He helped me onto my stallion, and I held on tight. We rode southwest to avoid the camp as snow fell slowly.

In my dream, Siwang would find the tiger’s corpse just as the snow stopped falling.

I prayed that we’d be far from here by then.

As we moved through the icy terrain, I tried to keep alert, to listen for the thunder of distant hooves and induce another vision from Fate. But no matter how hard I squeezed my eyes, I saw only darkness, felt only the cold wind slashing my cheeks and the sturdy breathing of Yexue against my body as I clung on tight.

“What happened to my bow?” I asked, realizing it wasn’t on the saddle.

“The pretty one with both ends dipped in silver? I left it at the riverbank.”

“Youwhat?”

“I had to either leave that bow or leaveyouon the riverbank.” Yexue laughed. “How did the empress of all empresses come to be so versed in archery, anyway?”

I smiled. “Do you disapprove?”

“I’m just curious. I didn’t expect that the emperor would let his docile daughter-in-law learn something so…” Yexue trailed off, as if trying to find a word other thanunladylike.

“He didn’t. But I wanted to learn, so Siwang taught me.”

I felt Yexue tense at this. “Siwang?”

I smiled. “Whatever I want, Siwang always—”

An arrow whizzed past us.

Then another, and another, each one meticulously aimed so it missed us just closely enough to catch our attention.

Two dozen men in a dispersed formation moved through the icy trees at lightning speed, with Siwang leading the pack, a spray of snow misting in his wake.

Already, this wasn’t how things had played out in my visions.

I clung to Yexue a little tighter. “We have to stop. The longer we delay the inevitable, the more impatient Siwang will get.”

If I wanted Yexue to escape these mountains alive, I couldn’t tempt Siwang’s wrath. As was tradition with hostage princes, Rong was responsible for keeping Yexue alive and unharmed. Though nothing in the agreement said they couldn’t punish Yexue as they saw fit.

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