Page 30 of The Nightblood Prince

“Your Majesty!” Father fell back to his knees in an instant, repeatedly slamming his head against the ground, as if this could earn the emperor’s mercy.

“You don’t want to be Siwang’s bride?”

“No, Your Majesty,” I replied. Firm in my decision with all its consequences. I did not want to die, however if this was what it would take to change the future and save everyone I loved, then I would do it. “I donot.”

“You don’t want to be the Empress of Rong?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Well.” The emperor shrugged. “If the empress of the united Warring States isn’t going to be the Empress of Rong, then I guess she won’t be anyone’s empress.” The emperor raised the blade over his head.

“Your Majesty!” my father cried. “Please! It is my fault! I should have raised her better!”

I closed my eyes and waited for the blade to fall, resisting the urge to remind my father that he did not raise me. For the emperor took that from us. I was just an infant when he robbed me of my life the first time. What did it matter if he robbed it a second time?

“I wish for Fei to live!” Siwang cried. My eyes snapped open, and I saw that Siwang had thrown himself in front of me, using his own body as a shield against his father’s wrath. “Last year when I killed the first Beiying tiger of the hunt, you told me I could have anything I wanted. This is what I want. For Fei to live.”

Siwang.

The emperor laughed. A hollow, bitter sound.

Then, for the first time in my life, the emperor looked at me.Reallylooked at me, as if for the first time he saw not an asset but a person worthy of his true attention.

The moment didn’t last long. The emperor’s gaze shifted back to Siwang, and he shook his head. “You useless boy,” he said through gritted teeth, then dropped the blade. It fell to the ground with a shuddering clang. “How many times have I warned you, Siwang? Never get attached to anyone. Never bestow anyone your real emotions. An emperor cannot afford to feel. Because as soon as we care about something or someone, it becomes our weakness.”

Siwang reached back until his hand found mine. He squeezed tight—to comfort me or himself, I wasn’t sure. “I don’t want to lose her, Father.”

“Then marry her.”

“No!” I protested.

The emperor’s gaze turned venomous in the blink of an eye. “This isn’t the time or place for a woman to speak!”

“No,”I repeated through gritted teeth, louder this time. “I’m not marrying him.”

“Lifeng Fei, you little—”

“Father,” Siwang interrupted before his father could pick up the sword and finish me once and for all. “This is mine and Fei’s marriage. Can we have a moment of privacy to talk this through?”

“What is there to talk about?” the emperor bellowed. “The two of you are getting married. End of discussion!”

“Your Majesty.” My father spoke up with a trembling voice, headstill bowed. “Since His Highness has asked, maybe we should give them a moment, let them smooth things out themselves? It is their marriage, after all.”

“Please,Father.”

The emperor stared at his son in disbelief, rage simmering beneath his suntanned face, so much that the graying hairs of his beard quaked ever so slightly.

After a strangled eternity, the emperor shook his head. He shot Siwang one last look before he exited the tent, Father following at his heels.

It wasn’t until they were both gone that I let go of the breath I was holding.

“You okay?” Siwang asked, his voice soft.

“I’m fine.”

With a heavy exhale, Siwang rose to his feet, putting some distance between us.

He poured himself a small cup of tea from the pot, then another for me. “Are you sure you want to do this, Fei?”

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