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“What does the bottle look like?” I probe.
“Crafted of jade, carved with a tiger.”
As his handkerchief was. The tiger was the emblem of Prince Zixin’s mother, his sister’s too. Strange to think of them honoring her in their own way, a glimpse of something other than villainy in their hearts.
“Can you secure the same bottle for me?” I ask, still not revealing the starfire in my possession.
“Of course.” His brow furrows, piecing together what I don’t share. “If my sister seizes the last starfire, there will be no way back. Her reign will be unrivaled. She has already taken Lady Shufang’s, the price to allow me to return to court.”
“Are you grateful?” I ask.
A cold smile. “I am bound. Bought and paid for.”
“Lady Shufang favors Your Highness greatly. Many would think you are fortunate.”
His gaze is both searching and knowing. “Just as many claimed you were fortunate when I chose you. Yet you didn’t feel that way, did you?”
“Because you were not my choice,” I reply. “You never asked what I wished—you told me what you wanted.”
“I was wrong,” he says slowly. “You called me a monster, once—you were right.”
It’s becoming harder to hold his gaze. “I don’t think you’re one anymore.”
“That may be the finest compliment I’ve ever received.” A small smile. “Before, when everyone obeyed my commands—your good opinion was the one I sought. You were guarded, hard to impress even when I offered you everything.”
“Everything you wanted to give,” I correct him.
He sighs. “Even now, you tell me what few would dare to. I should be angry… but each time, you burrow deeper into my mind.”
“You like being insulted?” I ask with a laugh.
He stills, his expression intent. “This moment—now. This is what I’ve been chasing with you: real emotion, a real smile, not the false ones you used to wear around me. Because for a brief time—one night by the lake—you smiled at me this way, from your heart. Like how you smile at Lord Jin-Yong.”
“I did like you once,” I admit. “Not just the life you offered, your gifts, the palace… but for yourself. Or rather, who I imagined you to be.”
“I ruined what we had, thinking I could fix it later or that it would mend itself. As a child, whenever I broke a toy it was swiftly replaced. But people aren’t the same.” His voice softens. “The greatest regrets in life aren’t the things you could not have, but those you never treasured until it was too late.”
He looks at me as he speaks, a tightness coiled in my chest. “It would be a waste of life to only chase after what is lost,” I say with feeling.
“I know.” His words fall heavy. “But I wanted to tell you this, just once.”
Silence falls, sweeping me for a moment into the past. Yet unlike him, I do not regret the path I’ve taken, the choices made. Those I keep close to me.
“Secure the bottle for me, Your Highness,” I tell him. “Tonight, I will come to the queen after she merges the new piece of starfire.” It feels odd instructing the Prince of the Iron Mountains.
“No. We must stop her before,” he insists adamantly.
“For a chance at destroying the starfire, it has to be this way.”
“What are you planning?” When I don’t reply, he warns, “If you are wrong, the outcome will be catastrophic. Father believed if the starfire was whole, it would grant the owner the power of the gods. Even… immortality.”
Not just a lifetime of Queen Chunlei’s tyranny but an eternity of it. We hover on the brink of devastation, but I cage my terror. To set us free, I must risk all.
“Trust me,” I say steadily. “I can’t tell you more—for your own protection. Either way, you’ll be safe, Your Highness. If I fail, no one will know of your part in this. Whereas if I succeed, you will be king.”
The prince’s eyes flare. This is what he wants more than anything.
“If you ascend the throne, do you still intend to conquer the realms?” I probe.
