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My mother was the king’s second wife—the one he married after the death of the Great Queen. It is why I am twenty years younger than Joon. And why Joon and Quilimar have never respected me.
I wrinkle my nose. “A girl?” “Yes, the gods make those, too.” “Wouldn’t a man…” He raises his eyebrows. “I see you inherited your brother’s disdain for the female sex. Surprising, given how many shared your bed.”
How could I have said Lora’s name? It’s been eight years since I’ve said it, yet not a day has passed without me thinking about her. My first love. My only love.
She was a rich merchant girl. I was a street thug. We didn’t belong together. But I savored every second. Every kiss. Every quick fuck when she was home by herself. I knew it couldn’t last, but I fell in love anyhow. I was a fool.
I spent a while just trying to drown myself slowly in ale, but then I found Savio—a guard willing to help Hwan escape in exchange for an absolute fortune. But getting the hundred grand gave me a purpose again. Because it’s a chance—a way to make things right. As right as I can. But I don’t have much time. King Joon ordered all old convicts in all prisons to be hanged. Savio said he’d put Hwan to the back of the line but that it would only buy him two months max.
Tiyung is staring at me. I’ve seen that look before. He had the exact same expression as a boy when I was first purchased by the Count. It’s not a smile. It’s not a blank stare. I couldn’t figure it out then. I still can’t now.
“I wasn’t expecting you to,” he says. “I want you to take what you desire first.” I glance over at him. “Why?” “Because I think we have things backward in Yusan. I think ladies should be served first.” “How progressive,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Stay behind me,” I say. “And if anything happens, you don’t help. You got me? You dive off this boat and take your chances. Don’t look back. Understand?” “What are you going to do?” she asks, her voice wobbling. “I’m gonna kill a bunch of pirates.”
But my father adopted me, made me his son. He was kind. He loved me when he needn’t have. And for that I’m forever grateful.
“So you believe that your god king brother would’ve changed his mind due to the opinion of your commoner lover?” I glance to the side. I will admit: put that way, it doesn’t seem as likely. “Or do you believe your fate was sealed when Chul ran to the king and, in front of the entire Council of the Lords, told them how you were hunting convicts of Idle Prison, killing them in the forest for your own amusement—in violation of, let’s say, a half dozen Yusanian laws? In addition to it just not sounding all that great?”
Death by exile was invented by your brother to keep him from directly ordering your execution.”
“You think you just happened to land at the edge of an oasis? And that a caravan happened to show you mercy and bring you a sunsae east, all the way to Outton, for free? Stars!” Mikail’s annoyed voice echoes through the pass,
I’ve been traveling for the last three days with Sora. Beautiful, deadly, loving, hateful Sora. At times, she looks at me and my heart fills, but then it’s clear she’s plotting my death in those violet eyes, so it’s less than desirable.
I don’t bother to elaborate, to explain, to plead forgiveness. Sora wants many things—my father’s death, mostly—but one thing she’ll never want is me. She’ll have no interest in my confession of love.
She must be desperate, but I believe she’ll accept my help, which is good. She’ll need it. My father has ordered me to kill her once the king is dead.
We’re almost past the carnage when the boy whispers, “Run.”
“Double-cross me, and I swear it’ll be the last thing you ever do.” She smiles, amused. “You don’t have to worry about that, Royo.” “Why not?” “Because you don’t have anything I want.”
My sister has always been ambitious. Had she been born a boy, it is said that our father might’ve passed over Joon and Omin and given her the crown. She was, undeniably, his favorite. But girls cannot inherit under our laws. They can’t in Wei, either.
“I love you, Mikail.” I whisper it into his skin as I get on my knees in front of him. I won’t be content until I have all of him. So I will never be content.
The count and Tiyung both stand and bow. And a count and a count’s son bowing to someone can only mean one thing: royalty.
I feel like a new man, bathed and groomed and wearing finely tailored clothes. Plus, I’m seated across from a stunningly beautiful woman. Rune and the southern count’s son bowed to me as I entered the room. It is my old life, rejuvenated. Mikail sits to my left, handsome as ever. But who is the woman in front of me? She is more striking than courtesans in Qali, and that’s no small feat.
Sora is barely breathing, horror written on her face. But I’m too confused to be horrified. She’d been sipping out of that water glass right before the count took it from her. If it had tabernacle poison in it, she should be dead.
Sora ingested, by my estimate, a hundred different poisons in Seok’s poison school. She is one of the few who survived the training. And she is now immune to all of them.”
“You think me reprehensible,” the count says. “Over a mutt.” He shakes his head and comes a step closer. “Would it help you to know that the dog was just bitten by a rabid fox this morning and would’ve suffered a far worse death?” “You’re lying.” He purses his lips. “I have no reason to betray your trust over a dog, Sora. And no reason to kill a good guard dog. I don’t lie for the hells of it.”
“Because Euyn will be the king, and you could become a legitimized assassin or a spymaster like his lover, answerable only to the throne. It is a good future for you. The best you can hope for.”
As if I didn’t just hear that the crown of Yusan, the gold band of the king, makes the wearer immortal. As if Daysum hadn’t whispered in my bad ear that she thinks she’s dying. As if I wasn’t just handed a way to save her life, if I can just figure out how to steal it.
“I don’t know if we need to rely on girls.” I can’t control my heavy sigh. Of course gender is the hang-up.
Victory lights up inside of me as Royo raises his arms and punches the air. Then he remembers he’s Royo—the man who hates everything and can never be happy because he made mistakes in the past. But I saw it—his pride. His boyishness returning for a second. He’s so unexpected.
“I’m going to call him Royo,” I say. “He’s my angry little dragon.” I hold the toy by Royo’s face and roar.
“You’re the worst,” Royo whispers. “Yeah, I know,” I say.
I can just build on this connection, build a friendship, maybe she’ll understand why I need the crown. Maybe she’ll help me. Maybe together we can betray everyone else here.
It’s pledging my loyalty and fealty to Euyn with my life. Aeri stares like she’s just seeing me for the first time. And I get it.
He’s quite taken with her, and I suppose it’s hard not to be. I felt it the first time I saw her at dinner with Rune. But Mikail seems more than physically attracted to her. I’d worry about their connection, but in the end she’s just a girl.
The fact that he’s a strongman is interesting. They do their jobs without question. They follow orders and aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. So he is obviously a man I want on our side. Maybe he’d make a good assassin or palace guard one day.
Seok was the one who bought Chul’s daughters. I’m sure of it, since Athora and Daysum are not exactly common names.
He said the nobleman who took his daughters threatened to slaughter his whole family if he didn’t let the girls go, and he had a wife and two young sons to protect. But he swore he never signed the indentures. Someone faked his hand, and the magistrate, who was supposed to witness the signature, filed it.
Sora will be free once we succeed. And once I am king, I will find a way to reunite her with her father.
For some reason, it doesn’t feel right. It feels like I should tell her the truth. I shake off the uncomfortable feeling and set my shoulders. No. Sora is just a lovely commoner. Just a woman. I can’t let sympathy affect my goal.
On her deathbed four years ago, she called me to her side and told me my real father was not the king. It was just like the Lesser Queen to refuse to pass to the hells before she unreasonably burdened me.
He loves me and I’m sure of it, but even love has to have limits—and being a bastard and killing my mother has to surpass it.
Loving somebody is needing two hearts to live instead of just the one. You’re better off alone.
A thief, a strongman, a spy, an assassin, a nobleman, and an exiled prince add up to a ring of liars. Trust is a surefire way to wind up with a blade in your back.
They shouldn’t have been so sloppy as to let her run. I’ve seen her skills as a thief, know how impossibly fast she can be, but something here doesn’t track.
“Yours—in this life and the next,” Mikail says to me. His gaze sears into me
Then I realize she’s trying to warn me. But from the look on her face, I know it’s too late. I’m about to be killed.
Aeri is next to me, breathing hard. Blood drips from her hand, but we all have blood on us, myself included.
That’s a kind of bloodship stronger than kin or clan. And I don’t think that even a god king can stand against six people who’d kill and die for one another.
But I’d do it all a hundred times over to save Sora. I look at her. She’s worth going to the Tenth Hell for.
And I’ve spent years tracking down the siblings of the girls who died in my father’s poison schools and arranging to buy out four of their contracts. A fifth was just located when I got to Rahway. And all of that would be for naught if I am cut off.
And I’ll get her the crown if I have to double-cross every person here to do it.
