“He would have been safe there had he wed Princess Fengmei. Do not presume to tell me what I can or cannot do. I don’t need you to protect my son.”

She jerked to her feet again, flicking down the skirt of her robe contemptuously. I had thought the urgency of the situation and her love for Liwei would suffice to persuade her. I had miscalculated, misjudged, tripped myself in my haste by bruising her pride. She would never let me—a nobody—appear to get the better of her. She would leave, for spite was a well that ran deep in her, and she would tell herself this was for Liwei’s sake.

Despair sank over me. Part of me wanted her to go, to reject her loathsome terms. Yet she had read me better than I had read her. She wanted Liwei to be free of me, and nothing else I offered would suffice. And despite my protests, she knew I would yield—for I could not toy with his life.

“Wait.” My voice was low. Unwilling. “For this to work, you must break the palace wards which bar me from entering.”

She turned around, her face alight with triumph. “Swear that you will end your relationship with Liwei forever. Swear to never tell anyone of this. Swear this on your mother’s life,” she demanded with ruthless cunning, “and it will be done.”

Fury seared me, edged with pain. Yet her gloating expression roused me from the depths of defeat. I would not be a fool; I would salvage whatever I could from this wreckage. I would make her surrender something of value in return.

“I have not agreed to your terms,” I told her.

“You have no choice.”

“I do. I can do nothing, and trust in your claim to keep Liwei safe. If he dies, you will have failed him, you will have killed your own son.” I almost choked upon these vile words, but it sufficed that she flinched.

“What do you want?” she demanded. “I will not relent on my terms.”

“Swear this, then: to never harm my kin and me without just cause.” When she did not reply at once, I added quickly, “One other thing. A small ask, compared to yours.”

“What is it?” she hissed. “My patience is wearing thin.”

It must seem an innocuous request, not one driven from true need. “There is someone in the Celestial Kingdom who offended me greatly. I want you to find him and secure him in the same place as Liwei. I will deal with him myself.”

“What did he do?”

“You do not need to know.” A petty vengeance, to return her earlier words. “But you cannot harm him.”

A curt nod, her mood more agreeable. “Who is he?”