Cloaked in invisibility, I flew above the walls of the Jade Palace. I held my breath, half expecting a trap—for the guards’ heads to snap up, their eyes squinted with suspicion. Yet they remained at ease, fingers loosely clasped around their weapons. The empress had kept her word; the wards were down, though escape would be infinitely harder.

The rosewood lanterns were extinguished at this hour, the corridors bathed in shadow. With each step, the shells in my pouch clinked softly. I worked swiftly, placing one in the soldiers’ quarters near my old room, one in the garden beyond. Another in the Outer Court, nestled between the flat gray stones that formed the path. My chest tightened as I slipped into the Courtyard of Eternal Tranquility, achingly still without Liwei except for the crash of the waterfall. Memories beckoned, but I dared not linger, tucking a white shell between the roots of a peach-blossom tree. I left quickly to hide another outside the empress’s courtyard, then two more in the Chamber of Reflection and the Hall of Eastern Light. One last shell I clutched in my sweat-slicked palm. With careful steps, I made my way to the Eastern Sun Courtyard, the Celestial Emperor’s quarters. During my years in the Jade Palace I had never ventured there, only too glad to keep my distance.

The doors were adorned with gold filigree in an ornate scrollwork pattern, interspersed with discs of jade. I scaled the pale stone wall, dropping into the garden. The air seemed cooler, infused with threads of the emperor’s power. Gingko trees shaded the vast garden, yellow lotuses blooming upon a large pond. Crouching down, I tucked the final shell—a small crescent of ivory—between the satiny petals of a lotus. Rising to my feet, I summoned a cloud. Soldiers would flood this place in a moment.

Raising the Jade Dragon Bow, I drew its cord, an arrow shining between my fingers. I silenced the caution in my mind, that of Wenzhi’s scathing disapproval—letting the arrow fly, blazing a trail through the dark. It struck a tree, light crackling over its bark, the leaves shivering as they fell. Power tingled through my veins, surging free as a gale hurtled through the courtyard, tearing through the branches, rippling the pond until the lotuses trembled. A spectacle, impossible to ignore. It had been a wild idea, uttered in jest—but what better way to draw every soldier in the palace? I would stir a tempest of chaos to mask our escape.

Shouts broke the stillness. Slinging my bow over my shoulder, I whisked the flute to my lips, a song flowing through the jade—the one I had gifted to Liwei. As footsteps pounded toward me, terror clung to my insides, my feet instinctively lifting for flight. I dug my heels back into the ground. Not yet. I would keep my promise to be the empress’s willing scapegoat.