As loose strands of his hair fell across his brow, I suppressed the urge to brush them away. He was not mine; he never would be again. His mother had made sure of that. I thought I could bear it as long as he was safe, but this was far harder than I had imagined.

I braced myself, my skin damp with dread. “I cannot marry you.”

His eyes went wide and dark. “Why?”

I stumbled over the words, for the empress had bound me to lies. “The rift between our families. I thought we could overcome it, but I was wrong.” The empress’s accusations held a grain of truth that I had never let myself examine, afraid of what I might find. These seeds of doubt had been sown long before, from the moment I fell in love with my enemy’s son.

“Our parents are not us. I will find a way to make things right.”

As he stepped toward me, I moved away. “Your father tricked mine into surrendering his immortality. Trapped him into a mortal existence.” Anger seared me as I forged onward, using the truth as a shield. “What of my mother’s imprisonment? The attack on my home? Ping’er’s death? How can I marry into your family when yours only wants to destroy mine?”

The cold vehemence in my voice was that of a stranger’s. I had never spoken to him this way before, not even when we had fought in the Willow Song Pavilion—when he accused me of deception and worse. It was not easy; I hurt too. Yet I used every remnant of resolve, every scrap of resentment I ever bore against his kin to bind myself together—my nails digging into my palm, stinging, as the skin broke.

Liwei shook his head. “This is not like you, Xingyin. What is the matter? There is nothing you can’t tell me and whatever it is, we can work it out together.”

He was wrong; there was no way forward for us. I had sworn on my mother’s life, and I had done so to keep him safe. I racked my mind for something more to say, something that would irrevocably destroy all we had fought for, all that we were—even though it would break my own heart.

“The way things are … we can never be together.” My words emerged fractured.

“Is it him?” Liwei’s voice was low.

Wenzhi. Who else could he mean?

Liwei’s expression hardened as he leaned away to study my face. “You can’t forget him.” A statement, not a question. Laced with sadness and irrefutable knowing.