“Let me leave with my soldiers. No one will be harmed.” As Wugang flicked an uncaring look at Prince Yanming, my hands curled into fists. “No one else, at least. Consider this carefully, for my offer is generous, and it expires at dusk.”

He addressed the Celestial Empress. “You don’t have much time left, unless you wish your husband to meet an untimely end and the kingdom to fall into ruin. Or do you secretly wish for his downfall for the hurt he has caused you?”

The empress drew herself up tall. “Not all of us believe death to be a fitting sentence for infidelity.”

A gurgling rasp snared my attention. My eyes snapped back to Prince Yanming, my heart splintering with dread.

“I’m sorry, Xingyin,” Liwei said in a low voice, “His lifeforce is extinguished. Nothing can restore it.”

“He’s still alive. Do something. Anything.” I was hateful in my despair.

“What’s left of his energy sustains him for now, but it will fade soon.” He left unspoken the words: he will die.

An unbearable thought, a vicious reality. Prince Yanming had barely scraped the surface of a mortal’s lifespan. Such anguish sank over me, that wracking futility I had felt when Ping’er died.

Prince Yanxi cupped his brother’s cheek. “Hold on, Little Brother. I will bring you home. You will be well soon.” He smiled warmly, though I heard the lie in the crack of his voice.

Prince Yanming’s lips curved. “Home. To Mother.” He drew a shuddering breath. “Don’t let her be too sad.”

I folded over, feeling like a fist had been driven into my gut. He knew he was dying; there was no comfort we could offer—neither hollow lies nor promises. Closing my eyes, I reached out tentatively with my power. I trusted Liwei, yet I had to try. I plunged my consciousness into Prince Yanming’s body, searching the dullness of his blood, now devoid of an immortal’s radiance. His lifeforce, tucked deep in his mind, was no longer dazzling bright but murky and dim. I threw my energy at it, willing it to catch fire as a spark to tinder. Again and again, but nothing took root, my power sliding from him as waves crashing over a rock. My breaths came heavier, my nerves strained from fatigue. My mother’s soft cries drifted into my ears—how long had she wept?

I could not save him. No one could.

I fell back, wanting to sink into the sand. To close my eyes and let the numbness take me, a respite from this relentless agony. And I … let go. I had failed Ping’er. I had failed Prince Yanming. I was no hero.

As Prince Yanxi embraced his brother, muttering soft words I could not hear, my father gestured to me. “We must decide what to do with Wugang.”