My hand fell, the last glimmers of magic fading to dark. The empress and I stood facing each other, her expression pitted with fury. A part of me had always known it would come to this one day—that she would try to kill me, or I her. I could have shielded myself instead of smothering her attack, but I had wanted to challenge her, to prove that I was more than what she believed me to be. That my power rivaled hers in the way that mattered more than any meaningless title and crown—both of which she had taken such pride in, both of which she had lost.

Wenzhi released the hilt of his sword as though he had been about to strike, while Liwei rounded on the empress. “Mother, how could you?” His tone pulsed with rage.

The empress lifted a shaking finger at me. “You tricked me. You plotted this all along.”

I stared at the empress blankly, until her meaning sank in and a weight fell from my chest. She had attacked me, though I had given her no cause. She had broken the terms of our pact in the mortal teahouse … which meant my vow to her was void. With one stroke, I could sever the misunderstanding between Liwei and me, setting us free of his mother’s malice. We could be together again. The words hovered on my tongue: my promise to his mother, my coldness in pushing him away, the lie of Wenzhi.

Yet as I stared at the empress’s pale face, taut with distress, I found I was not so cruel as to savor a moment that brought such pain to another—even one I despised as much as her. I did not want to widen the rift between Liwei and his mother. This was not the time to divide us further when the threat of Wugang loomed over us all.

But in truth, that was not the sole reason. I was not so noble to keep my silence for the empress alone. There was another reason folded deep in my heart, one I was afraid to examine too closely, ashamed of what I might uncover … that the lies I had told Liwei to set him free—I was no longer sure what they were. Try as I might, I could not forget how I had wept in Wenzhi’s arms, how he had comforted me in my times of greatest need, how his words had eased the anguish that almost broke me then. It meant nothing, just a momentary weakness, I assured myself—yet still I would hold my tongue. The empress’s spiteful accusations were ringed with truth. I was unworthy of Liwei, not because of my lineage but because he deserved better than my divided heart. And I would not offer it again until it was whole, until I was certain, and until we were safe.