I recoiled. “You want the three of us to break into the Imperial Treasury? That is madness.” In all my years in the Jade Palace, I had never ventured there. While I had been curious about the place, I had not wished to invite scrutiny through an unplanned visit—and what I most desired then did not lie within its walls.

“Two of us; you and me,” Tao clarified, undaunted. “I won’t jeopardize my sister’s safety.”

“This will never work.”

“How else do you propose we obtain the elixir? Do you think the emperor will give it to you?” Leiying countered.

“I’ve scouted the Jade Palace for years, waiting for the right chance. I’ve been close enough to the elixir to inhale its fragrance,” Tao assured me. “I can get us in and out of the treasury undetected.”

“How?” I pressed. “If this is going to work, I must know everything.”

“I have a key.”

“Where did you get it from? Will it work?” Perhaps I hoped he would give me a reason to refuse, something to bolster my wavering will.

“The same way I got anything I’m not supposed to.” He ran his fingers across his fine garments. “You’ve got a suspicious mind. Rest assured, the key will work. I’ve used it before.”

I ignored his gibe. “Why do you need me?”

“To dispatch a small nuisance guarding the elixir. It would be nothing to a competent fighter such as yourself.” He lifted his hands, smooth and fine-boned. “My skills lie in procurement, not combat.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, my father’s image flashing through my mind—not the powerful warrior from the tales, but worn in both body and spirit. There was not much time left, for what if he died?

“I’ve heard that an immortal’s memories are restored upon their return to the heavens. What of a mortal’s memories?” I asked the Keeper’s apprentice.

“Death erases all mortal memories,” Leiying said gravely. “Once gone, those can never be regained.”

A cold knot of dread formed in my chest. My father had not known my mother as an immortal. If I did not save him in his mortal lifetime, he would forget my mother and their love. He would not know me. He would be a stranger to us.

Temptation warred with caution. “If we are caught, it’s not me alone who will pay the price,” I said, thinking of my mother and Liwei.