I paused, holding his gaze. “The Celestial Empress.” My steady tone concealed the uncertainty that shook me.

As my mother paled, Wenzhi studied my face. I swallowed to moisten my throat, showing none of the doubt which beat through me. “Will you do this?” I pressed when he did not reply.

He leaned toward me. “If this is what you want. If you have thought this through.”

“Xingyin, is this a joke?” Shuxiao asked. “The empress will never meet you, much less help you.”

“Not for me,” I said. “For her son.”

I was not so deluded as to imagine the Celestial Empress would grant me a favor, when a year ago she had clamored for my death. Yet something bound us that went deeper than hate—our love for Liwei, for we would do all in our power to save him … even stooping to deal with those whom we most despised.

Chapter 15

Never did I imagine I would be meeting the Celestial Empress in a mortal teahouse. I almost did not recognize her—stripped of her splendid garments and ornaments, her dazzling aura muted. She was dressed as any other villager, wrapped in a cotton robe, a wooden pin tucked in her hair. Gone were the gold sheaths that covered her fingers, but her tapering nails, ending in sharp points, looked no less threatening.

“You came.” An inane thing to say when she stood before me.

She did not deign to respond, disapproval puckering in her brow as her gaze fell upon the worn wooden floor, the bamboo stools, the unvarnished ceiling beams. Her nose wrinkled as a serving man scurried past, bearing a tray filled with bowls of steaming soup and plates of fish and vegetables. Had I chosen this place to irk her, who clung to pomp and grandeur like a second skin? Perhaps, without even knowing it, but mainly to avoid any trap she might have devised in the Immortal Realm, where she had the upper hand. A test, to gauge how far she was willing to go to save her son—and the fact she was here meant she was as desperate as me.

I lifted the heavy porcelain teapot, pouring her a cup. Not from respect, but my mother’s teaching that I had to show courtesy to an elder, a guest who had accepted my invitation.

She ignored it, lowering herself upon a stool. “Why did you want to meet me here?” Her voice reeked of hostility.

“Where else might we go, Your Celestial Majesty? To the Jade Palace? This meeting is best left unseen. Moreover, this place gives us both comfort, since magic is forbidden here.”

Her cheeks flushed so dark they appeared speckled with blood. “How dare you speak to me as though you are my equal? You are nothing, whereas I am the empress of the earth and skies. Do you forget who judges what is permissible here?”