I blinked in a dazed manner, then let my body go limp like I had fainted. One of his arms slid around my shoulders, the other below my knees as he swung me up, holding me tight. He carried me a short way, before laying me down on the bed. My eyes shut, I sensed with startling clarity his callused fingertips brushing my skin, smoothing the hair from my face with unexpected tenderness. Recoiling inwardly, I kept my expression slack, even as I groped for a hairpin from my sash. As a shadow fell over me, I tensed in alarm—my eyes flying open as I yanked the pin free, stabbing at him. His fingers locked around my wrist, trapping the sharp point a hair’s breadth from his neck.
His lips curved up. “Xingyin, how bloodthirsty you are this morning.”
Something cold slithered down my spine. His deep voice curled into my ear with aching familiarity, yet he was a stranger to me now. As he pried the carved silver pin from my grasp with his other hand, I thrashed against his grip with renewed force.
His hands fell away, his smile vanishing. “Don’t be afraid.”
“Your eyes . . .” I choked out, scrambling upright, my knees pressed to my chest. How brilliantly they glittered, just as those of Lady Hualing’s. A shiver rippled through me. Until I knew what he was capable of, I would have to tread cautiously.
He shrugged as though it were of no matter. “A disguise. To avoid unnecessary questions.”
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“The same person you’ve known all this time. The same person I’ve always been around you.”
My voice hardened. “No word games. Tell me who you are.”
He studied me intently. “Did I not accept you, when you revealed yourself as the daughter of the Moon Goddess? Xingyin, you and I know everything that matters about each other.”
There was a twisting sensation in my gut of a pawn who had been played. Everything he said was a defense or delay, calculated to temper my anger and prick my conscience. To link us together, to make us seem one and the same. Whatever he had done must be terrible indeed.
“Don’t even compare us,” I seethed. “My deceit did not touch you, while you . . . you have locked me up and stolen my possessions.”
His jaw clenched as he turned away, striding toward the window.
“What is this place?” I asked, hating the quiver in my voice. This new uncertainty I felt around him, this fear.
“My home. The Cloud Wall.” A warmth glided into his tone, a moment before it turned cool once more. “Although others prefer to call it the Demon Realm. A clever ploy by the Celestials to brand us as the enemy, to be reviled and feared even by those we’ve never encountered.”
Impossible. This could not be the Demon Realm. And he was no Demon—they were forbidden from the Celestial Kingdom. Surely someone would have sensed him during those years he served with the army.
“Is this a joke?” I leapt up from the bed, my elbow knocking over an enameled vase. It struck the floor hard, the clang reverberating in the room.
The doors flew open, two soldiers raced into the room, clad in black armor edged with bronze. One, with a thin nose and the pointed chin of a ferret, his taller companion with pale skin and round eyes. Inky tassels fringed the gleaming spears they clutched. At the sight of Wenzhi, they bowed, the ends of their spears thumping the floor.
“Your Highness, we heard a crash,” the fair one said.
My head darted up as I registered the soldier’s greeting, the serving girl’s earlier words. Was his father really the Demon King, the conniving monarch whom all Celestials dreaded and despised? I wanted to slump back onto the bed, to close my eyes, hoping this was just a nightmare I would awaken from. But I recalled the dragon’s voice ringing through my mind, their pearls tingling in my hand, the wind surging in my face as I was borne away . . .
This was no dream.
The soldiers bowed again to Wenzhi, acknowledging a command I had not heard. When they stood upright, they stared at me with blatant curiosity.
“Leave us,” he said coldly. They backed out at once, closing the doors after them.
I clasped my hands, wishing I held a weapon in them. “Your Highness,” I ground out. “How dare you bring me here against my will?”
He leaned against the window frame, facing me now. “Against your will? You agreed to come with me.”
“I did nothing of the sort.”
“You did. You said you would come with me, to my home.”
I could barely think through the rage which throttled me. His deceit made a mockery of our promises to each other. I had believed he was from the Western Sea; never did I imagine the Demon Realm was his home! Never would I have agreed to this. My fists clenched but I forced them to loosen; now was not the time to indulge my wrath. He was a liar without par, however knowing this could only help me now.