I needed to find out more.
“How could you do this to me?” My voice was hoarse with swallowed rage.
He crossed the room, taking one of the stools by the table. Lifting the porcelain teapot, he poured out two cups of tea, offering me one just as he used to. I stared at him stonily, until he raised the cup to his own mouth and drank from it.
He frowned. “Good decision, it’s cold.” A light surge of his power enveloped the cups, the fragrance of jasmine rising as its color morphed from the dull brown of oversteeped dregs to a rich gold.
“I might have done that myself except I couldn’t. What did you do to me?” I shoved myself off the bed, stretching my hands out to him, the metal gleaming darkly against my skin.
“Just a precaution, to make sure you don’t do anything foolish.”
An urge to strike him gripped me. “The stupidest thing I ever did was to trust you. How did you get past the wards of the Celestial Kingdom? Why the farce of joining the army? Why did you bring me here?”
“So many questions, Xingyin. I’ll answer what I can, if you sit down.” He gestured to the stool beside him.
I glared at him as I lowered myself onto it, my back stiffer than a plank of wood.
“The wards of the Celestial Kingdom aren’t as strong as they once were. Perhaps because they no longer possess the ability to probe their enemies’ thoughts? It was a simple matter to weaken them further, to conceal myself with magic.”
“You’re one of them. You practice the forbidden arts.” I could not help my shudder.
“Yes, though it is not forbidden here. Here, it is a gift.”
“You traitor,” I snarled, recalling the fox spirits that had broken through the wards and injured Shuxiao. “Don’t you care for the hurt you’ve caused?”
“What of those I saved? The monsters and enemies I helped the Celestial Kingdom vanquish?” he countered. “But we talk in circles now; this will lead nowhere. Did you not keep your own parentage a secret, Xingyin? You, more than anyone, should understand the position I was in.” His tone turned mocking. “Don’t be so righteous. Your loyalties don’t lie with the Celestial Kingdom.”
My fragile hold over my emotions snapped. “Whatever I did, I was no spy. I had to protect my family. My life. At no time did I endanger anyone other than myself.” I added scathingly, “What of your loyalties? How well you pretended to care for Celestial soldiers when you were inwardly rejoicing at their wounds.”
His aura thickened, churning as storm clouds. “I always cared for those under my command, I mourned for each life lost. But I did what I had to. It did not matter whether I liked it.”
“As you did with me.”
“What?” he said sharply, seemingly taken aback. “No—not that. Never.”
“Then, why?” I probed, glimpsing a chink in his composure.
I did not think he would answer me and even if he did, I expected more lies. Yet when he spoke, there was such tension locked in his body, whatever he was thinking affected him deeply.
“The second son of the king has few opportunities here. Everything was given to my half-brother, Wenshuang. Even though he was less capable and his powers inferior to mine—without the slightest talent in our magic, the pillar of our might. Yet he was named the Crown Prince for no other reason than he was the firstborn.” His mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “So, I went to my father and we made a bargain. Not much different from the one you struck with the emperor.”
“All this, just to take your brother’s position?” I uttered with disbelief. Perhaps a part of me hoped that he had been driven to this against his will. But greed and ambition . . . I did not think such things spurred him so. He was not who I believed him to be; there was no honor in him. Yet that spark of ruthlessness, that desire to win at all costs had always been there—if only I had recognized it for the unfettered ambition it was.
His fingers squeezed the cup on the table, his knuckles white with strain. “You know nothing of my half-brother.”
“I didn’t even know you had a brother.”
“Beyond our shared blood, he’s no kin of mine. Ever since we were young, he has showed me nothing but cruelty and hate. Such suffering I endured at his hands—the beatings, punishments, and insults. I could do nothing against him, not because I was weaker, but because he was the heir. The few loyal attendants and friends I had in my youth were taken away by him, too, and I learned not to show anyone my favor. The only way I could protect myself and those I cared for was to rise above him and claim the throne.”