“May a thousand years of peace grace Princess Xûen JingYi,” he said softly. “I am Xu Haorán, personal agent to His Highness, Crown Prince ShunLi. He sent me to find you.” He turned to Adelise. “And you, Princess.”
JingYi stared, chill creeping up her neck and down her fingertips. “No,” she breathed, shaking her head. “That’s not possible. How—how did you find this place?”
“King Ferdinand sent an urgent message, seeking the crown prince’s help. His Highness first tasked me with investigating Princess Adelise’s disappearance. When I informed him you had also gone missing, he pressed me to find you both with twice the urgency.”
He straightened. “I searched Niewberg. Five days ago, at the market, I overheard a guard asking after a rare medicinal ingredient. He carried a list. One of the items was goldenroot. I remembered a certain physician’s attendant from Xûen-Sarai who favoured it in her remedies.”
Her pulse jumped. So her trickhadworked.
“I followed him. As soon as he revealed the entrance, I took his uniform.”
A pause. JingYi did not ask what happened to the guard. She did not need to.
But the relief barely formed before something colder surged beneath it. Her pulse quickened. She forced herself to breathe. To think. This could still be a trap.
“It makes no sense,” she muttered. “The crown prince wouldn’t have sent anyone. He never?—”
Cared.
The word was bitter and sharp on her tongue. Except . . . hehadshielded her from those Alpha boys. Struck a bargain so she could leave Xûen-Sarai.
She took a step back, heart pounding. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
The purple-eyed stranger didn’t look insulted or surprised. He looked as if he’d expected the question.
“His Highness feared you wouldn’t believe me,” he said. From within the folds of his clothes, he drew a small lacquered box no bigger than a fist, and offered it with both hands. “He asked me to give you this.”
Her fingers trembled as she took the box, the lacquered surface smooth and cool beneath her touch. She hesitated for a heartbeat, then lifted the lid.
Inside, nestled in dark-green velvet, was?—
A peach.
CHAPTER 52
JINGYI
The fruit was flushed with gold and rose, perfectly ripe. Its skin gleamed in the low light as if it had just been plucked from the branch.
The room tilted. The damp stone, the stench of the cell, Adelise’s sharply-drawn breath—all of it fell away. A sun-drenched courtyard took their place. A girl of fourteen, clutching a green, stubbornly unripe peach, guarding it for days until it blushed sweet. She’d left it on her brother’s porch in the dead of night, a show of gratitude for the rescue she could never name aloud.
Her rib cage felt suddenly too small. She’d given that peach without expectation, certain it would mean nothing to a crown prince whose table overflowed with delicacies. And yet, here it was, returned to her in a moment when she’d desperately needed a lifeline.
Xu Haorán wasn’t lying. He couldn’t be. Only three people in the world knew the story: ShunLi, Alexander, and herself. Her brother—the cold, distant, unreachable Pangolin Crown Prince of Xûen-Sarai—had sent help. Her eyes burned.
Adelise reached out to squeeze her hand. “I knew ShunLi would be sensible and send someone,” she murmured.
JingYi’s lips twitched. Adelise’s faith in the crown prince steadied her own. And this peach—this secret—felt like a sign, a message from another life, whispering that not all bonds had been broken.
Her heart still thundered in her chest as JingYi stared at Xu Haorán. The mask was back on, veiling all traces of the man beneath it. He was already at the door, tray in hand, the emptied vial carefully balanced atop its surface.
“What’s next?” JingYi whispered.
“I’ll return at the next check.” His voice was low, careful. He turned to Adelise. “You’ll need to act as if the limyerite is working, Your Highness. Drowsy, weak, disoriented.”
Adelise nodded vigorously. “I understand.”
JingYi leaned in. “And after that?”
