She offered him a small smile. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t about to let them dictate my life.” She took his arm and tugged him across the arched bridge, pink and purple lotus floating below. “Before you arrived, I planned to take a position as a royal physician in Asadia. Your cousin sent an offer.”
A rare wicked gleam entered his eyes. “Then I relish the chance to tell him you politely decline.”
A chuckle escaped her, but a sobering thought cut it short. One final, unresolved thread remained—one that could snag everything they were weaving together.
“The Dowager is not a threat we can leave behind.” She lowered her voice. “She is the one who must be dealt with before we can truly leave.”
She told him what she’d learned from ShunLi—that his mother had single-handedly orchestrated her and her mother’s fall. Alexander’s jaw tensed, a visible clench of restraint.
“She destroyed your life once. She will not get a second chance.”
Shaking her head, she continued, “I do not worry for myself, but for my brother. He will need every ally he can keep. The court is a nest of scorpions. Half of them will swear allegiance to his face and plot his downfall behind his back. They will see him as a patricide, a usurper, no matter the reasons.”
She felt Alexander’s gaze on her before he spoke. “He knew the cost when he swung the sword. Sometimes, a ruler’s first lesson is that power is taken, not given. He has taken it, now he must hold it.” He paused. “Do you fear for his safety?”
“I fear the chaos those loyal to my father and the Dowager might unleash,” she corrected. “And what it might mean for Adelise.”
“You’ve met her, spent time with her in tenuous circumstances. You’ve seen she’s stronger than others give her credit for.”
Two women born to crowns, bound by the choices of fathers, brothers, and kings. By blood, they should have been protected; she had learned it wasn’t always the case.
Above them, the sky stretched clear and cloudless. Spring had arrived in full splendour, the garden paths lined with radiant blooms. But neither colour nor fragrance could reach the shadows gathered in her mind.
Nobles and consorts strolled among the paths, all bowing as she passed. Whispers followed Alexander, the foreign Alpha in their midst, but he bore them with the practiced calm of a man long accustomed to gossip and scandal.
As another cluster of nobles passed, he asked, “Will you show me the Alphas who wronged you? The ones your brother stopped, years ago.”
Her steps slowed. “You would see them punished?”
“I would see my axe lodged in their groins,” he said bluntly. “I left it behind, but any dull knife will do.”
A small smile curved her lips. “You barbarous man,” she chuckled.
His jaw worked, voice low. “Some of my kind hide behind ‘instinct’ and take what was never offered. That isn’t nature—it’s a violation. They sour the word Alpha for everyone.”
Her smile faded. She thought of Tedric, again, with his fierce talk of burning the system down, of erasing the very castes that allowed Alphas their dominance. Yet, here stood Alexander, proof that not all Alphas were beasts. Proof that strength and gentleness could share the same body.
“Yes,” she concurred. “They must be stopped. Not only for what they tried to do to me, but for what they might yet do to others.”
From the turn in the path, a small entourage appeared. At its centre walked the Dowager Consort. JingYi curtsied, and their eyes met. The woman’s gaze slid past them as if they were air—the cut delivered with surgical precision. She swept by without a word, attendants scurrying in her wake.
Alexander stared after her. “That’s ShunLi’s mother? I’ve climbed snow-capped mountains warmer than her.”
“She now seethes because her plans have unravelled.” Her gaze flicked up to his. “Which means she will come at us from another angle. And before she does, I must move first.”
He took her hand, and they continued walking. “What do you plan to do?”
She glanced back once at the Dowager’s retreating entourage, then met his eyes. “I have a plan. But I’ll need your help.”
CHAPTER 75
ALEXANDER
JingYi’s request for an audience with Emperor ShunLi was granted that same afternoon. They arrived at the Hall of Serenity, walking across the vast space to stand before the emperor’s throne once again. Nobles lined the edges of the chamber, silks whispering as they turned collectively.
He walked a half-step behind her, every instinct urging him closer, but he knew this was her stage. Still, he felt the weight of each gaze upon him—a foreign Alpha in the heart of an empire that hadn’t wanted him there.
Unfortunate for them: he was here for her.
