Page 56 of The Immortal’s Mark

Same time?

Lián.

I’ve survived this long by not wanting things.

By keeping my hands open and my heart locked and my feet always ready to run. By treating every attachment as temporary, every goodbye as practice for the next one.

It’s a good system.

It’s kept me sane.

It’s falling apart.

The cat purrs. The moon moves across the sky. Somewhere in this palace, an emperor isn’t sleeping, and I know this because I know him now, know the rhythm of his restlessness, know that he paces when he thinks and drinks cold tea and carries the weight of an empire in the tension of his shoulders.

I know him.

Terrifying.

I don’t sleep for a long time.

But I don’t run, either.

Chapter 644: The one where our heroine stops pretending this is just a job.