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“He cut Chengyin to threaten me.” I recalled how he’d grimaced. “But when he did it, he also hurt himself.”

“Then this is the only way,” Zhangwei said decisively.

“No.” I recoiled from the loathsome thought—hating the hope that flickered.

His hand tightened over my mine, his other wrapping around the back of my neck to tilt our heads together. “You must trust me. If I have to wound him to help us all escape, I won’t endanger his life.”

A pause, my emotions warring within. “I do trust you . . . I just don’t want him to be hurt.”

“He’s hurting now,” Zhangwei pointed out unflinchingly. “Whatever Dalian is doing to him, your friend is suffering. Ask yourself, would he want you to take this chance?”

Run. Chengyin had told me with his first breath of freedom. He’d wanted me to be safe; he’d wanted me to get away. And I would, but not without him.

As I nodded, fighting down a wave of despair—Zhangwei’s arms wrapped around me, holding me as his heart beat against mine. “We will get out, all of us. Trust me in this. Keep up the pretense that you’re an ally; go with Dalian when he commands you to. You won’t be alone.”

“He’ll be impatient, his hold over the gateway is waning. He said it’s unstable.”

“Then we must be ready,” Zhangwei replied. “I’ll head to the gateway and wait for you there. It will take a little time, as I must go through the mountains, not along the river.” His hand slid to the small of my back. “The moment Chengyin is freed, you must take him through the gateway first. I’ll make sure it’s safe—”

I pushed away from him, meeting his gaze. “I’m not going without you.”

“The Wuxin who helped me said only two can cross at a single time, and no more than a handful in a day. It’s too risky otherwise,” he said adamantly. “Both of you must go ahead; I will follow. There is less danger for me—”

“You’re immortal, but you’re not invulnerable.” I spoke with deliberate measure. “I’m not leaving without you. Chengyin will leave first—and then, we will go together.” As he opened his mouth to protest, I placed my hand over his heart. “Where you go, I go.”

We glared at each other for a long while, neither of us yielding. Then he pulled me to him again and kissed me—his lips pressing against mine, not with hunger alone this time but with a tender sweetness that curled into my chest.

“Where you go, I go,” he whispered into my ear. “Now, and always.”

41

The Endless Dawn Palace loomed in the distance, its silver-gray walls of quartz gleaming. Someone called my name, hurrying toward me—Lin, clad in a close-fitting brown robe. As she slung an arm around my shoulders, I stiffened at her unexpected familiarity.

Before I could speak, she muttered through clenched teeth, “Smile. We’re being watched. Lord Dalian wants to know where you’ve been, since you eluded the guard following you.”

A chill slid through me, though I smiled as she’d suggested. “Why don’t you tell me where I’ve been?”

Her eyebrows arched. “We just spent the evening in a teahouse. Eating. Drinking. What else might we do there?” she said in a teasing tone. “Though you are to my liking, I sense you’re taken?”

As I nodded, a flush creeping over my face, she sighed as she dropped her arm. “A pity.”

“I’m sure you have no shortage of partners,” I said, adding, “Is Lord Dalian always this on-edge?”

“The void birds reported that an intruder was sighted,” she said in hushed tones. “Lord Dalian uses them to keep a close watch on us.”

I don’t like the way they look at us. Zhangwei was right; I should have let him kill them all.

“They spy on you too, not just strangers?” I was trying to test her loyalty, to see if it might be pried apart. From what I’d seen, she didn’t seem to share Dalian’s vicious inclinations, unlike the malevolent Captain Rao.

“Lord Dalian is cautious. There have been murmurs of disquiet recently. As you saw earlier, many don’t want to go to war with the immortals again.”

“You don’t miss the skies? Your past home?”

“If you keep yearning for all beyond your reach, you’ll end up wasting a lot of time, blinding yourself to the good that’s here.” She spoke with a calm pragmatism. “We were content here, with the Wangchuan River, at least until its powers waned. Here, we can even keep our physical forms more easily—whereas in your world, in our old one, we had to fight harder to retain them.”

“Has anyone tried to reason with Lord Dalian?” I asked.

“Do you think he takes well to ‘reasoning’?” Her mouth curled. “In the beginning, some tried, but they were harshly punished. And now, when Lord Dalian controls our access to the Wangchuan, we have little choice but to obey.”