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A smile forms on his lips. “Then I wish His Majesty much luck in his future.”
“What about me?” I ask, an answering smile on my lips.
His eyes soften, the clear brown of tea. “We already have all the luck we need.”
The king turns to the former queen. “Sister, you are stripped of your titles, your position and privileges, and banished from the Iron Mountains. Leave today and never darken our borders again, upon threat of immediate death.” His lip curls as he quotes her warning from earlier. “I give you this second chance. There will not be a third.”
Her throat convulses as she looks at the king pleadingly. “Brother, will you reconsider?” she asks in a plaintive voice. “You know how Father treated me—”
“And I know how you treated me once you secured power.” The king turns from her. “Leave now. Never return. The guards will escort you to the border of the Amber Forest. Go where you choose after that—anywhere but here. After today, I will cut you from my life. I show you mercy you don’t deserve because I never wish to think of you again, even as a stain on my conscience.”
She opens her mouth as though to speak again, then closes it. A tear slides down her cheek as she sweeps a low bow to the king, then leaves, followed by a troop of soldiers.
King Zixin inclines his head to me. “We owe you our thanks,” he says formally, including Lady Shufang with unexpected consideration. “You saved us. What do you desire for your reward?”
“Peace,” I reply honestly. “I want to sleep and not fret when I awaken, to know the world is not falling into devastation.”
The king’s gaze drops to my hand, still clasped in Jin’s. “You deserve far more; I expected you to demand it,” he says wryly.
He does know me a little after all. Yet now, with Jin by my side, the realms safe, my family awaiting me at home… I am content. How unfamiliar, to want nothing more in life. There is no rarer and more precious feeling.
He plucks a ring from his hand, a thick jade band engraved with a small tiger in gold. “If there is ever any favor you need, you have only to ask.”
As I take the gift and unthinkingly slide it over my thumb, I suppress the urge to laugh at Jin’s unsmiling face. “All I ask of Your Highness—of Your Majesty—is that you remember your word,” I tell him intently.
If you must be king, be a good one.
“I will.”
He steps closer to me, lowering his voice. “I am fortunate we met. You make me want to be better… though I wish this wasn’t our ending.”
I smile at him through the sudden brightness in my eyes. “Nevertheless, it is a good one.”
Something unwinds from my chest, falling away—the last threads of a bond severed. As I breathe in, the metallic scent of iron almost chokes me, forgotten in the tumult. A longing fills me for home: Father, Dian, my bed, the scent of flowers through the window, the magnolia tree arched over our door. To breathe with lightness in my heart, without the weight of the world on my shoulders.
“I want to go home. I’ve been away long enough.”
Jin’s arm wraps around me, holding me close. “Then we shall leave.”
I bow to the King of the Iron Mountains, not knowing when I’ll see him again—if I ever will. Neither of us speak. After all, we have said everything we needed to; there is nothing left of meaning.
As Jin and I stride from the square, the soldiers part to let us through. It feels strange to tread these paths with him, without fear of discovery or reprisal, of being caught, hurt, or killed.
“Do we just walk out through the doors of the Palace of Nine Hills? It feels too easy,” I say with a laugh.
He touches my face gently, his thumb brushing my cheek. “I would break them down again for you.”
The sun rises, its rays streaking across the heavens, banishing the last of night. Warmth glazes my face as I look up at the clear sky. The realms are unshackled from peril, my home freed of the threat of invasion, the terrifying power of the starfire vanquished.
“Is it really over?” I ask, dazed with wonder.
Jin shakes his head, his gaze solemn. “You and I—we are only just beginning.”
EPILOGUE
SUNLIGHT GLITTERS OVER THE WATER AS I GLIDE ON THE waves, the lotus gleaming at my feet. Gone is the glowing seagrass that used to thread the ocean, the guardians of our island that would drag trespassers to their death.
Not all visitors are bad.
