“And I…” His harsh tone had cut through her thoughts.
She’d turned to him expectantly and shivered again.
His eyes had been darker than she had ever seen them before. “AndI killed him.”
Biyu awokefrom her dreamless slumber at a soft touch on her shoulder. Instantly, her body reacted. She lurched up in bed, sleep vanishing even as her eyes blearily scanned her surroundings. From beneath her pillow, she yanked out the small paring knife she had swiped from the maidservant who had served her sliced fruits in the evening. Holding it in front of her defensively, she blinked rapidly to reorient herself, only to be met with her brother’s raised eyebrow and sheepish grin.
“Yat-sen?” She must have been dreaming, because there was no way her half-brother could be in her bedchambers right now. Not when they weren’t allowed to leave their rooms, or when they both had guards watching their every move. But the more she blinked at him, and glanced around herself, she realized shewasn’tdreaming. He really was there.
Yat-sen was dressed in fitted, black clothes that were unlike the clothes he typically wore—loose, fancy robes meant for aprince. All of his jewelry and regalia—the gilded hair crown, the earrings, necklaces—were gone and he appeared younger this way, without all the gold and finery making him more refined than his boyish sixteen years revealed. He smiled at her faintly and jerked his chin toward the knife.
“Are you still planning on stabbing me?”
“Oh. No.No.” She probably would have laughed if she wasn’t in such shock; she lowered the blade and glanced at the doorway, her voice barely a whisper. “What are you doing here? How did you even get passed your guards? Or mine?”
Her bedchambers were dark except for three glowing candles on her nightstand, and she wondered, briefly, if Yat-sen had lit them when he entered.
“Yours were sleeping.” He shrugged, and the motion appeared so awkward on him; she was used to him being rigid and princely, since his every move was monitored. Such a casual movement was … almost too informal, and it made her realize she knew nothing about how he acted outside of that role. “So it wasn’t particularly hard.”
Typical behavior, she thought with a frown. She had always been too afraid to escape her room to even know whether or not her guards were guarding her as they were supposed to, or if they were shirking their duties. She could imagine which of her guards were posted outside; it certainly wasn’t the older guards from the morning prior.
“Andyourguards?”
“I walked past them.” The corner of his mouth rose. “With magic.”
She gasped. “M-magic? Yat-sen!” She dropped her knife on her nightstand and swung her legs around her bed and came to stand in front of him. “That’s dangerous! The mages will be here at any moment! You have to get out of here. What if the emperor actually kills you this time for using it?” Biyu grabbed his bicepand tried leading him back to the door, but then she hesitated, her gaze flicking over to the window. “Maybe you can actually jump through the window? You have to?—”
“Sister, it’s all right.” Yat-sen gently eased her hands off. “The mages won’t be coming.”
“Why not? They’re notoriously terrible and whiff out any?—”
“Sister,” he started.
“Please don’t act so formal with me. We’re siblings.” She hesitated; she was sure Liqin would turn her nose up at this little interaction. But Biyu wasn’t like her, and she didn’t want to become like her any time soon. She didn’t want to distance herself from her brother, either of them. “Call me Biyu, please.”
He blinked in what she could only imagine was surprise, but the emotion quickly shuttered away and he nodded sharply. “Biyu, then,” he said. “Don’t worry about the mages. I found a way to bypass them, but we can discuss that later. I don’t really have much time right now, so I’ll try to be quick.”
Bypass the mages? That alone piqued her interest and she wanted to press him about that, but he was already talking.
“I wanted to talk to you earlier, but I understand that it’s quite difficult to get any alone time, all things considered.” He waved toward her door. “You did receive my note, yes?”
Biyu cringed as she remembered everything that had happened after she had received the note, particularly Nikator’s suspicions. “I did,” she said. “I actually wanted to discuss things with you, but … I ran into some trouble.”
“I assumed as much. I have … a plan.”
“Yat-sen …” She had wanted to tell him to forget whatever he was planning, but now she wasn’t so sure. He was here, after all, and that was a feat she never would have thought possible. Maybe there was some merit to hearing him out. “A plan for … escaping?”
“No, more than that.”
“What’s more important than escaping?”
There was a hard glint in his eyes. “You know what.”
Biyu only stared at him. He couldn’t be serious. He simply … couldn’t.
“Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?” she asked slowly.
“Yes.”
