The morning air in the High Tower was thick with the scent of cedar and the heavy, metallic tang of Kai-Zin's power. I woke slowly, my body heavy with the exhaustion of the night's failed escape.
For a moment, I forgot where I was, reaching out for the familiar silk pillows of my father's palace. Instead, my hand brushed against the coarse, black fur of a wolf skin.
I sat up with a jolt, the events of the New Moon crashing back into my mind. Beside me, the bed was empty of his physical weight, but the sheets were still warm. I looked toward the window and froze.
Kai-Zin was sitting in a high-backed chair carved from obsidian, his long legs crossed at the ankles. He was shirtless, his broad chest still bearing the faint, silver scar where I had grazed him with the fruit knife. He wasn't moving. He didn't even seem to be breathing. He simply sat there, his amber eyes fixed on my face with a terrifying, unblinking clarity.
The madness that usually clouded his gaze, that frantic vibration of light, was gone. He looked calm. He looked sane. And that was infinitely more frightening.
"You are awake," he said, his voice a smooth, dark velvet. "Your proximity is even more effective than the ancient texts suggested. For the first time in a century, the screaming in my blood has ceased. I slept, Sun-Hee. A true, dreamless sleep."
"I am glad my misery provides you with rest," I spat, pulling the heavy furs up to my chin.
"Misery is a temporary state," he replied, rising from the chair. He walked toward the bed, his movements fluid and silent. He leaned over me, his hand coming up to tuck a stray lock of my ink-black hair behind my ear. "Acceptance is eternal. Do not fight the anchor, Little Light. It only makes the chains chafe."
The sound of a silver trumpet shattered the moment. It was a high, arrogant blast that echoed up from the valley below, cutting through the mountain mist. Kai-Zin's jaw tightened, and the golden fire returned to his eyes, though it was dim.
"The Emperor," he murmured, more to himself than to me. "He is early."
The arrival of Emperor Jin-Gwon and his daughter, Crown Princess Myung-Ok, was a spectacle of gold and cruelty. From the balcony of the High Tower, I watched as hundreds of white-armored soldiers marched into the courtyard, their banners snapping in the wind. In the center of the procession was a palanquin made of solid ivory, carried by thirty men.
Kai-Zin forced me to dress in a gown of translucent black gossamer that felt like a spider's web against my skin. Over it, he draped his heavy cloak once more, pinning it with a brooch made from a wolf's tooth.
"You will stand by my side," he commanded as we descended the Great Staircase. "You will not speak. You will not look at anyone but the Emperor. And you will kneel when I kneel."
The Great Hall was filled with the smell of expensive incense and the rustle of Imperial silks. Emperor Jin-Gwon sat on a temporary throne, a man with a face like a dried pomegranate and eyes that held the greed of a thousand years. Beside him stood Princess Myung-Ok, her beauty sharp and cold, her eyes roaming the room with a bored, lethal intelligence.
"General Kai-Zin," the Emperor's voice rasping through the silence. "You have been busy. I hear the rebellion in the mountains has been... extinguished."
Kai-Zin bowed, a sharp, military movement. I followed suit, my knees shaking. "The border is secure, Your Majesty."
"And this?" The Emperor gestured toward me with a ringed hand. "The last spark of Haneul-Bi. I had heard reports of her beauty, but she looks rather bedraggled. Is this the prize you risked my favor for? A girl who smells of mud and treason?"
I felt Kai-Zin's hand tighten on my shoulder, his fingers digging into my bone. The air around us began to grow cold.
"She is the Anchor," Kai-Zin said, his voice dangerously low. "Her lineage is the only thing that keeps the Shadow-Wolves from the Empire's throat. You would do well to remember that, Your Majesty."
"A lineage of failures," the Emperor laughed, leaning forward. "Her father cried like a dog before my executioner. Tell me, girl, do you share his cowardice? Kneel before me and kiss the ring of the man who ended your house. Show the General that you know who truly owns the world."
The humiliation was a physical weight. I felt the eyes of the entire court on me. I looked at the floor, my pride screaming, but then I felt Kai-Zin's power flare. He didn't push me down. He didn't force me. He simply stood there, a wall of iron between me and the Emperor's words.
"She kneels to no one but the shadow," Kai-Zin growled, his voice echoing with a low, animalistic vibration.
The hall went deathly silent. Princess Myung-Ok raised an eyebrow, a small, cruel smile touching her lips. The Emperor's face flushed purple, but he saw the way the Shadow-Wolves were beginning to manifest in the corners of the room. He sat back, his eyes narrowing.
"You grow arrogant, General. Be careful. Obsession makes for a poor shield."
Later that evening, after the formal welcoming feast, I found myself alone in the gallery for a brief moment. I was distraught. I had heard from Min-Ah that the villagers who had helped me in the tunnels were being kept in the damp pits beneath the palace, starving and broken.
I saw a young guard standing near the gallery exit, a boy who looked no older than eighteen with the soft features of the southern clans. I moved toward him, my heart racing.
"Please," I whispered, reaching into the hidden pocket of my cloak and pulling out a small gold ring I had managed to hide since the library. "Take this. Use it to buy extra rations for the prisoners in the pit. And tell them... tell them princess Sun-Hee says the sun will rise again. Tell them not to lose hope."
The boy looked at the ring, his eyes wide. He looked around nervously before reaching out. "I... I will try, Princess."
"Thank you," I breathed, feeling a small, desperate spark of victory.
"Is that the hope you speak of, Sun-Hee?"
The voice came from the shadows behind a pillar. Kai-Zin stepped into the light. He wasn't alone. Two Shadow-Wolves followed him, their tongues lolling out of their mouths.
The young guard dropped the ring, his face turning the color of ash. He fell to his knees. "General! I... she..."
Kai-Zin walked past me as if I weren't there. He stopped in front of the boy, looking down at him with a cold, clinical detachment.
"You were given a post," Kai-Zin said softly. "You were given an oath. And you traded it for a piece of yellow metal and a woman's lie."
"Kai-Zin, no!" I screamed, lunging for his arm. "He didn't do anything! It was me! It was all me!"
Kai-Zin ignored my hands on his arm. With a movement so fast I didn't see it, he drew his obsidian dagger. There was a sickening, wet sound, and the young guard's eyes went wide. He didn't even have time to gasp before Kai-Zin's blade passed through his throat.
I watched in horror as the boy collapsed, the gold ring rolling across the stone floor until it stopped at my feet, stained with his blood.
"Look at him," Kai-Zin commanded, his voice a harsh, jagged edge. He turned to me, his face inches from mine, his eyes burning with a terrifying lesson. "This is the cost of broken trust. This is the price of your 'hope'."
He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at the lifeless boy on the floor.
"Every time you try to be a hero, Sun-Hee, someone else will die for you. Every message you send, every bribe you offer, is a death warrant for the person you touch. I told you that you belong to me. That means your kindness belongs to me too."
I couldn't speak. I was shaking so hard my teeth were chattering. I looked at the boy, then at the blood-seal on my wrist, and realized the true depth of the nightmare.
"Come," Kai-Zin said, his voice returning to that eerie, calm velvet. He wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling my trembling body against his. "The Emperor's daughter is waiting to speak with you. Do not let her see your tears. They are mine to collect, not hers."
As we walked away, leaving the body for the wolves, Princess Myung-Ok stepped out from a side corridor. She watched us pass, her eyes fixed on me. As Kai-Zin's grip tightened on my waist, she leaned in, her voice a sharp, icy whisper that reached only my ears.
"You look so much like her," the Princess murmured, a glint of something like pity,or madness,in her eyes. "But do not be fooled by his devotion, little bird. I know about the woman in the portrait. I know she didn't just break his heart. I know how she really died, and why he's so afraid you'll remember."
She walked away before I could respond, her laughter echoing through the hall like the breaking of glass.