Liu Taiping
I can't help but be astounded as my blade cuts a swathe through the empty air and not Zeyue's neck. A dark blur comes at me from below, a retaliatory kick? Despite its speed, its trajectory is easy to predict and my free hand ruthlessly clamps down on a twig-like ankle. Then, with but a simple step, I pull Zeyue back by the leg, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground unceremoniously. She flips around, quick as a cat, and our eyes meet.
Jade fire. Two emeralds glare at me with a fury and intensity unlike anything I've ever seen before. Today has been filled with surprises, far too many for my tastes, but this one... I unconsciously wet my lips. A beast salivating before crippled prey. The fire rages, becoming brighter, an untamable inferno. Oppressive waves of imaginary heat slam against me, flames lick at my skin burning yet not burning. The two of us square off, the crescent tip of my blade menacing her body, the flames in her eyes singeing my soul. Time ticks by, the world around us freezing and falling away, no party brave enough to interfere and no side willing to relent.
As if they were an intervention from Heaven, Luoyang's bells hammer out the harmony that heralds the arrival of night and her starry minions. A spell is shattered. Husband and wife return to their senses as inevitably as fish swimming upriver to return home. A quick glance at the crossbow causes me to slide my blade back into its sheathe, that is safe, for now. The noise, audible only to the two of us, causes Zeyue to come alive. On second thought, die might be a more apt description. She deflates like a puppet whose strings were just severed, all but collapsing. Her head hangs limp, those beautiful emerald eyes averted. That won't do. No, that won't do at all. Crouching down, I grab Zeyue's chin and forcefully turn her head to face me.
What greets me is a strange sight, those eyes that were just filled with blazing fire are now extinguished, damp, subdued. And underneath it all, its scent unobscured by the downpour that has extinguished Zeyue's blinding flame, fear. Zeyue's fear is delicious, addictive almost. It's rich and complex, and like an orange, the more pith I peel away, the sweeter it gets. So why do I feel sick?
YOU ARE READING
The Foreign Empress
Historical FictionA cold and potentially fatal marriage, an imperial court embroiled in assassination and conflict, a hidden conspiracy that could shatter not just a four-century-long peace but the empire itself. In the midst of it all, a girl whose struggle to survi...
