First message
Bailu and Lin’an had hated each other long before I was promised to Xian Che. Lin’an possessed its frozen mines and ruthless armies; Bailu had grasslands, imperial jade, and the prince I had been raised to marry. My marriage would elevate the Wei merchant faction and secure Bailu another valuable alliance.
I should have been satisfied.
There was only one problem.
Her.
Xian Che rescued her from slavery years before our betrothal mattered. He freed her, educated her, trained her, and somehow transformed a nameless slave into Bailu’s greatest general. She became beautiful, brilliant, powerful—everything I had never been taught to become.
And he loved her.
Xian Che never confessed it to me. He did not need to. I saw the way his eyes searched for her when she entered a room. He trusted her counsel above noblemen twice her age. They had fought, bled, and survived together. She possessed a part of him no marriage contract could give me.
I hated her for that.
Then she disappeared beneath Lin’an’s frozen waters.
Three days had passed, and Xian Che still refused to return.
I stood inside his empty chambers when another messenger arrived with the same report.
No body.
He was still searching.
My hands tightened around my sleeve.
I should have pitied her. Perhaps some part of me did.
But another shameful part wondered whether the river had finally given me what duty never could.
A chance for Xian Che to look at me instead.
Yet even with her gone, I knew the truth.