By now, they had reached the wall. He looked down the length of it. “How did you intend to get back over?”
“I didn’t.”
His gaze lit on her and he shoved his helmet back on his head. “Wait here while I get some rope.”
Her hand shot out, capturing his arm. “We don’t need it.”
He paused and looked back at her.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the ground inside the harem. When she found what she wanted, she sang softly. A vine snaked into sight and crawled down the wall.
When she looked up, Han was staring at her, something akin to anger in his eyes. “I thought you’d forgotten the language.”
“I remembered.”
He looked around, then slipped out of cover and gave the vine a hard tug. “This should hold.” He quickly tied the end to a tree.
She glared at the wall. This was going to hurt. But before she could move to climb it, Han stepped in front of her, his strong hands encompassing her waist. “Wrap your arms around my neck, and your legs around my waist.”
Her arms tucked around her ribs, she automatically stepped back. “What?”
He looked up one side of the wall and down the other. They were exposed here. “Hurry.” Han meant to carry her over the wall. “I can do it,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. “This climb would take more strength than you had before you were injured.”
“No. Ko would never forgive me if something happened to you.”
He made a low sound in his throat. “I’m not keen on the idea either, but do you see another option?”
Lilette slowly shook her head.
“Then come on.”
She pursed her lips. Wrapping her arms and legs around his body sounded far too intimate.
His expression hardened. “Am I really so repulsive to you?”
“You don’t repulse me.” Gripping his shoulders, she tried to hop up with one foot.
Han rolled his eyes and lifted her. She wrapped her legs and arms around him. Beneath the armor, his body was all muscle, hard everywhere she was soft. She had the sudden urge to explore his chest with her fingertips. She pushed away the thought, glad it was dark enough he couldn’t see the blush spreading across her face.
He gripped her legs behind the knees and lifted her higher onto his stomach. “Lock your feet and wrists and hold on.” He grabbed the vine and started climbing.
She couldn’t believe he was strong enough to heft both of their weight. She glanced over his shoulder to the ground far below. A feeling of helplessness washed over her. Her well-being was completely in his hands. If he slipped—if her vine couldn’t take both their weight—she would fall.
Closing her eyes, Lilette pressed her forehead into his shoulder and concentrated on the steady tensing and relaxing of his muscles, the narrowness of his waist, his chest expanding with each breath.
Han heaved them onto the wall’s roof. She scrambled to the other side of the peak and leaned against it, her breath coming fast. “We should—”
He clapped a hand over her mouth. Startled, she began to pull away, but he drew her into his arms. Heat crept up her body. “Han . . .”
“Shh,” he whispered in her ear. “I can hear them.” He released her enough to peer over the raised roof.
And then she heard them too. “The vine.” She reached for it, intending to tug it out of sight.
He pulled her back into his arms. “Movement and sound draw attention. The vine stays.”
She heard the steady rhythm of the guards advancing toward them. She could feel Han’s heart pounding through her clothes. Eventually, the steps grew softer as they marched away. Lilette let out the air in her lungs.
Han looked down. “You’re not going to make that by yourself.”
She huffed. “Down is easier than up.”
He sighed and gripped the vine. “Come on. It’ll be faster this way. I’ll cut it down after I’m safely back on my side.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but he wrapped her in his arms and swung over the side. She had to grab him and hold on to keep from falling. Her heart pounding with fear, she pressed her face against his chest and concentrated on breathing.
“You can let go now.”
Startled, she opened her eyes to discover they’d reached the ground. “I almost fell,” she whispered. She dropped out of his arms, gasping when her injured leg took her weight. She hopped, one leg cocked.
Han’s arm shot out, steadying her. “I told you before, I wouldn’t let you fall.” He pulled her out of sight behind the tree and pressed the palm of his other hand into her sore side. She hissed a breath through her teeth.
“I don’t feel any knots. That’s a good sign.” He gently lifted her tunic. A bruise had spread from her hipbone to just above her waist. He shook his head in sympathy. “It should heal. My mother has a salve.”
She was suddenly aware of how near he was, both his hands on her, their faces a mere hand span apart. She tried to pull away, but he held her firm. “I’ve watched so many die tonight—I won’t see you be one of them. What are you doing, sneaking out of the harem? And going into the palace? I thought you were smarter than that.”
When Lilette didn’t answer, he took a small step closer—so close she could feel the warmth from his body. “You’re to be the next empress—the most powerful woman in the empire. You’ll want for nothing. Why risk death to get away from that?”
The next empress? “What?”
Han’s face darkened, but he didn’t respond.
She pinched her eyes shut to block out the images of being a wife to Chen. Could she trust Han? Despite everything, she’d seen glimpses of his former kindness. He had saved her life twice, risking his own. If Lilette was going to get out, she needed help. She wouldn’t find anyone better. “If I asked, would you help me escape?”
He studied her, his eyes glinting in the starlight. “We are enemies, you and I.”
Hopelessness washed over Lilette. Without his help tonight, she would have been caught and probably killed. If he refused, her chances of succeeding were almost nonexistent.
“You should go.” The hardness in her voice could cut a stone. “Thank you for returning me to my prison. Again.”
She turned to leave, but Han caught her hand. “Do you remember the first night you fled Rinnish?”
“How could I forget?”
He gently tugged off her hat. She froze as he unwound her bun and ran his fingers through her hair. She wasn’t sure why she allowed him to touch her, but it felt so good. “You were my best friend,” she finally admitted.
“Do you remember someone coming in the middle of the night to warn your parents to flee?”
Lilette whipped around to face him, her hair flaring across her shoulder. “All I remember was waking to my mother forcing me out of my bed.”
He looked sad, and vulnerable. It was so unlike the man she’d come to know that she blinked in surprise. “You? You warned us?”
His scar twitched. “I overheard my father talking to the elite. They were to come for you just before dawn. He wanted to marry you off to Chen.”
She touched Han’s scar. “Is that why you have this?” He tried to pull away from her, but Lilette stepped closer. He dropped his head and murmured, “My father was furious.”
She ran her fingers across the uneven skin. The movement was so slight she wasn’t sure, but she thought Han leaned into her touch.
“I wanted you to know that we may be enemies, but I am also your friend,” he whispered. “I have always been your friend.”
She wasn’t sure what made her do it, but she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. His mouth opened in surprise, but then he took hold of her face and kissed her. His lips were soft and gentle, but she felt a slight tremor somewhere deep inside him, as if he was holding back.
He pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. “Lilette . . .”
The way he said her name with such longing—
had he learned to build armor around his heart too?
Every part of her ached for more. He rolled a lock of her hair between his fingers. “I never knew it came in the color of winter sunlight.”
“I’ve never seen winter.” Lilette’s voice came out breathy and soft.
“The light is thinner, the colors washed away.”
She pressed her lips together to keep herself in check. “Han . . .” This—whatever this was—didn’t fit in with her plans of escape, or Chen’s plan to marry her.
Han let her hair slip from his fingers before he stepped back. He tipped his chin toward his mother’s house. “You need to get back. Can you make it?”
She felt hollow without him next to her, and now words had abandoned her. She nodded. With a rush, he launched himself at the wall, his footing and handholds sure.
Lilette whipped around at the sound of voices in the distance. They were too far away for her to understand their words, but they were definitely calling for someone. And of course that someone was probably her.
“Lilette,” Han whispered. She turned back to him. He’d reached the top of the wall and paused, his face in shadow. “Don’t try to escape again.”
Without answering, she slipped into the shadows.
Chapter 13
Han terrified me. He was violence personified in muscle and scowls. But Lilette seemed drawn to terrifying things. ~Jolin
Voices called Lilette’s name. Cold waves of fear pulsed through her. She was dressed in a eunuch’s clothes, with kohl in her hair, and bruises on her body. No explanation she could give would satisfy Chen. She looked around, hoping to find something, anything, to help her. And then she saw the lake. Creators’ mercy, this was a foolish idea—most of her ideas usually were. But she didn’t have anything else.
She stripped out of her eunuch’s robes, shoved them inside one of the boats at the dock, and waded into the lake until it reached her waist. The water was cool, but the bottom was muddy. Keeping her mouth and eyes firmly shut, she scrubbed the kohl from her hair, rinsing at least a dozen times.
Soaking wet with less-than-savory water, she crossed her arms over her nearly translucent smallclothes. Forcing herself not to limp, she moved toward the voices.
It wasn’t long before she caught glimpses of torchlight flickering through the trees. One of them yelped in surprise when she burst into sight. “Are you looking for me?” she asked innocently.
He looked her up and down, his brows drawn in confusion. “Yes, honored madame. The heir has come to see you, but you were not there.” He whistled for the others. They escorted her back to Ko’s house.
Ko was pacing in front, her hands wringing together. She froze when they came into view, her expression giving away nothing, and Lilette wondered if her friend had betrayed her.
The chief eunuch huffed into sight, his strange, hunched-over gait exaggerated by his wide steps. “Where have you been?”
She gestured to her dripping clothes. “Swimming.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you know what you have done?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” he sputtered. He opened his mouth to say more, but Chen stormed into view. The chief eunuch clenched his jaw, his throat working around the words that seemed to choke him.
Chen still wore his battle armor, though with its condition he clearly hadn’t been in the midst of the fighting. His gaze pierced Lilette to the core. He took in her barely clothed state, and she had to resist the urge to cover herself with her hands. “You were not to leave Ko’s home,” he reminded her.
She bent into her three kowtows, then blinked up at him.
“I came to share our decisive victory with you, but you were gone. Where did you go?” Though his words were soft, the tension beneath them frightened her more than shouts would have.
She rose to sit on her heels. “It was so unbearably hot. I went for a swim.”
Chen frowned. “In the lake?”
“I used to go swimming at night all the time.” A blatant lie. She’d always been too tired to bother. “I miss the water.” At least that was true. She let her eyes fill with tears—genuine ones.
He motioned to the eunuchs. “All of you go.” He jabbed a finger at Lilette’s personal eunuch and Chief Wang. “You two wait for me inside with the other concubine.”
Everyone filed quickly away. Chen took Lilette’s arm to pull her outside the house and out of earshot. He pinned her against a tree. Pain lanced through her injured side. She forced herself not to react, not to cry out.
“You were trying to escape.”
“No,” she gasped, her head swimming with pain. “I was—”
“Lilette, there are things even I can’t protect you from. If you’re caught, do you know what my father will do to you?”
“The same thing you did to Laosh?”
Chen released her as if she’d burned him. “I spared her a public execution—and the torture that comes with it.”
Lilette reeled her anger in. Trust, she reminded herself. If he trusts me, opportunities to escape will come. “I’m sorry.”
He blew out through clenched teeth.
“I promise I wasn’t trying to escape. I just went swimming.”
He studied her, his dark eyes glinting. “Are you willing to prove it?” He stepped toward her, his gaze trained on her lips.
Lilette forced herself to tip toward him and press her mouth against his. His mouth was wet and cold. All she could see was soldiers lined up behind the keepers, hear the dark, pounding chant. See Chen watch impassively as Jolin was bludgeoned. As the kiss went on, Lilette couldn’t stop the bone-deep tremors that started inside her.
Finally, he pulled back. As if daring her to stop him, he touched her through her thin smallclothes. “The lords from the other islands are due to arrive before midday for the war council, and a feast is already scheduled. The perfect opportunity to prove yourself.”
“But the kiss—”
“It helped.” His grin was wolfish. “But you still have a long way to go.”
“Prove myself how?”
He tipped her chin up. “By becoming my wife.”
She’d played right into his hands. “No.” The word slipped out before she could stop it.
“Think of all the good you could do as empress.”
She searched his eyes. “Why are you doing this?”
His expression closed off and he stepped back. “Because it’s the best thing for my country. And believe it or not, it’s the best thing for you.”
Lilette clenched her hands into fists at her sides. Still, if she lived in the palace, all she’d have to do was slip into the gardens to free the witches. “Is no even an option?”
“Of course,” Chen said. “I’m not a monster.”
She took a fortifying breath. “Very well.”
“What?”
She shifted her weight off her aching leg. “I said yes.”
He nodded to himself, a smile gracing his perfect lips. “You’ll see, Lilette. This is the best thing for everyone. And I will be good to you. I swear it.” He motioned for her to follow him. “The eunuchs must be awakened. They’ll have to work all night.”
“Wang,” he called as they approached the house.
The chief eunuch opened the door and gave a bow.
“For failing to keep an eye on the princess, her eunuch shall have five lashes,” Chen declared. “You will have seven. Lose her again and it will be both your heads.”
“Yes, Heir,” the chief eunuch said.
“Now that’s taken care of, we have a wedding to plan. Wake all the eunuchs.” Chen cradled Lilette’s cheek and kissed her again. He pulled back, his breath on her lips. “Until then, my sweet wife.”
It took everything she had not to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand. She gave him what she hoped would pass for a shy smile.
Chen rubbed his thumbs along her collarbones before motioning the chief eunuch to walk with him. “She’s far too th
in. Is she eating enough?”
Wang bowed. “I will personally see to her diet, Heir.” Over his shoulder, he shot Lilette a look of such hatred that she winced. Her personal eunuch trailed after them, his steps quick.
Lilette entered the house, then sidestepped Ko’s eunuch and pushed into Ko’s room. She slid the screen closed, scrubbed her lips with her sleeve, and spit onto the floor. Breathing hard, she ground out, “Did you tell them I had gone?”
Ko shook her head. “The heir came to visit you.” Her mouth tightened. “He would have bedded you.”
Lilette pressed her hand against her mouth, her heart racing. If she didn’t escape by tomorrow night . . . but she would be in the palace then. She’d only need to slip into the garden. Faking submission these past few days would surely pay off. It had to.
“Why did you come back?” Ko asked quietly.
Lilette winced. “I was caught.”
Ko’s eyebrows flew up.
“Han intercepted the guards. He let me go.”
“It’s a good thing, or all three of us would be dead.”
Lilette let that soak in, realizing how close they’d all come to being caught. She lifted her smallclothes, revealing purple-black bruises that the shadows and her thin film of clothing had hidden. “Han said you had a salve?”
Ko rooted around in a chest while Lilette examined her shin. To her surprise, it hadn’t bruised, but she could feel a wide knot under her fingers.
Ko smeared the salve onto Lilette’s abdomen before wrapping it with an old sash. She handed her a jar of paste. “Take a fingerful of this. It will help with the pain.”
Lilette took the jar, but hesitated to consume any.
“I think,” Ko said after a moment, “it is very dangerous to be your friend.”
A cavern seemed to open up inside Lilette. Over the course of her life, she’d lost everyone she’d ever grown close to. Why would Ko be any different?
“Lang and I have risked our lives for you. My son has risked his life—too many times. Promise me you’ll keep him out of this.”
The cavern yawned and stretched. A blush crept up Lilette’s cheeks. Did Ko know something had happened between Han and her? Though it sent a stab of pain through Lilette’s belly, she forced herself to say the words. “I swear.”