Page 29 of Empire's Curse

Did she really look that much older than the other women here? Were they simply just young, or did she age badly? Maybe her beauty regimen of fermented rice water on her face and hair wasn’t as advanced as the noblewomen, but she didn’t think she wasthatbad to look at compared to them.

“You chose me,” she suddenly said. “And I doubt you would choose someone ancient and ugly, so if you have faults in my appearance—” She didn’t finish the sentence, though it was clear what she wanted to say:you brought it upon yourself.

“I have no problems with your age,” Muyang said with a low chuckle, and she wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “I prefer when my women are older. You’re actually younger than what I prefer.”

Daiyu blinked up at him. That was something she had never heard before.

She spun back around to stare at the pond, unable to shake the surge of conflicting emotions warring in her heart. She tried to remind herself that he was an evil, horrible man who had tried tokill her just a few days ago, and that this brief moment of conversation meant nothing. He was only lusting after her, as was his right as the emperor. This moment meant nothing. He would still murder her if she offended him.

“Don’t clam up now.” There was an authority in his voice that made her stiffen once more and reaffirmed her thoughts. He stepped around the bench and eased himself beside her. “Must I tell you to keep speaking?”

A shiver ran down her spine at their closeness and she braved a glance in his direction. He wasn’t looking at her this time and was staring at the water with half-lidded, bored eyes. She could already see that he was growing tired of her again by the cold indifference of his expression.

Daiyu fidgeted with the pale pink sleeve of her dress. “If you order me to speak, then I will speak.”

“And if I order you”—he pointed a lazy finger to the water and stared at her apathetically—“to walk into this pond and drown yourself, will you do it?”

Whatever warmth she had felt around him disappeared as those words sank in. She licked her lips and stared at the body of water, an uneasiness spreading over her like the undulating waves across the pond’s surface.

He was joking, wasn’t he?

“Well?” Muyang pinned her with a stare so cold and devoid of feeling it confirmed her darkest fears.

“Your command is … is absolute, Your Majesty.”

He smiled, and a shudder coursed through her body at the frostiness behind it. At the cruelty she could see just beneath the surface. “Then do it.”

11

Daiyu must have heard wrong.Did he want her to … go into the pond? She tried to smile to distill the growing discomfort in her chest and laughed nervously. “Your Majesty?”

“Walk.” Muyang gestured her forward, and every instinct in her body told her to run far, far away from him. From the morbid curiosity on his face.

Daiyu pressed her heels into the grass beneath her feet and gripped the edge of the bench tightly. “Your Majesty, I don’t think?—”

“Walk.”

She flinched and knew that she couldn’t talk her way out of it. He was serious, and he was watching her as if waiting for her to fail. And it was only then that she noticed the dagger strapped to his waist, with its dragon design and its beaded, ruby eye. Her shoulders trembled, and she looked between him and the pond, wanting for him to tell her he was jesting.

But he didn’t.

Muyang didn’t blink. “Yin Daiyu, are you refusing to obey me?”

She forced herself to her feet and a strong, cool wind ripped through her hair, sending more tremors over her body. Her gazeflicked to the rest of the garden, where the winding paths would lead to safety, but within these palace walls he owned, there was nowhere that was safe.

Daiyu took a step closer to the brink of the pond. She could make out the dark gray rocks beneath the surface, and now that she was even closer to it, it appeared deeper than it did earlier. Red, white, and orange fish slithered and wove through the smooth and jutted stones. Her only consolation when she slipped off her shoes and brought a foot into the water was that it was surprisingly warm, or warmer than she thought it would be.

She spared a glance over her shoulder at the emperor, but he was watching her coolly, not appearing at all like he would tell her to stop. Her lips pressed together in a firm line and she spun her head away from him. She hated this humiliation and being forced to do something like this.

Muyang didn’t say anything when the water reached her hips. She shivered at the dropping temperature the deeper she went. The rocks were smooth and slippery, and she feared she would slide if she went any farther. She didn’t actually want to drown, and she doubted he wanted her dead right then and there.

She turned back to him, her eyebrows pulled together. “Your Majesty, how much more?”

“Keep walking.”

Daiyu bunched her fists together and wanted to shout at him, but when he raised his eyebrow, she twisted around and went forward. Never mind the fact that she knew how to swim—buthedidn’t know that. And most women in his court, she assumed, didn’t know how to. So was he expecting her to actually drown herself for him? It was absurd, and he seemed to enjoy degrading her in such a manner.

Would she have to walk back to her room, dripping water everywhere, with servants snickering and gossiping behind her back? The thought made her cheeks warm and she decided she hated Drakkon Muyang, and she needed to escape from his clutches as soon as she could.

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