Chapter 1

"One more time."

"Last time."

"Pleeease."

Deep in the night, inside the Eastern Palace bedchamber, a woman's voice drifted out in spoiled little scraps.

The maids and eunuchs on duty outside went scarlet to the ears. Nobody dared look up. Nobody dared speak.

Everyone knew the open secret that had been running through the inner palace for months—

The Crown Prince and Consort Su were involved.

Not a fling, either. Glued together. Meeting every night. Couldn't bear to let go.

Someone had even seen Consort Su stay in the Eastern Palace for seven days straight without taking a single step outside.

The story had already burned through all Six Palaces.

The consorts shipped it. The maids and eunuchs shipped it. Even the Empress Dowager was shipping it on the sly.

They'd even founded an organization with a name so embarrassing it hurt to say out loud—the Crown Prince–Consort CP Support Club.

Their job: pass messages, run cover, and clear the path.

And the Emperor was the only person in the entire inner palace still in the dark.

Of course, that had been before.

Now. Outside the Eastern Palace.

The Emperor stood in the dark, his face so black it looked ready to drip ink.

Chief eunuch Fu Hai knelt on the ground, shaking like a leaf. "Y-Your Majesty… this servant thinks… there may be a misunderstanding…"

The Emperor laughed, cold. "A misunderstanding?"

Inside, the woman's voice came again.

"Faster."

"A little faster."

"Ah—"

A vein jumped at the Emperor's temple.

A misunderstanding? What part of this was left to misunderstand?

He had never, in his entire life, been handed a humiliation like this.

"Bang—"

One kick. The palace doors blew open.

The wooden panels crashed down. The whole Eastern Palace went dead quiet.

A second later, the Emperor's fury tore through the night.

"You ungrateful son—"

Then he saw what was actually in the room, and the rest of the shout died in his throat.

In the middle of the wide hall, Consort Su was sitting on the Crown Prince's back.

One hand fisted in his collar. The other waved a wooden sword. Her face was flushed bright with excitement.

"Giddyup! Faster, horsey! Charge—"

The Crown Prince was soaked in sweat, on his hands and knees, crawling the length of the hall.

He crawled. He wheezed. "Kid. Last lap. Last lap. You promised this was the last lap!"

Consort Su was not having it.

"No."

"One more time."

"Last time."

"Pleeease."

The Emperor: "..."

Fu Hai: "..."

Every servant in the hall: "..."

The air went graveyard still.

I stiffened, lifted my head, and met the Emperor's eyes in the doorway.

Two words left in my brain.

I'm so dead.