clear that Chien would face the brunt of her anger in the morning when she was not surrounded by
15 | Luxury of Vengeance
courtiers. "I do hope you will reflect upon your behavior in the morning nephew. It shames me to see you like this."
Chien wanted to challenge her right then, but there was a proper time for all things. He nodded
and bowed his head in shame, "I apologize for my behavior, Empress."
Her expression was inscrutable. "Rest well nephew."
Bao did not give him the dignity of walking from the hall, but instead half dragged him behind
him. Chien allowed it until they stepped out onto the verandah walkway into the sultry night air. Once
they were away from prying eyes, Chien pulled away and Bao allowed it.
"Thank you for your assistance, General, but I can handle myself from here."
"Perhaps you could explain to me what I may have seen you pour into the prince's drink."
Chien froze. "Pardon?"
"When you knocked his cup over, you spilled something into his drink." Bao's eyes narrowed as
Chien turned to face him, "I saw it."
He should have been watching more carefully. Hadn't he felt the general's eyes on him? Hadn't
he recognized that intense gaze? He wanted to curse his stupidity, but he did not dare give any more
away. Lie. It would just take another lie. He was good at those was he not? His greatest skill since his
mother's death. "I would not dare drop something into the prince's drink." His eyes widened in
innocence, a move that had fooled not only his dimwitted cousins but his aunt as well at one time or
another.
"Do not play me for fool, Prince Chien." Dangerous. He had let his guard fall, let himself grow too close to Bao, and now his plan would be ruined by his own foolishness. What had he thought to
himself only a few hours ago? He was too close to make such mistakes.
"Play you for fool, General, who would do such a thing?" Chien paused beside the pond and
crouched to watch the goldfish play, trying to give himself a chance to pull himself and his story
together.
"Why do you do this, Chien?" Bao sounded exasperated. Good. At least he was not alone in it for once. "Why do you play the easily distracted dunce?"
"Easily distracted?" Chien watched as the goldfish darted within the pool, lazy splotches of color.
"You do not think a pond is suitable for my attentions?"
"They're goldfish."
"Maybe." He could not continue to engage in this conversation, not when there was a risk that
he would give away more. Bao was surprisingly astute, and Chien could feel his control over this
situation slipping from his fingers more and more as he stood, "If you are quite finished—"
"I'm not."
In his head, Chien cursed. "I have no interest in answering your accusations."
"I could bring them before the Empress instead."
Chien paused then slowly turned to face Bao. It was not worth it to feel betrayed. Not worth it
to examine that pain in his chest. "You may feel free to report to the Empress anything you like." He'd known this. Gone into this situation with his eyes wide open. Bao's loyalties would always lie with the
Empress first. This was why he'd tried so hard to remind himself not to get too close.
When you allowed people close, their inevitable betrayal only hurt so much more. And in the
palace, betrayal was inevitable.
Bao was yet one more thing it seemed she'd stolen from him before he'd ever had a chance to
truly appreciate it.
"Chien, if you could simply explain it to me I could—"
"And do not refer to me so familiarly." Distance. Distance was important. Because there was
only one thing that mattered, really.
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He watched his words take effect on Bao, his face became colder, his mouth set in a hard line.
Had Chien truly done that to him? The lives he'd taken in the search for vengeance and here was the
one battle he regretted winning. "Of course, Prince."
Chien did not have much to say in answer to that, instead turning to walk toward his rooms on
the far side of the palace. Bao fell into quiet step behind him.
It had not been his fault, he rationalized. Bao had been the one to bring up the Empress's name.
To believe that invoking her name would somehow spill all of Chien's secrets.
"There was a time when you might have told me you loved me." The words sounded
unspeakably intimate.
"Words that lovers whisper in the dark of night," Chien whispered back, "fade like shadows in the day."
Bao cursed and grabbed hold once more of Chien's arm to pull him around. Chien's mouth
opened to make it clear how little he appreciated being yanked around as such but the intensity of Bao's
gaze took his words away. Not for the first time, Chien wondered what Bao saw when he looked at him.
Was he the dunce prince he pretended to be? Did Bao see him as the capable man he wanted to be? Or
was it some terrifying between? Had he somehow managed to delve beneath everything Chien
pretended to be and broke through to the truth beneath.
The truth was that he had never been fooled really, not completely. Not enough for Chien's
comfort. It would have been smarter to be done with it now. To kill him and ensure that no one knew of
his plan. He was so close, he could surely do that couldn't he? Bao stood so close. It would have been so easy to grab his weapon and be done with him at last
He was weak, hardly deserving of the throne himself. His father would have done whatever was
necessary. His mother would not have allowed anything to stand in her way. And as their child sworn to
uphold their honor, he could not do the simple task of stopping this man before he brought years of
planning down around Chien's head. Bao had asked to help him. The damn man would prove the
beginning of his end.
"Do not feed me proverbs." Chien far preferred him like this. Eyes flashing and cheeks mottled
red with anger. "Do not lie to me." Words that lovers whispered. Chien had meant every one of them each and every time he had spoken it and still it had not done him a bit of good. He'd chosen a man he
could not keep. When Bao kissed him, he did not bother to pretend he did not want exactly that. His
hands pulled free from Bao's grip to sink into the dark silk of his hair. He could feel Bao's finding their way beneath the layers of his robe.
Chien pulled back before Bao could find skin. Before his clever tongue and cleverer hands made
Chien forget why this could not be allowed. Bao leaned in for another kiss and Chien avoided him.
Finally their foreheads rest together. "How can I protect you when you will not tell me the truth?"
"I have never needed you to protect me." Bao was sworn to protect one. The woman Chien was
sworn to kill. "Good night, General." And even then he did not move right away. It took for the sound of someone approaching for him to release Bao and walk quickly toward his rooms.
Somewhere in the part of his mind that wanted nothing more than to see all of this end well,
was the part that wanted desperately to believe that the Dragon would accept him as heir to the throne.
He hated the darkness, the darkness made it far too easy to see the very space where his plans would
fall apart. The soldiers would not sit aside and watch while their Empress died. The governors would
refuse to pledge their allegiance to a man who was known as nothing more than the Empress's fool. All
of his work would prove meaningless when the deception he had used for so long to survive turned
against him.
It made it easier for him to step through the thin door and release the servants from their duty
that night. Gave him time to close the door behind them with a long relieved sigh as he stretched his
17 | Luxury of Vengeance
body and rolled his sore muscles. It was hard work pretending to be someone else. Chien felt the
deception sitting upon him each day, almost a physical burden.
The end. The words circled in his head. If Bao kept his silence—and Chien had extracted no such
promise from him—but if he kept his silence tomorrow could be the end. Tomorrow would be the end
regardless. Either he would join his family in death, or he would finally take his father's throne. There was no middle ground. No acceptance. No forgiveness. No help.
In that moment, he would stand completely alone.
And not for the first time in the last couple of months, he wondered if that was truly what he
wished.
His eyes slipped closed as his mind swirled with more questions than answers. Before he knew
it, sleep overtook him.
He awoke to the blurry sight of someone leaning over him. For a moment, the fear overtook
him. This was far too much like that night. Any moment now he would see the gleam of the sword
meant to take his life. Then his vision cleared and he could see Bao above him.
"General?"
Bao shushed him as he rolled to lay beside him. He wore neither armor nor sword so it was clear
that he had not come to drag Chien out to his execution. His dark hair was bound in a loose braid, his
eyes searching Chien's face. "Do you not trust me Chien?"
Chien's mouth opened to chastise him once again for the familiarity of his tone, but he found
himself instead answering, "It is ridiculous to think that I should trust every man who warms my bed."
"You have many men who do so, do you?" Bao's eyes narrowed.
"That is not what I meant." Chien kicked at him and Bao released him so that he could sit up.
Lying down seemed too vulnerable. "You come each night and leave before the light of dawn. There are no feelings involved in this. So why should I trust you?"
"You truly believe that there are no feelings involved?"
If he lied enough, he could convince himself it was the truth. "You can only be loyal to one,
General."
"Do not call me that. Not now."
"One of us must remember our place."
"I could remind you of your place." Bao's voice was a silky warning and Chien moved
purposefully to the edge of the bed. "You use your title as a shield, but not tonight. I wish to know the truth."
"The truth?"
"I do not like being kept in the dark."
Chien could not help but laugh, "Then prepare to live in disappointment, General." Chien
scooted a bit further away at the very real threat in Bao's eyes. "You do not always get what you want."
If you could, Chien would have his throne and this frustrating man.
"Perhaps not." Bao conceded, "But I will have an explanation on why my loyalty to the Empress affects what happens between the two of us."
"How can you stay loyal to her?" Bao was annoyed by his question, "Surely you must see the person she is. She will see this Empire run into the ground. Millions starving while she throws lavish
banquets and plots her wars."
"She is our Empress. No matter how much I may disagree, it would be treason to doubt her."
"So you will kill innocents in her name?"
"Chien, where I was raised, we had nothing but the Dragon to sustain us. If we do not have faith,
then we have nothing at all. The Dragon placed her upon that throne for a reason. So I shall serve to the best of my ability. And you should do the same." His eyes did not match his words, however. Chien
wondered for how long his faith had been tested. How much had he lost in his duty to the Empress? It
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was stupid to want to protect him. Bao could protect himself after all. But he wanted to pull the wool
from Bao's eyes. Wanted to force him to see the truth.
"You cannot be this blind. How long do you believe the Empress will allow me to live?
Tomorrow, she will have secured an heir for her throne. She is not preparing to hand the throne over to
me, she is plotting to overtake it entirely."
"You want the throne?"
He'd gone this far. Given away this much of his plan. "I want my mother and sister back."
"Nothing will bring them back."
"I suppose not. Because we do not always get what we want. Thank you so very kindly for this
reminder, General. You may feel free to leave me now."
"Chien." Bao pulled him back toward the bed when Chien might have stood. "You speak of
treason."
Chien sighed, "I speak of nothing, General, only suggestions and hypotheticals."
"Why do you play the part of fool?" Because he was a fool. He was allowing Bao to pull him
closer until Chien was snug against him. It was warm, too warm in the night heat, but Chien did not
complain.
"If my aunt thought I might show any intelligence, do you think she would allow me to survive?"
Bao did not respond immediately. His lips brushed over Chien's forehead, light as a butterfly
over his eyelids. He was in no hurry. He did not know that in mere hours now there would be no time. "I much prefer this version of you."
"You have said that before."
Bao's hand explored beneath his robe to rest against his chest. "What would it take to make you
happy Chien?"
"Does that matter to you so much?"
"Sometimes I think you enjoy loneliness. That you want nothing more than to end your life as a
miserable old man."
"Then maybe you're the fool. No one enjoys being alone." Hiding in the darkness, jumping at
every sound, afraid that that might just bring the ones who would kill him. Hours. He'd hidden for hours, his mother's sword clutched tightly in his hands.
"Then stop trying to push me away. Let me help you. What would make you happy?"
His aunt's head on a pike. But that would be treason. So instead he reached up to guide Bao's
lips to his own. His kiss was demanding as always. Bao wanted too much, far more than Chien would