Li Wai held my gaze with a burning intensity as he searched my expression for signs of insincerity. When he found none, he exhaled, the soft breath that escaped his lips holding a tinge of relief. He nodded slowly. “I understand. If this is what you believe to be right, then I will follow you wherever you go.”
My heart skipped a beat and though I restrained myself, I couldn’t mask the bubbling sense of hope in my voice. “Really?”
A warm smile crept over Li Wai’s lips as he took a step closer towards me. His hands closed over mine, lending its warmth to my cold skin. “My heart and my soul has always been at your command… Zetian.”
The tears that sprung to my eyes this time was out of sheer joy. As my heart thumped rapidly against my chest, I bit back the growing smile on my lips.
Li Wai dipped his head and planted a small chaste kiss on the tips of my hand. “I won’t make the same mistake I did so many years a-”
All of a sudden, his voice trailed off. I lifted an eyebrow, my features morphing into a frown. Confused, I watched his hand drift down to my wrist. As it dawned on me what he had caught on to, I frantically tried to yank my arm away but his iron grip held me fast.
A growing sense of dread washed over me as he slowly pulled the corner of my sleeves down, revealing the formidable dragon tattoo. Tendrils of green veins snaked down the length of my arm following the sinister spread of the poison. My dark secret now out in the open, I grimaced at the sight.
“This is…” he muttered slowly as he processed the new information. His gaze followed the trail of green and black ink before moving back up to my face.
Beads of sweat rolled down my forehead and my skin turned clammy. As his eyes searched mine for an answer, I swallowed down a lump of anxiety, the palpable tension in the air weighing down on me. Every second that passed felt like an eternity waiting for a verdict from him.
“Is this…” Li Wai licked his lips. “… because of me?”
The words were stuck on the tip of my tongue, unable to come out. The truth was too hard to utter, the fib too flimsy to deceive. Still like a statue, I could only answer with a flickering gaze. But my silence itself was enough for him to tell.
His fingers dug into my skin but the pain that traveled up the length of my arm could not compare to the agony when he said, “Did you really think… that I would let the woman I love die because of me?”
Li Wai’s voice cracked as he held my gaze. “Are you that cruel?”
The lump in my throat grew until I found it hard to even breathe. My eyes stung with the tears held at bay as I forced a shuddering gasp out. “Yes.”
Bitterness seeped into my voice. “I am that cruel.”
“I did so many…” I looked up to the night sky, forcing the tears away. “… unimaginable things. All for the sake of power.”
My eyelids fluttered and when I brought my gaze down, I expelled a shaky breath. “But I never thought I could love. Not for someone like me.”
With trembling fingers, I hesitatingly reached out to where he gripped my wrist. I could feel his body tense as I covered his hand with my own. “But these few days, I remember what it was like to have someone in my heart. To not live for the country but for myself.”
I lifted my head to look at him, a bittersweet smile painted on my lips. “I want to pave my own destiny. And my destiny is to be with the one I love… with you.”
My voice trembling, I finally uttered the three words that I should have said all those years ago.
“I love you, Li Wai.”
When I saw his eyes waver, my whole world stopped. Seconds felt like minutes. His footsteps seemed to echo unendingly as he closed the distance between us. And then… his hand pressed my head into his shoulder, his touch the magical switch that made my world come back to life. I let out an involuntary cry, the tears falling unrestrained down my cheeks as I stood there in his embrace.
“I’m here, Zetian,” he whispered into my ear. “I’m here.”
And that was all I needed.
Not my crown, not my country…. Not my body.
I could forget everything including the poison that fed on me until I died. As long as he was with me.
It was a perfect moment until-
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