Chapter 2

I had no need for sleep.

But I could sleep, and sometimes my dreams held a little beauty.

A spring river warming, perhaps, or snow falling in the last month of winter.

In the mortal world, my husband had been a general, but a remarkably gentle man. We were married for three years. Because he was so often stationed at the frontier, we were reunited only twice. I remained in the capital as a hostage, and whenever he came back, he brought me interesting gifts.

Before he left, he gave me an eagle. It belonged to the northern tribes, he said, and could fly a thousand miles carrying our letters.

All it brought back was news of his death and his final letter.

Cangxuan, the sovereign in heaven, had long since ceased to be my mortal husband.

Yes. That man had died long ago.

The Demon Emperor liked to spy on my dreams, and I could not stop him. He was a demon born of heaven and earth; the heart was what he understood best.

Gradually, I learned to recognize when I was dreaming. He had been suppressed by heaven soon after his birth, and my dreams intrigued him. That was where I first saw what he looked like.

In my dreams, he wore an ink-black robe. He had black hair and red eyes, an air of dark menace, and an amused curl always resting at the corner of his mouth.

Watching me receive that last letter yet again, he asked, “I have entered your dreams so many times. No matter how often I make you relive this moment, why do you never grieve?”

“Why should I grieve?” I asked in return.

He seemed puzzled.

So I explained:

“After our wedding, we spent three days together. The only other time was when he returned to the capital and stayed with me for seven days. Three years of marriage, ten days together. My husband was someone I could not keep. I knew that one day he might never return.

“In my heart, he died long ago. Cangxuan is not him. My husband is only a memory now.

“I shed my tears for him when he died.”

The Demon Emperor waved his hand, and the dream shifted into a prosperous mortal town, alive with the bustle of the Double Third Festival.

“Walk with me?” He held out his hand.

Demons were masters at beguiling the heart.

But I did not refuse him.

He had been sealed away before humans built towns as prosperous as this, and he found everything fascinating. I followed beside him without emotion, indifferent to all that bustle.

A vendor in front of us asked, “Madam, would you like a lantern?”

I lifted my eyes. The vendor had the Demon Emperor’s face, right down to the amused curve of his mouth, but his voice held all the warmth a mortal street vendor ought to have.

The Demon Emperor stepped forward and paid him with a piece of silver. “Sir, you certainly dote on your wife,” the delighted vendor said.

A lantern seller had once said those very words to Cangxuan and me in the mortal realm.

I felt no anger at the Demon Emperor for taking Cangxuan’s place and pretending to be my husband.

It was only an empty illusion, a way of deceiving myself.

His smile vanished.

The dream broke apart. When I opened my eyes, there was nothing but darkness. Beneath the stone tablet, he snorted. “You are the most boring mortal I have ever met.”

“Then how would you like me to rejoice, grieve, or rage?” I asked.

However much he picked at my scars, I felt neither anger nor sorrow.

The past was past.

He laughed in his fury. “If you were not a mortal incapable of helping me, I would give you a proper ‘welcome’ once I had used you to escape.”

“No—though I cannot hurt you here, I have any number of ways to torment you in your dreams.”

He seemed finally to remember that he was a demon.

I had nothing more to say to him. Ignoring his words, I slipped into a dream.

“Aren’t you afraid I can torment you however I please?” he asked inside it.

I dismissed that with a smile.

This was my dream.

And I was perfectly lucid.