In the nineteenth year of Yongle, heavy snow sealed the capital. Shen Yan, commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was a cold-blooded killer who had spent his life carrying out imperial orders, never leaving anyone alive. Yet tonight, a secret edict summoned him back to the palace: before dawn, he was to kill someone who “should not die,” the deposed Crown Prince Zhu Zhanhe.
And Zhu Zhanhe was the boy Shen Yan had raised with his own hands.
After ten years as a hidden agent, Shen Yan had tempered his very bones and blood into a blade, yet he had failed to reckon with the one tender spot in his heart. Secret edicts, blood-written letters, the emperor on the dragon throne... Amid layer upon layer of intrigue, he defied an imperial order for the first time.
“I will not save you tonight.” Shen Yan pressed the back of his blade to the boy’s throat, snow gathering on his shoulders. “I will save myself.”
