Across the Stormy Waves to Me [Ashes of the Realm]

“Your Highness, help me kill the emperor, and I'll give you the former dynasty's eldest princess's keepsake.”

On the night the entire Zhen'nan Marquis household was sentenced to death, I knocked on the door of Prince Yu's manor, covered in blood.

I offered up half of a bloodstained Yulin Guard tiger tally, along with a letter in blood that could topple imperial authority.

Xiao Yan, the supposedly idle and ineffectual prince, had eyes as unfathomable as the deep sea.

He ran his fingers over the broken edge of the tally and chuckled. “Kill the emperor? Certainly. But what will you pay in return?”

I became the most secretive “cousin” in his household. By day, I learned etiquette. By night, I learned to kill.

He taught me to hold a sword, guiding my hand, and whispered in my ear, “Grip it tight. Strike here, and you can kill with one blow.”

The candlelight flickered, his breath brushing the side of my neck.

“Shen Jinglan, remember: your life belongs to me now.”

At court, he was a gentle, harmless prince. In the dark, he was a hunter who had spent twenty years weaving his web.

Everyone thought he was merely amusing himself with me, an “orphan girl.” That is, until the day of the palace coup, when he led the Yulin Guards through the palace gates, sword pointed at the emperor on the throne, his uncle.

A powerful duo bent on revenge + profound redemption: Two people who clawed their way back from hell tend each other's wounds, become each other's blades, and ultimately each other's armor.

Clever political intrigue: Schemes within schemes, plots within plots, no one gets sidelined, and the twists keep coming.

Intense romance: From using each other to entrusting each other with their lives. A grown-up love, restrained yet wild.