Returning to the Crown Prince's manor felt like stepping back into a too-small cage after flying in open skies. Shi Yaozu and I had been met by a carriage and a group of guards when we were half way back to the manor.
I honestly thought they were for someone else. After all, I was still riding the exact same horse that I had left the manor in. But I guess that doesn't matter. I was told I had to be in the carriage, and that was the end of it.
Reputations had to upheld, after all.
The carriage creaked as it passed through the palace gates, its wheels cutting ruts in the perfectly raked gravel. Shi Yaozu sat across from me, unreadable as always, his hand resting casually on the hilt of his blade. Shadow wasn't far—he didn't ride in carriages, of course. He loped beside us, silent, eyes glowing like coals beneath his ink-black fur. Most of the guards pretended not to see him.
Most of them pretended not to see me, either.
