H
The camp slept lightly that night, but the Empress did not sleep at all.
How could she?
The ritual's dark flames…
The strange heartbeat under the fake pregnant pillow…
The leader's eyes staring at her as if she carried a divine curse…
No sleep could survive that.
Fen Yu, trembling ghostly beside her, complained nonstop.
"I don't want to be here! I'm too pretty to die in a barbaric place!"
Li Shen rubbed his forehead.
"You're already dead—"
"THAT DOESN'T MATTER!"
Wei Rong sighed.
"We stay alert. Something is wrong. Very wrong."
The Emperor, lying on the thin blanket beside the Empress, didn't sleep either.
He kept his eyes closed, but his hand hovered near his hidden dagger, ready to strike the moment someone approached.
He was angry.
Furious.
But silently.
The Empress acting pregnant was his idea.
But he never expected this camp to sense… something.
Something dangerous inside her.
And he definitely didn't expect the leader's next announcement at dawn.
---
