Three days after the poisoned hairpin, Taehyun gave me a new guard.
Not a normal guard.
The Ghost Blade himself.
I almost screamed when I saw him standing outside my door at breakfast. Same black clothes, same mask, but his nose was still swollen from when I broke it.
Taehyun stood next to him, arms crossed.
"He answers to you now," Taehyun said simply. "His life is yours to command."
I stared at the assassin who tried to kill me. He knelt slowly and touched his forehead to the floor.
"My lady," he said, voice rough. "Forgive my past mistake. My blade is yours."
I looked at Taehyun. "You trust him?"
"I trust that he fears me more than anyone else," Taehyun said. "And now he fears you too."
The Ghost Blade, real name Min-Jun, became my shadow. He never spoke much. Just followed me everywhere, red eyes watching everything.
Having a personal assassin was... weirdly useful.
That afternoon I decided to go to the royal library. I needed information on the Empress Dowager's people. Who she paid. Who owed her favors. In the original novel she had a secret ledger hidden somewhere.
The library was huge. Three floors of books, ladders everywhere, dust and ink smell. I spent hours climbing and searching.
Min-Jun stood at the door like a statue.
I was on the top floor, reaching for a dusty finance record, when I felt someone behind me.
Not Min-Jun.
Taehyun.
He was dressed simple again, hair tied low. He put his hands on the ladder on both sides of me, trapping me there.
"You've been here five hours," he said quietly. "Your guards were worried."
"I'm fine," I said. My heart was already racing from how close he was.
He looked at the book in my hand. "Looking for something specific?"
I decided to tell the truth. Some of it.
"I want to know who the Empress Dowager pays. If she's sending assassins, she has to pay them somehow."
He was quiet for a long time.
Then he took the book from my hand and put it back on the shelf.
"Come with me."
He led me to the very back of the top floor, a small locked room I never noticed before. He opened it with a key from his sleeve.
Inside were shelves of black-covered books. No titles.
"These are the real records," he said. "Everything the court hides. My father started collecting them. I continued."
He pulled one down and opened it. Names, dates, money amounts. Pages and pages.
"Look," he said, pointing.
There... payments to an account marked only with a phoenix symbol. Huge amounts. Every month for ten years.
"That's her personal seal," he whispered. "She's been stealing from the army funds. Enough to buy a whole private army."
My stomach turned.
"That's why she wants me dead," I said. "I'm getting too close to you. If we get married one day..."
I stopped. My face got hot.
He closed the book slowly.
"If we get married," he said softly, "she loses everything. Because I will never let anyone hurt my empress."
My breath caught.
He stepped closer. The room was small. We were almost touching.
"Seo-Hwa," he said. "Look at me."
I looked up.
His eyes were darker than usual. Intense.
"I tried to stay away," he said. "I told myself you were dangerous. That you confessed to treason. That I should send you far away to keep you safe."
He touched my cheek gently.
"But I can't. Every time I try to sleep without you nearby, I can't breathe right."
My heart was going crazy.
"I love you," he said simply. "I think I started loving you the night you wore funeral white and dared me to kill you."
I couldn't speak.
He leaned down slowly. Giving me time to move away.
I didn't.
Our lips met.
It wasn't like the kiss under the moon. That one was sweet and careful.
This one was fire.
His hands went to my waist and pulled me against him. My arms went around his neck. The kiss got deeper, hungrier. I felt his teeth on my bottom lip. I made a small sound I didn't mean to make.
He walked me backward until my back hit the shelves. Books fell around us. Neither of us cared.
When we finally stopped, we were both breathing hard.
He rested his forehead against mine.
"Be mine," he whispered. "Officially. I don't care what anyone says."
I laughed through happy tears.
"I've been yours since the night you put ointment on my neck," I said.
He smiled. A real, huge smile that made him look like a different person.
Then he kissed me again. And again.
We stayed in that small locked room until the sun went down. Kissing. Talking. Planning.
When we finally left, Min-Jun was still at the door. He took one look at my messy hair and Taehyun's swollen lips and wisely said nothing.
That night Taehyun didn't take me back to my rooms.
He carried me to his bed and showed me exactly how much he loved me. Slowly. Carefully. Then not carefully at all.
When I fell asleep, it was with his arms around me and his voice in my ear.
"No one will take you from me. Not my mother. Not the court. Not even fate."
I believed him.
But the next morning everything changed.
A messenger arrived at dawn.
The northern border was under attack.
War had come.
And Taehyun had to leave the palace.
He had to leave me behind.