Chapter 1: The Shadow in the Palace

Xiao Yan had learned long ago that the best way to survive in the imperial palace was to become invisible. As a shadow guard he moved through the gilded corridors like smoke, present enough to be useful and forgotten enough to be safe. Tonight however something had changed; the eastern wing burned with a light that should not exist, and at its center stood a girl who looked at him as if she could see straight through the lie he had spent ten years building.