Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

Author:Julie C. Dao
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2018-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

The ghost materialized.

Jade shrieked, her heart leaping into her throat. He was her height, with a bald patch on his head surrounded by tufts of wiry gray hair. He wore clothes of cheap hemp fabric and had a farmer’s rough, weathered skin. His outline was filmy and transparent, just as Empress Lihua had been in the tengaru clearing.

The man contemplated her with dead eyes. “I know who you are,” he said, in a voice as thin and threadbare as his body. “You seek something that is mine. Greedy, aren’t you?”

Her mouth opened in surprise. “I am not.”

“Anyone who wants a throne wants power.”

“Power is the last thing I want,” she retorted.

“Liar!” the ghost roared, and Jade jumped. He walked slowly around her, and then passed right through her body like a cold wind. “You can’t admit it to yourself, can you? You who profess to be good. You want a crown on your head, power in your hands, and people to believe in you when you cannot believe in yourself.”

“It isn’t true,” she said vehemently.

The ghost gave her a knowing smirk. “Don’t deny it. You’re just like Xifeng.” The name hissed from his lips like a sharp winter wind. “Like mother, like daughter.”

“She is not my mother!” Jade shouted.

There was a long silence.

“I don’t owe you an explanation,” she said, struggling for calm. “But I seek the throne because I want Xifeng gone, and there’s no one left to stop her from destroying Feng Lu. I can’t sit back and watch people suffer because of her. Not when I can help.”

The ghost did not say anything.

“Do you think I enjoy wandering far from home, knowing her huntsman could find me at any time?” Jade crossed her arms. “Perhaps it is you who are greedy. Weren’t you the one who broke your promise not to spy on your wife?”

“I had to know what she was doing.”

“She was weaving, like she told you. Why didn’t you trust her?”

“I did trust her,” he said, affronted. “But I wanted to know what she didn’t wish me to see. A loving wife ought to have no secrets from her husband.”

“Then you shouldn’t have promised her. A loving husband ought to keep his word.”

The ghost scowled. “She could have told me the truth and saved us all this trouble.”

“She probably hid the secret because she knew how you’d react,” Jade said, annoyed by his arrogance. “You could have saved us all this trouble by allowing her that small privacy.”

“Then you’re determined to take my wife’s side?”

“I take the side of whoever is reasonable.”

The ghost paced back and forth, hateful eyes fixed on hers. His outline seem to thicken and glow with his anger, and when he moved a bit close to her, she felt his sleeve brush her arm. “You’ve become corporeal,” Jade said, forgetting her irritation as she recalled how Empress Lihua had been able to touch her hand. “How is it that spirits can sometimes take form?”

“Through strong human emotions,” he snarled. “They keep us shackled to our humanity.

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