"Because—" Cixi stopped at that single word. Her mouth hung open, but nothing followed. She had just realised, with a horror that turned her blood cold, that she had never told Cassian about the monstrous lie she had spat to gain entry into the Crown Palace.
The silence on the line stretched. And Cassian, who had been drifting back toward sleep, noticed the sudden quietness from the other end. "Because?" he repeated questioningly.
Cixi squeezed her eyes shut. She cursed herself viciously inside her own skull. She cursed the day she opened her mouth at those Palace gates. She cursed the desperate attempt to gain access to the Palace that made her blurt out the most catastrophic fabrication of her entire life.
Mustering every scrap of courage left in her exhausted body, Cixi spoke. "Your family will find out that I lied."
"What did you lie about?" Cassian's voice held amusement.
