One More Chance at Spring

Baekho kept his face down in the books until his hands started shaking. The court wanted a perfect scholar for the exam, and the hidden hunter bureau wanted him clean, quiet, and unnamed. He gave them all three, while hunting by night and grading moving painted scenes by lamplight to catch the wrong warmth in a face, a room, or a lie. One wrong answer could sink his family. One wrong step near the crown prince could kill him. Then Yi Seon started speaking to him after dark like a man with no title at all, and Baekho learned how lonely a palace could be when everyone was standing right beside you. His older brother kept calling it ambition. Baekho kept hearing grief under every insult, and th...