The Princess Who Refused to Prophecy

"I swore an oath never to prophesy the future again." Jiaoyang left the palace at eight years old. When she returned at seventeen, a short knife hung at her waist. She had killed people, many of them. She was not happy, and she was weary. The Crown Prince of Beixuan arrived. The Prince of Nanyang came too. They said, for twenty years, no baby girls had been born in Zhao Kingdom. They said, only she could uncover the truth. They said, this was called "the Seer." But Jiaoyang only knew that prophecy was not a gift from heaven—it was a crushing weight, one that nearly broke her, that had crushed many to death. She kept her oath, yet she had no choice but to set out with them. Across a...