Julie C. Dao

“Save me, she thought. Save me from this love dark road.”

— Julie C. Dao

“She would bloom where she was planted and let her roots close around the throats of her enemies.”

— Julie C. Dao

“Isn’t’ it better to give up a fraction of your freedom to gain tenfold in happiness, even for a short time?”

— Julie C. Dao

“I want to mean something to a great deal of people. I am tired of being no one. As Empress, I would…

— Julie C. Dao

“The beauty of this world is fading all too fast through the cruelty and thoughtlessness of men.”

— Julie C. Dao

“She was a monster, a bride of the darkness, and she rose to face her destiny as though it were the blood-red…

— Julie C. Dao

“Love killed your mother, Guma had always warned her. Give your heart and you lose your soul.”

— Julie C. Dao

“If my beauty is my greatest weapon, vanity is the shield that protects me.”

— Julie C. Dao

“She would wrap her coils around him in tender confinement and be not his captive, but his captor.”

— Julie C. Dao

“Xifeng tilted her face, a pale moon in the evening of the water. She felt like a goddess in the shimmering light.…

— Julie C. Dao

“I'm sick to death of lords and kings and emperors. What do they do but play games and let their people pay…

— Julie C. Dao

“But in weakness, you find your strength. It takes no small amount of courage to open yourself up,” the Empress said gently.…

— Julie C. Dao

“She knew her own worth. She would seize her destiny with all the strength and spirit within her, and bend them all…

— Julie C. Dao

“For that is the way of the world, Guma’s voice echoed. Some are given a rope to the moon, and others claw…

— Julie C. Dao