I keep my face impassive and store that information for later. I don’t want to give him anything more to goad me with. My lack of reaction seems to rain on his little parade, and he turns his attention to the tablet.
He taps a few times, then turns it to me. “You sign this contract saying you falsified all the information about Elder Zhao, and you get your parents back.”
The words punch the air from my chest. I clench my teeth and bring my eyebrows back down to where they’re supposed to be.
“Like it would be that easy,” I say.
He snorts coldly. “It is that easy.”
I lean over and look at the screen. The contract is all in Traditional Chinese, and the hanzi is tiny. Dread crawls up my spine like icy fingers.
This is exactly how they got my parents.
They were strong-armed into a situation they couldn’t escape without fear of death. Coerced into signing some ridiculous contract they were told would be the best way out of their debt—one that Shang himself had created by constantly raising the rent when my parents refused to take orders from him. And now they’re trapped in China, their passports stolen, their communication limited.
Even if Lei did what he promised and let my parents come home, what could I be agreeing to? Shang wantedme. He knows I have magic, and he knows how he wants to use it.
“If you’re finished with your coffee, you should leave,” I say, reaching for the cup.
Lei’s hand clamps down on my wrist and he jerks me forward. My chest hits the bar and the air leaves my lungs in a painful huff. He grabs for the back of my neck and I smack him away. Another hand tightens around a fistful of my hair and my head is pinned to the wood. I thrash and kick my legs, trying like hell to reach anything that’ll give me leverage to pull away.
“You’re going to sign,” Lei says. “Whether you want to or not.”
He hisses out an incantation that makes my skin crawl as he reaches for my other arm—the one with Rhazan’s brand. Dark tendrils of magic leak from his fingers and into mine. Numbnessdescends on my hand from his evil magic. I don’t think twice before I bring my wrist to my mouth and bite down,hard.
A gust of burning air explodes behind me, shoving Lei and his men back five feet. Rhazan’s arms come around my middle, and he pulls me off the bar. His huge hand grips my chin, and he turns my face up to his.
No, not his face…not entirely.
He’s not red anymore, but a normal shade of person, something like burnished bronze. His facial structure is close to the same, and he’s just as huge, but his wings, talons, horns, and tail are all absent.
He looks human.
Like a huge, meaty gym bro, but human.
Rhaz grits his teeth as he looks down at me, not asking if I’m all right because he can tell I’m not. Or I wasn’t.
I am now.
“Who the fuck are you?” Lei snarls.
He’s gained his feet, his hand poised for something at his back.
“Your reaper, if you so will it,” Rhazan growls, his voice inhumanly low and feral.
The threat sends warm, fluttering feelings through my chest. He would go so far to protect me…
Lei seems to rethink grabbing whatever was tucked in the back of his waistband. He stands upright and brushes off his pants.
“Interesting help you’ve found,xiao meimei,” he says to me with a sneer.
He reaches for the tablet on the bar. Rhazan’s fist comes down fast and ruthless, shattering the device. The screen goes black, and Lei’s violent eyes snap up, his nostrils flaring. They lock gazes as fire and ice go to war in the charged air around us.
“I won’t be signing anything,” I say, drawing his attention. “Don’t come back.”
He steps away from the bar and adopts a malicious smile. “Your parents live in relative comfort and safety, Feng Jiahui. I’d hate for that to change.”
Guilt slams through me, but I tamp down on it. It’s not useful right now.
