“My name is Sai,” I say quickly with a hand over my heart, desperate to have her hear me. “Might I know your name?”
Her hands fly to her hair. Instead of answering me, she returns to her agitated pacing. “Bringing you here was a mistake.”
I follow without hesitation. “All I want is your name. Is that so much to ask? I would very much like to know it, so that I might thank you properly.”
“And I would very much like for you to piss off.”
“I’ll remind you that it was your choice to strand me here, my radiant sunshine.”
She whips around, one finger pointed at me like a dagger. “Donotcall me that, unless you have a death wish.”
I beam at the glimmer of her gorgeous eyes in her frown. Even angry, she’s the most beguiling creature who ever breathed. Her words sit low in her throat, but I’m confident her threat is an empty one. Again, why go through the trouble of saving me—thrice now—just to do me in?
“But I don’t have anything else to call you, my succulent pork dumpling. Unless you bestow upon me your name?”
“If you call me by one more nickname, I’ll bite your face off.”
“If it should please you, my lady, I wholeheartedly give my consent.” I bend forward slightly. “Here, now you can reach it better.”
She presses her hand to my face and pushes me away forcefully. “I should have left you to die.”
“You wound me, my mooncake—”
This time, she shoves me straight into the pond.
My whole body plunges beneath the surface of the water. My skin is immediately cooled by the plunge, but it’s far from relaxing.
Instinct tells me to panic. My limbs flail about uselessly as I sink like a boulder. I accidentally inhale water, and a burst of adrenaline rushes through my veins. An unfortunate tumble into a stream when I was a child ensured my ever-present fear of deep water.
And yet the water is so clear and pure that I can see the very bottom, sunlight dancing over the gray rocks beneath my feet. It’s a welcome sensation against the hot desert sun, colorful pupfish swimming about in small schools between the ribbonlike blades of underwater grass.
I once again get a flash of something across my mind’s eye. It feels too real to be a daydream, but too spectacular to be a memory. Clear as day, I see a serpentlike dragon with shimmering bluescales swimming around me. It’s much smaller than the green one I have come to know, youthful in its movements as it joyfully chases its own tail.
When I blink, it’s gone. Nothing more than a vision.
A hand breaks the water’s surface. I’m dragged up for air.
“What are you doing?” my Fated One shouts. “Are you trying to drown yourself, you idiot?”
“You’re the one who pushed me!” I cough around a deep gasp for air, hacking up water.
She shakes her head and walks away as I climb out, my clothes fully soaked. An effective way to wash the blood out, I suppose. I pull my tunic off and wring it out, sunshine beating down on my skin. In this heat, I’ll be dry within a few minutes.
“Why are you always such a pain?” she mutters.
“Always?” I echo. “What do you mean by that? You’ve just met me.”
She pauses on the other side of the pond, casting me a look that is equal parts anger and… grief? “Never mind. Please, justgo.”
Anxiety turns my palms clammy. How can I possibly go, now that I’ve finally met my Fated One? Does she not feel what I feel, this inexplicable pull?
Why help me when she seems to want nothing to do with me?
I purse my lips, swallowing down what little blood remains coated on my teeth. I don’t believe her words. They’re an attempt to put distance between us, but why? The notch between her brows signals something else—vulnerability, or even fear.
“Fine. If you wish me gone, so be it,” I say slowly, “but only once you answer my questions.”
The woman sighs. “Fine. But make it quick.”
