Rook shuddered with pleasure even while glowering at me. “You’re going to hell.”
“Pretty sure hell lives in my blood,” I purred, thrusting deep. “Does that make me the devil?”
Another knock.
Whisper muttered something in panther speak and leapt to the floor. Prowling across the room, he took up guard position just in case Uncle Wen was stupid enough to break in.
He knocked again. Loudly.
Whisper growled.
I rocked into Rook, slow and silent, just daring her to stop me.
She shivered as her eyes fluttered to half-mast, surrendering to me completely.
“Luxin...I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t urgent.”
“Fuck, he’s not going to go away is he?” I fought my body’s urge to keep going. Raising my voice so he could hear me, I asked, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Someone is here to see you.”
I froze.
The air temperature shot up twenty degrees.
“What do you mean someone is here to see me?”
Was it Marcus?
Would he dare come to Ashfall Cliff so soon? It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out where I’d fled to and...why the hellwouldn’the come? In his mind, I was on death’s door and the sooner he recaptured me, the sooner I could be put back in chains.
Planting my hands against the mattress, I went to push off Rook—
“Actually, I misspoke,” Uncle Wen shouted quickly as if he wanted to get it over with. “He’s not here to see you but to see Miss Rook.”
“What?!”
Rook gasped as I withdrew—making both of us wince.
He?
Who the fuck was he?
“Oh no...” Rook gasped. “He wouldn’t...would he?”
“Whowouldn’t?” Ugly jealousy tore through me. If there were bonsai in here, they would be ashes.
“He’s waiting in the Dragon Courtyard,” Uncle Wen said. “He refused to leave, even though it’s almost one in the morning. Mei wanted to throw him off the cliff but...he kept saying he’d shoot anyone who tried to send him away. I’m afraid he does mean business, Master Luxin.”
Without a word, Rook slid off the bed. Darkness wrapped around her bare skin as she headed toward the wardrobe where Auntie Mei had ensured my mother’s old dresses hung next to my father’s old things—giving us both something to wear.
Whisper grumbled as I stalked after Rook. “You know who it is. Don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.
She shot me a wary look before snatching the closest dress off a hanger—a pretty pink thing with stitched peonies. “I do. And I’ve got to go.”
Gritting my teeth, so I didn’t take my rage out on her, I yanked on a pair of black trousers and a shirt, then marched to the door. Wrenching it open, Uncle Wen staggered back a little as Whisper welcomed him with a flash of fangs.
“Tell him to leave. She’s not going.”
