Sacrifice (20 page)

“Stop trying to seduce me,” she said vehemently.

He was rubbing the back of his head, then gawped at her. “Me? Seduce
you
?” He began laughing uproariously. “But
you
kissed me,” he managed to choke out.

“Don’t deny it. You had some sort of sexual charm. I can’t believe that magic’s lingered.”

Stone adjusted the obvious bulge between his legs, grimacing. “I have no magical charm, Skybright. Even you, as a seductress type demon, do not. You were blessed with good looks, a beautiful singing voice—it doesn’t take much to convince a man if you were to try.”

“But Kai Sen …”

Stone’s face hardened. “The false monk boy. He loved you for you. Is that so hard to believe?”

Kai Sen had said the very same thing to her. She slumped over the table, her head in her hands. “And you bedded my mother. For you to want me as well is … vile.”

Stone gave another incredulous laugh. Skybright saw the servant boy hovering on the other side of the small shack, trying very hard not to stare. “Whatever gave you that notion?”

“You’re always talking about her. Opal this, Opal that. She was beautiful. She enjoyed seducing men. She was such a fantastic murderess. You loved her so well you wanted to make me
into
her. I can’t imagine that she wouldn’t have wanted—that you didn’t—”

“Opal and I were cohorts. It’s true I admired her, but she had no interest in having a sexual liaison with me. Nor I with her. I was too busy handling important Immortal tasks.” He shifted on the stool. “Goddess, I need to be thrown into an ice-cold river. And I thought hunger for food was an annoyance …”

Head still lowered, Skybright couldn’t suppress a smile.

Stone cleared his throat. “As I said, I was wrong in trying to make you into your mother, Skybright. You are your own person and every bit as formidable as your mother ever was.” He leaned back, taking a gulp from his wine cup before saying, “Do you regret it then?”

His directness unsettled her. Did she?

In truth, she had missed Kai Sen, but she was never able to imagine how they could be together longer than the stolen moments they had shared. She had given up the hope of ever seeing him again, after Stone had forced her away from her mortal life. Now that she was free, she didn’t know what to think—
what
she wanted. Marriage, keeping house, a domestic life seemed impossible and ludicrous the more comfortable she became with her serpent half. And Stone, he galled her as much as he charmed her.

“It was only a kiss,” she finally replied. A kiss that she had desperately wanted. A kiss that she had initiated. If Stone was speaking the truth, then her attraction for him had always simply been that. She had to come to terms with this.

He considered her with those dark eyes, taking in every part, setting fire to where his gaze touched, until she had to force herself still so she didn’t leap from the stool and run out the back door. “Agreed,” he said. “But what a kiss.”

She stood calmly, then took slow deliberate steps toward the restaurant’s front door. Even the brushing of her thighs as she walked made her weak with desire. If she had stayed a breath longer, she would have hauled him out by the collar and given in to her passion.

Damn Stone to the underworld
, she thought, then burst out laughing.

The servant boy, reeking of fear and excitement, scrambled away from her to settle the bill with Stone.

The boy had gotten quite a show.

Skybright leaned against the wall of the restaurant; the bricks were cool, and its rough surface dug into her back, calming her senses. Stone appeared some time later, rounding the corner from the rear of the building. He had conjured and changed into a gray tunic and trousers—nothing elaborate but more presentable than the peasant clothing he had worn before. He lifted his dark eyebrows when he saw her. She didn’t think she looked as refreshed as he did after their shared kisses.

“I’ll help you,” she said. “I know the way to the breach at the base of the mountain. It’ll be at least five days of travel by foot.” Stone was right. Even if this place no longer felt like home, even if she might not be able to return to Zhen Ni or the Yuan manor again, she could not let more innocent lives be lost to demon attacks. She felt like an outsider looking in when it came to ordinary mortals’ lives, but it didn’t mean she cared for them any less. If anything, she saw human lives as shorter and more fragile now—precious—after her brief time in Stone’s captivity.

His relief was plain. “I need to investigate the goddess’s claim first hand. It doesn’t make sense the breach could still be open.” They turned from the narrow alleyway and continued down the main street. Most of the vendors were napping in their bamboo chairs by their stands in the late afternoon sun, still keen for a sale but not so much that they kept awake. “Five days,” Stone said after a long silence. “That’s half the days I’ve been given to live.” He punched a fist into an open palm in frustration, a gesture she’d never seen from him before.

They were walking side by side but careful not to graze each other. Her lips felt sensitive and swollen from their prolonged kissing. She was exceedingly annoyed with herself that she wanted Stone so much.

“I’ve always relied on magic to travel,” he said, interrupting her mental flagellation. “I’m fortunate to have you as a guide.”

“I’m helping you because I don’t want any more people to get hurt,” she said. “Not as another favor to you.” And definitely not because of that kiss they had shared.

“Of course,” he replied. “Understood.”

Skybright was walking back to the Yuan manor from habit, even after having been gone for what felt like a lifetime. She stopped and stood beneath a peach tree, its elegant branches laden with scented blossoms. She needed a moment to collect herself, to say good-bye again to this place that was home but no longer felt like home. Leaning a shoulder against the trunk, Stone folded his arms across his chest and considered her. His skin was not as hot as before when he was immortal, but warmth still emanated from him. He didn’t say anything—did not rush her. He seemed more perceptive now to her moods, which alarmed her. Stone was already shrewd, this would give him even more of an advantage in their dealings with each other.

“You smell different now.” She said whatever came to mind, hoping to throw him off.

“Do I?”

“It used to be of rich earth and ancient trees. Now it’s looser, newer earth, tilled perhaps, mingled with lemon.”

“Better than an old buffalo, I suppose. We kept a few of those as well.”

She laughed despite herself, then quieted. “You were good, Stone. I didn’t tell you before, but your face glowed. It wasn’t obscured like those men who had sins weighing against their hearts. I don’t know if it accounted for all your deeds as an immortal, but you were good when you were Gao Yong Ming.”

He was gazing into the distance, a pensive look on his face, as if seeing something from the past, before his focus sharpened again, and returned to her. “Thank you, Skybright, for telling me.”

The leaves rustled overhead; it was cool and comfortable in the shade of the tree.

“Why lemon?” she asked.

“What?”

“I understand you smelling like tilled earth. You grew up on a farm. But I saw terraced rice fields, not lemon groves.”

“Ah.” He gave a small smile. “Some memories are returning to me now, thanks to your help. I kept a lemon tree with my little sister. We planted it ourselves behind our house and watered it. I had bartered for the tree, and it was beginning to bear fruit for the first time that summer—when I was taken away.” He slanted his head, so she saw the sharp profile of his face. “Strange what stays with you. I am sorry I wasn’t there to harvest our first lemons together with Mei Er.”

She only had a few people she cared about in this world, but at least they were still alive. Stone’s family died thousands of years ago, their lives obliterated by the passing of time, until no one alive could possibly have known of their existence. Except Stone. But he had nothing to return to, even if he desired it. The earth had long shifted, hills eroded flat, the sea flooding lands or drying to desert since he had been a boy tending a lemon tree with his little sister.

He turned toward her. “Your mother did not see the light in people.”

Skybright shook her head, not understanding him.

“I mean that she could only read the sinful, the wicked. She did not have the ability to see the good in people as you do. As you saw in me. That is your gift alone.” He straightened and touched her hand, so lightly she barely felt it. “I thought you should know, given our previous discussions of Opal.”

A large crowd of a dozen people trampled past them, speaking excitedly. Skybright spotted one of Lady Yuan’s handmaids among them, Pearl, who looked taller than when she saw her last. The handmaid saw Skybright at the same time, and her face lit up with surprise and curiosity. Pearl rushed over, hands outstretched toward Skybright, but eyes roving toward Stone. Her cheeks were pink from taking her fill of him by the time she reached them.

“Skybright!” she exclaimed, grabbing for her hand. “They said that you had run away, and the mistress, I mean, the lady was heartbroken over it. We all asked and asked where you went, but she seemed convinced that you wouldn’t return and that we would never see you again.” The words came out rushed enough that they seemed to collide with each another.

“I didn’t want to leave, Pearl.” She squeezed the handmaid’s fingers. Pearl had always been excitable and a terrible gossip. “Is Mistress Yuan all right?”

“She is Lady Bei now.” The girl pursed her lips in pleasure that she was the one to deliver the big news. “Newly wedded this week to the richest man in town!”

Wedded.

Skybright reeled backward, and Stone caught her by the waist. Pearl looked from him to Skybright, then back at Stone. She batted her eyes at him. “You’re dressed so beautifully, Skybright. I mean, Lady Bei always treated you well. You were her favorite. But this …” The girl waved an arm up and down. “This is exquisite!” She hopped closer. “Did you run away to marry?” She leaned in even nearer until Skybright could smell the gingered candy on her breath. “Or to deliver a secret babe?” She arched her brow.

Skybright disentangled herself from Stone, resisting the urge to swat at the girl. “No, Pearl. I left … I left to meet my birth mother for the first time. She had taken ill, and I cared for her. Until her passing.” She winced inwardly, even though the lie came easily enough. “Yong Ming here is a … long-lost cousin I never knew I had.”

“And what a handsome cousin.” Pearl peered up at Stone coquettishly beneath lowered lashes.

Skybright almost snorted aloud.

Stone smiled but took a noticeable step back from the girl.

“We’re all going over to the new Bei manor now to try and gain a position in Lady Bei’s household. Today is the first day she is interviewing for new staff. Lady Yuan said that she would allow me to go and work with our old mistress if she hires me.” Pearl clasped her hands together and rolled her eyes heavenward. “I am
aching
to see the new estate. It is meant to be grander than even the Yuan manor!”

Skybright felt faint again at the thought of her former mistress now wed, living in her own estate without her. Who had Zhen Ni taken to look after her? Only Rose? “Good luck then, Pearl.” She clasped the girl by her arm.

“Thank you, Skybright! I take it as a good sign that I saw you before my interview.” The girl waved and sauntered off but not before looking back one last time and giving Stone a suggestive wink.

Stone scrubbed a hand over one pink cheek, as if he could rub away his embarrassment. “Are all the girls so forward these days?”

Skybright laughed. She still wasn’t used to his very human reactions. “I think that Pearl has recently discovered her interest in boys. There aren’t many to look at within the Yuan manor.” And Stone was very nice to look at. He still towered over everyone—one couldn’t help but notice him. She had assumed his height was a part of his immortal status, but he must have been this tall as a young man.

She watched the crowd of hopeful servants round the corner, filled with a myriad of emotions she couldn’t identify and didn’t want to face. “I have to go to her, Stone. See Zhen Ni.”

Stone touched her sleeve. “But the breach—”

“The breach can wait.” Her words sounded sharper than she had intended. “You don’t understand. She had loved this girl Lan with all her heart, had grieved so much when they were forced to part. Zhen Ni had never wanted to marry, and now she has. Coerced to, I’m certain of it. No one else would understand how devastated and afraid she’d be right now. I must see her.” Skybright fisted her hands. “She
needs
me.”

He stared after Pearl’s retreating back. The girl sashayed as if she hoped he were looking.

“If you want my help,” Skybright said, “the breach can wait until after I see Zhen Ni.” But then she remembered, Stone only had ten days. “I won’t delay.”

Stone lifted his shoulders in resignation. “I’ll go with you. It is as Pearl said, a sign that you ran into her.”