She didn’t think it was possible for her face to warm as much as it did. “I’ve had my fill.”
“Then we should go back.”
“You still haven’t explained what’s going to happen to my guards.” She rose up to her feet and dusted off her skirts, though there wasn’t a speck of dirt on them. She had to busy her hands with something. “Thank?—”
She stopped herself short. Was she about tothankhim? After everything he had done to her? After he had brutally murdered her family and helped ruin her life?
He lifted his eyebrow. “Thank?”
“N-nothing,” she said, quick enough for him to, hopefully, not hear it. If she said it fast enough, maybe she could ignore that he had given her breakfast. It was a small unexpected kindness he didn’t have to offer her, but it also made her wonder if there was more to this. If he was trying to make her soften to him for some reason. She wouldn’t put manipulation past him.
“It almost sounded like athank you.”
“You must have misheard me.”
Nikator smirked. “Your guards have been dismissed,” he said, answering her question. He led her to the door and glanced over at her, his sharp blue eyes appearing brighter, more lethal. He opened the door and waved her toward the hallway. “I’ll be your guard from now on.”
Biyu stopped in her tracks.
What did he just say?
10
Biyu just… stared at him, because he must have been losing his mind if he thought he was going to be her guard. There was absolutely no way. Maybe she heard wrong?
Nikator gave no indication that he had said something absurd, and he only smiled at her coolly, cruelly, like he had won something over her. As if he had pulled a trump card and told herhah, there goes your plan.
“You must be joking,” she said through clenched teeth.
Please. This must have been a sick prank.
Nikator’s smile sharpened. “No, I’ll be your bodyguard from now on.”
Biyu’s trembling hands curled into fists. She wasn’t even sure if it was from rage, frustration, or horror—because if he truly was her guard, she wouldn’t be able to doanythingin the palace pertaining to her and Yat-sen’s plan.
“Bodyguard?” she said with a short, mirthless laugh. “You mean my warden? My executioner?”
“Someone has to protect you.” There was a mocking lilt to his smooth voice. He leaned against the door frame and slowly pulled the door so that it wasn’t open fully anymore. “I’ll be ableto keep a better eye on you,princess. Your previous guards were inept.”
“But—But you’re a member of the Peccata.”
“Yes, I am.”
“So—so—so doesn’t that mean you have to go on important missions?” she stammered as her brain tried to catch up with what he was telling her—he would be guarding her? How would she sneak out into the library and get the scrolls that she and Yat-sen needed? If the first phase of their plan flopped like this, there was no way they would ever get to the magic-crystal phase of the plan. “You don’t have time to watch me for days on end. I don’t even do anything other than stay cooped up in my bedchambers.”
“Don’t worry about my tasks for the empire.” He flashed another feral grin at her—this time with his teeth. “I’ll manage.”
Biyu pursed her lips together, unable to hide the annoyance flaring within her like a dancing flame; he intended to foil her plans. He knew she was up to something and he had decided this was the best way to stop her. If she argued any further, then it would make her seem guilty. She didn’t want to give him a reason to actually imprison her in the dungeons, or throw her in the mage towers.
Eventually, he would grow bored of staring at the hallway walls with nothing to do. And, eventually, his duties to the emperor—espionages, assassinations, the like—would draw him away from her. She just had to bide her time until then.
“There’s no need for you to go so far to prove your pointless point,” she said, marching toward the door. She reached for the handle, but his hand wrapped around her wrist and before she knew it, he was inches away from her, his sapphire eyes burning into hers. Her breath hitched and she couldn’t pull away. An unexpected warmth spread from his touch.
“If you truly are innocent, then there’s no need for any of this,” he said, voice low, eyes searching hers. He slowly, deliberately, grazed a finger across her jaw, causing a ripple of goosebumps to flare along her arms, and grasped a strand of her hair that had come undone from her low bun. He rubbed it between his fingers softly, almost tenderly. But there was a harsh gleam in his eyes. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Princess Biyu. If I find out that you’ve been lying all this time, I’ll be forced to do something far worse than you can imagine.”
Biyu pulled her face away from his touch, and glared at him. “I’m not lying. Now let me go back to my bedchambers. Or do you truly plan on chaining me here?”
“Here? In my bedchambers?” The corner of his mouth rose. “We can arrange that if you’d like.”
