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“Is that my brother’s shirt?” Phoebe demanded. “Maybe,”
“You know, Oliver”—Celia slapped her hand down, leaning forward—“it is really hard to provoke my temper, but somehow you are incredibly good at it.” The faintest hint of a smile tugged at his lips. “I have missed you quite fiercely.”
True immortality is something for the hands of gods. She doesn’t need to play God. She just needs something so undeniably powerful that the Japanese will perceive her as one.
“You’ve changed, Lang Shalin.” The assistant cleared his throat again. Microphone feedback screeched once outside. “I haven’t,” Rosalind said. “I have always been like this. I merely forgot who I was for some time.”
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? her reflection bellowed. I don’t know! she mouthed back. THAT WAS YOUR CHANCE TO TALK TO HIM!
“In proper society, Shalin, a young woman shouldn’t be controlling her own accounts.” “In proper society, I wouldn’t be killing people for a job, either, but I suppose we can’t be fussy during times like these.”
Orion would talk about his family. Silas would talk about his. The difference was, terribly, that Silas missed them more and more with each passing year, but Orion had started to notice that something wasn’t quite right with his.
“You are nobody.” “Excuse me?” A wave of irrational anger overrode the pain of her landing. “I am your wife.”
Alisa let out a shriek. Rosalind stiffened, except when Alisa ran forward and launched herself at the stranger, she realized it wasn’t a sound of alarm but sheer delight. “Oh my God,” the man said. He wrapped his arms around Alisa tightly, holding her up. “Oh my God, Alisa, you’re so big now.” He was speaking Russian. And his voice sounded… familiar. Slowly, Rosalind turned to the woman. Holy shit. She was seeing ghosts. The woman yanked the square of fabric off her face. “Biǎojiě,” Juliette Cai said, grinning. “Don’t you recognize me anymore?”
Juliette laughed, throwing her arms around her in a tight embrace. When Rosalind hugged her cousin and exhaled, it felt like she was breathing differently for the first time in five years.
“Don’t be such a baby,” he said, bringing the swab to her wound again. “Personally, I think I have the disposition of a reasonable toddler,” Alisa replied dryly.
he had returned to give the all clear alongside a giant bottle of alcohol. For disinfectant, that was. He hadn’t found it very funny when Alisa opened her mouth and gestured for him to pour.
i shouldn’t have laughed so hard
“I would have found you anywhere.” He reached forward. Tugged that piece of her hair, then tucked the curl behind her ear. “Across the world and under it. No matter how well you hide. It doesn’t matter where you go. I’ll always find you. Understand?”
“Those two are backstory. Forget about them.” “Ouch,” Roma said at the door. “We’re sensitive,” Juliette added.
Orion peered at the paper in front of him, making a frantic search. “You didn’t mention a Benedikt,” Orion muttered. “He and Marshall are on their way now,” Alisa continued. “I don’t think we can trust anyone else to convince Lourens successfully, so we need to wait on them from Moscow.” Orion lifted the paper entirely. “Now, who is this Marshall?”
bro is struggling
“So she doesn’t need to be stopped?” Rosalind tutted. “If you saw a candle burning underneath a curtain about to catch on fire, wouldn’t you move it?” “What if it’s not a candle?” Alisa returned just as quickly. “What if it’s a pipe that overheats in the winter and can’t be plucked out without renovating the whole house?” “Then we should renovate the whole house,” Rosalind countered. “But you’re not a renovator,” Alisa said. “You don’t have a renovating license.” “You might as well just safely fireproof the curtains,” Orion added. Silence.
“Do you want to know what I think?” She looked down at her hands. Blood-lined, terror-inducing hands. “It’s easier to save the world, actually. Easier than saving myself. Easier than trying to save you. I’m not trying to prove a point by going after your mother. She’s just the only threat I can fight. Everything else… Everything else feels like a lost cause most days. Eventually I’ll destroy myself. Eventually you’re going to leave.”
“You could have just walked up to me,” Rosalind said. “I wasn’t sure if I could,” Orion countered. Those words seemed to summarize their whole situation at present.
“Stop wooing my husband. Rosalind, keep him under control.” For the first time that night, a bubble of laughter rose up Rosalind’s throat. She tamped it down, but by the grin Orion gave her over his shoulder, he had caught it anyway.
At once, Rosalind wound an arm around Orion’s head and clamped her palm over his lips, preventing him from speaking further. “I promise—with my whole heart and soul—that he’s usually smarter,”
“So,” Alisa said as she and Orion started to walk west. “Do you want to hear all the juicy parts of the story that Rosalind skimmed over?” Orion grinned. “Oh, do I.”
Celia shook her head. “Sometimes,” she sighed softly, “I feel as though you forget that you don’t have to take pain just because you can.”
He knew her, that much was certain. He felt her occupying immense space, the sound of her scoff and the color of her lips, the smell of her hair and the cadence of her voice. He couldn’t form the words that described how she existed in his head, but the feeling would balloon in his chest at any invocation—a soft feeling, a sweet feeling, less like sugar and more like springtime’s first warm breeze.
Orion’s mouth twitched. “Confident.” Rosalind gave him a droll look. “Shouldn’t I be?” “Of course you should.”
“Children,” Celia interrupted, “if we are finished flirting with each other, may we discuss the small change in plans?” Alisa giggled. Rosalind knitted her brows together, feeling rather unjustly accused. “I was not flirting—” “I was.”
Rosalind reached toward her shoulder, touching Orion’s hand with the lightest contact, so faint that it might have been imagined, so hesitant that it could have been easily left unacknowledged. Orion laced his fingers through hers firmly.
“Even if the memories never come back,” he said slowly, “I’m going to love you again. I have decided to warn you in advance.”
“I thought I told you to stop calling me sǎozi.” “Yes, at least not until I propose properly,” Orion added from the table, his gaze still scanning the blueprints.
Orion wanted to go to her. He didn’t know whether he was allowed. For a short moment, he wavered with indecision, watching Rosalind frown while she inspected the damp fabric at her shoulder. Then he strode forward, figuring that he could always get yelled at if he was crossing a line.
“Hey.” A small whisper, to his left. He hadn’t realized he had shut his eyes until they snapped open again, finding Rosalind at his side. Her hand settled on his arm. “Are you all right?” she whispered.
He had been silent for too long. Without giving himself time to hesitate, he wrapped his arms around her and sent a note of gratitude into the universe when she let him pull her as close as he could.
She was still holding his face, keeping him at arm’s length to observe him. His hand, almost absently, traced a flower stitched at the waistline of her qipao. He had the temptation to pluck her up as if she were a bloom too, to hear a proper laugh and store it away in a place no one could ever take from him again. He wouldn’t dare, of course—she would probably bite him if he tried.
“No. You don’t appear to be crying tears of blood or vomiting sludge.” “Terrifying visual.” That earned a smile. “Don’t worry. You’re still pretty.”
Rosalind pulled away from Orion fully, plucking a pin from her hair and wielding it like an axe. “How dare you mock an assassin? I will have you answer for your crimes—” Alisa shrieked, hurtling back up the stairs. Rosalind shot after her. For a moment, Orion could only blink in confusion. Then he hurried to shove his foot through the doorway before it could lock him out, slipping through too. “Wait for me!”
Priest dove back into the night.
Silas gripped the bars. “Don’t worry,” he said in a rush. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you out.” “Why?” Phoebe turned around. “You’ve worked so hard to put me in here, Magician.”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Orion said, stopping her the moment she crossed to his side. He tipped her chin up, getting a proper look at her face. “What happened in there?” Her throat constricted. She shook her head. Orion didn’t wait for her to manage an answer. He reached for her and brought her into his arms, clasping her close.
because Celia’s bundle tipped over just as she reached Alisa, and Alisa squealed, throwing her hands over her face as she became buried under the hats. “Don’t worry about me,” Alisa called, her words muffled. “I’ve always wanted to try being a hat rack for a career.”
“And yet you were the one who got experimented on,” Oliver countered. “Not me.” “I am literally supporting half your weight right now because you have a hole in your ribs.”
“He… Oh, goodness. Let me make some tea. You are?” “Lang Shalin.” “Oh, the wife. Lovely.”
Celia paused. He was right. Dammit.
I will love you if I please. I will make you my altar, I’ll put you above everything else in this world, I’ll revel in every morsel you are made of. It’s simple—just tell me you don’t feel the same, and I’ll let you go. But I won’t accept anything else. I won’t accept your refusal on the make-believe grounds of our work.”
“Good,” he said. “It should be different because you are the woman I am in love with, not another.” Oh. Okay. “Oh” was all Celia could manage aloud too. “Okay.”
“I’m uninjured. I’m more worried about you. You practically flew into the windshield.” “Okay, don’t exaggerate. I did not fly.” “You flew. Flapped your cute little wings and launched yourself face-first into the glass.”
“I don’t bite,” she said. “Yes, you do.”
she fought with great effort to maintain her frown, she lost. “Hah.” Orion shoved his arm out, offering the peeled apple. “Bite.” “You’re ridiculous,” she said again. Nevertheless, she leaned in and took a bite.
“I can’t,” he said tightly. “If I move, I’m going to lose control.” “That’s fine.” Rosalind gave him another tug. “You can stab me again. I don’t care.” “I care.”
Rosalind stabbed her hairpin into his shoulder. “God,” she wheezed. “Do you know how lucky”—she tore the metal out—“you are to have me?”
“I love you,” Orion said in lieu of a reply, in perfect replacement of any straightforward answer. “I love you, I love you, I’m sorry I said so many stupid things. I can’t believe I asked why we couldn’t cross the Suzhou Creek.”
“Roma, my love, fetch the letter opener for Ah Cao’s messages. He’s sealed them too tightly. And keep Marshall away from Hong Liwen—I’m afraid for the state of this house if they befriend each other….”
