Chapter Seventeen #2
Flinching at the bluntness of the question, Xian replied, ‘It was eighteen years ago, I was five.’
‘That’s a long time for your true self to be crammed into such insufficient space.
’ The Englishman gathered up his skirts, and rose from the chair once more.
He made his way to another lacquered cabinet on the far side of the room.
‘I suspect your aura is simply enjoying the freedom. And no, those who are not like you or I, can’t see the auras.
Though it would have been a splendid addition to your performances, don’t you think?
Imagine the crowds. Come see the fox prince, he glows, he twirls, he has a lovely bushy tail you can fiddle with. ’
Xian frowned. ‘I am quite glad I’m not a daemon, if that is what you truly are. I’d not like speaking nonsense all the time.’
‘Ha! Now that seems a vulpine thing to say, don’t you think? You feared your own shadow not a few hours ago, now you’re mouthing off to someone who could snap you like a twig with a flick of his wrist.’
Xian looked up from where he ran his fingers through the swaying aura; the tendrils slid around his fingers like seagrass in the tide.
William was watching him, his eyes a subdued green, his smile indefinable.
‘I jest, of course. I’ll not harm you. We are similar, you and I, two princes badly treated.
And you have amused me this evening, which is a good thing, I assure you.
I’m rather grumpy when bored.’ He opened the cabinet, searching through the bottles lined up inside.
‘Now I know Margaret brought a bottle of whisky with her. So help me, if she has gifted it to a lover I’ll not be a merry fellow. ’
Xian stared at him, incredulous. ‘So that’s it then? You’re done with me? You shall just leave me here with a thousand questions.’
‘What questions?’ He pulled a dark green bottle from the cabinet and held it up towards the lantern.
‘What questions?’ Xian repeated, astonished.
‘What am I to do now? Why did my mother keep such a truth from me? Were she and I the same? What does it mean to be…to be huli jing?’ Calling himself a fox spirit felt like marbles in his mouth, large and smooth, and taking some work to roll over his tongue.
‘Ugh, stop! Or I shall reconsider the twig snapping. Don’t you have all the knowledge in your head, now your knots are undone?’
‘No,’ Xian cried. ‘I am the same man I was before.’
William’s low chuckle was infuriating. ‘That you are most certainly not.’ He thrust the green bottle back into the cabinet and sighed.
‘Do you know, I am too famished to bother with a drink. I need to feed. Playing fairy godmother to you has left me too damned hungry to think straight. But I can’t tell you anything of being a huli jing, because I am not one.
I shall take my leave, if you don’t mind? ’
He wriggled his way out of the gown, revealing himself to be very much naked. Xian spun away. ‘Your leave?’ His voice pitched. ‘I mind very much.’
‘Mores the pity for you then.’ There came the rustle of clothing, coarser sounds than the whisper of the gown.
‘Right, that will do. I shan’t be clothed long enough to bother with much else.
By Enoch’s arse, I’m famished, which is astonishing considering I’ve fed on three men and two women this evening. ’
Xian turned to face him, taking in the daemon’s new attire; clothing of his foreign land, black formal trousers and a long coat of deep blue with lace at its cuffs and gleaming silver buttons.
‘Fed?’ he whispered. ‘Did you harm—’
William rolled his exquisite eyes. ‘I’m an incubus…remember?’
‘And I understand as little of that as I do of huli jing.’
William lifted a hand mirror from the travelling chest, admiring his reflection as he fixed the unruly waves of his hair.
‘You’ve been done no favours being kept in the dark. Incubus feed on pleasure, of all kinds, but I prefer that which comes from intimacy. A decent fuck, if I need make it plainer.’
‘You need not. I am not an idiot.’
William hiccoughed a laugh and lowered the mirror, giving Xian a not unkind stare. ‘It is quite rousing to hear you so forthright, do you know?’
Xian folded his arms across his ribs. ‘You are just going to leave me here?’
‘I really need to eat.’The Englishman frowned as he tugged at an errant curl. ‘I get rather short-tempered otherwise. Run away, out into the big wide world and learn, my fox prince.’
‘Run?’ Xian said through clenched teeth. ‘I cannot run, William. I am a prince, with no such freedom.’
‘You are a pawn.’ William eyed him in the mirror’s hazy reflection.
‘And not a highly valued one at that, considering you have been shipped off to this poor excuse for a palace. And do not speak to me of being princely and without avenue for escape. Trust me, your position is excellent compared to others who truly are trapped by their royal blood. You do not know, stupid fox, what it is to be shackled by position. To have no avenue for escape, save for forays into this puerile world. Cease your pathetic whining. What would your mother think, to see you bemoaning your existence. She cared enough to protect you, to give her life for yours, it would seem. Do you think everyone can say such things? What more do you bloody want, you selfish fool.’
The broken shards on the floor rattled as though a wind gust took them, the weight of the air in the room all at once pressing down on Xian’s shoulders.
William drew breath; the tempest of his rage abating as quickly as it had grown. His eyes were the heart of a firestorm, and on the hand that clenched the mirror, thin lines of gold ran where his darker veins should be.
Xian held perfectly still. He knew how to handle those in a rage, or at least, he’d found a way that caused him fewer bruises. When the marchioness stirred herself into such frenzies, he’d learned the slightest noise from him, the subtlest of movements would only draw further ire.
William let his hand drop, breaking the lock of their gazes through the mirror. ‘Did I not tell you my temper is awful when I am hungry?’
‘You did,’ Xian said quietly. He had been selfish, barely noticing the Englishman’s own pains until they were being shouted at him. ‘I’m sorry for the trials you endure. To live without freedom is…’
‘No way to live.’ William returned to dressing himself, his shoes the last to be done. ‘But there we are. Never mind me, I accuse you of whining and here I am, being a tit in exactly the same way.’
His mercurial shifts in mood were certainly frightening, but so was the idea of being abandoned by the very man who’d just unravelled his life.
‘Perhaps,’ Xian cleared his throat. ‘Perhaps we could meet again later…when you are less…’
‘Less of a bastard? You’ll be waiting a while.’ He stood by the door, his hand resting against the wood. With his calmness came a return to sea-green eyes and pale white skin. ‘I’m a shitty fairy godmother, am I not?’
‘You would be best to speak with your French friend on that matter.’
Xian was rewarded with a brilliant smile.
William Black in a fair mood was a pleasant sight.
‘Well, he died over a hundred years ago, so no chance there. But I can tell you, he’d agree with me.
’ He turned as though to leave, and Xian’s stomach lurched with desperation.
But Sir William was not leaving. Not yet.
He leaned against the wooden frame of the doorway, a sensuality in the way he moved.
‘Here is what I shall do…you do not need a gown, nor a prince, seeing as you are one already, and there are no balls to send you to, but there is New Year’s Eve. ’
‘Tomorrow night, yes. But what of it?’ Are you suggesting we meet again then to discuss things?
Two days spent thinking on all that had just happened; how strange he felt, how strange he looked now, with his skin aglow. Xian would go mad.
‘No, no. I told you, I thought you would just…’ he waved his hand in wildly varying circles, ‘Just know things…it’s not as if I find creatures like you everyday, all tied up in knots I can’t help but want to untie.
No. You’ll need to find your answers, yourself.
’ He raised his hands again, this time to quiet Xian’s protests.
‘Or you can go off searching for the other slipper, I really don’t care. ’
‘Other slipper?’ Xian touched his fingers to the scarring on his cheek.
‘You did not yet know you were a fox, and were not so sneaky about hiding that shoe as you imagined. Lovely design, by the way. Where does one buy a shoe like that? I do hope they sell them in pairs normally.’
Xian hung his head. ‘I didn’t buy it. They were gifted to me…and one was lost. Likely ruined.’
William clucked his tongue. ‘Pity, it is a beauty. The shoemaker is a man with talented hands, I’d say. I think I’d like to meet him myself.’
‘No,’ Xian said sharply, raising his head. ‘No…he is…a long way from here.’
Fine eyebrows raised once more, and Xian cursed his obvious covetousness. ‘Aah, now there is a flush of colour in your cheeks at last. Do you already know how talented this man is with his hands, my cheeky fox prince?’
‘Tell me what you intend for New Year’s Eve, William.’ Xian sought to steer the man away from the shoemaker. Song Lim was lost to him now, not only by the miles between them, but by the secret Xian carried; and the pain of it was greater than Xian could have imagined.
‘Very well, don’t regale me with tales of what you got up to on the shoemaker’s bench, be dull again if you must.’
‘New Year’s Eve, William.’
‘Do you wish for freedom, Veiled Prince?’
‘Of course.’
‘Then I shall give you a chance to take it. Do they have you dancing on New Year’s Eve?’
Xian frowned. ‘Yes.’
‘What time?’
‘I am to finish just before midnight.’
‘Excellent. In that case, let your wish be granted when the clock strikes midnight.’
‘What shall happen then?’
‘Opportunity, my handsome vulpine.’ William adjusted the black lace at his cuffs, looking all too pleased with himself. ‘At the strike of midnight, I shall offer a little fox the chance to run. You shall know when the time comes, I assure you.’
He dipped into an exaggerated bow, head so low his hanging curls nearly touched the floor.
‘William, what are your intentions?’
The English devil rose and turned away. ‘To grant your wish. Do with my offer what you will, run to your shoemaker if it pleases you, or find those of your kind who can show you what it means to be huli jing. I know of a place in England that will offer you shelter.’
‘England?’ Xian said, aghast. ‘That is thousands of miles away. I cannot run that far.’
‘There’s the fighting spirit that will serve you well.
’ William slid open the door, flicking his slender fingers at Xian, as though dismissing an irritating attendant.
‘Those are your decisions to make, but never let me hear you say I did not give this fairy godmother bullshit my best shot. Good night to you, my fox prince.’
He stepped into the corridor, the sway of his hips blatantly seductive, the lazy shift of his aura worn like an elaborate cloak. Xian stared after him, uncertain if this had been the most intriguing encounter of his life, or the single most regrettable.