Reo made more notes. “We’ll make sure that we understand the masks. Certain ones for the Scales taking the kitchen, garden, and stairs.”
Yoichi nodded. “The Fangs have their own masks with the same color.”
“The Claws have theirs,” Kaede added.
Hiro gestured to me and Reo. “And we three have unique ones so that you all know where we are throughout the battle.”
“Everyone understand this mission? The time to party is over. Now, it is time to kill and survive.” I stared at them. “Get some rest. Sober up. Be ready tomorrow night. There is no other option. We bury the Fox or our loved ones bury us."
Chapter twenty-four
Feminine Magic
Nyomi
AfterKenjileft,Ishowered, dried off, and chose what I would wear today carefully. The blushing pink dress was made of this breezy island linen that rippled when I moved and didn't apologize for my curves underneath. It was also sleeveless and had a heart-shaped neckline.
It was the kind of dress Hiroko would have nodded at.
Sexy.
Confident.
Comfortable.
When I looked in the mirror, I imagined what she would say, “That's a woman who knows her own power.”
Minutes later, I waited for the elevator.
My armed men surrounded me.
My eyes drifted to the elevator doors and my whole body went tight.
Last night.
Right on that elevator.
Kenji had pinned me to this wall after the party. The Dragon had been all over me. His mouth had been at my throat, his hand around the front of it, his thigh between mine, my dress shoved up to my hips and my heels hooked at the small of his back. He had fucked me hard.
One hand at my neck, squeezing in that careful brutal way only he knew how to do, the other gripping the meat of my thigh. He bounced me on his big pierced cock until I came with my own pulse drumming against his palm.
Fuck. We have to do that again.
I licked my lips.
The heat of him rose along my skin.
I pressed my thighs together inside the linen of the dress.
But we’ll have other things to do tonight.
This evening, the Dragon would lay me down on lotus blossoms inside a hole in the earth. Under a full moon, with soil under my back and his blood mixing with mine, he would push inside me again and the old magic of his mother's bloodline would witness it.
I let out a slow breath.
Kenji had framed the Burial Ritual as a sacrifice, but the more I thought of it. . .I saw the moment as my claiming him. Our blood united. His body inside mine. All focused on old magic that women in his bloodline had used long before either of us was born.
It all screamed feminine magic to me.
