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“As fast as we can, so they can be returned to you,” Nathan promises.
I can’t believe I’m willing to even let him investigate them at all, but I’m not in a position to argue. My eyes drift closed and in the back of my mind, a memory swims up. Nathan’s voice in the hallway. I fight through the painkiller haze and mumble. “You tried to come help me.”
“I did.” He strokes my hair and I cringe inwardly at how greasy it must be. “I fought my own guards trying to reach you.”
“It was the thing, wasn’t it?” I wave a finger in the air. “Our thing.”
“I suppose it was.” His answer surprises me because it’s not as straight forward as the simple “yes” I expected. “I’ll leave you now. I wanted to be here so you wouldn’t wake up all alone. But you need your rest.”
“You still do, too,” I remind him.
“I know.” He gestures to the door. “I’ll just be out there.”
He leaves the room, and a thrall immediately enters. She’s wearing a security uniform. And I’ve seen her before. Tall, muscular, East-Asian, and her dark hair is in a long French braid down her back.
“Who are you?” I slur.
“Li Xiao, Your Majesty. I’ve been assigned as your personal bodyguard.” She doesn’t meet my eyes but keeps hers straight ahead.
“I saw you.” The pieces start to come together. “You rescued me.”
I think I see a smile quirk the corner of her mouth. But everything is kind of quirked at the moment.
From the other room, Nathan calls, “Go to sleep and let her do her job, Bailey.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” I reply, though I’m not sure he can hear me. I know he can’t see the flip-off I’m giving him with my remaining hand.
He definitely can’t see the one I’m giving him with my missing hand.
Li Xiao sees it, though, and this time, I can tell she’s smiling.
CHAPTER 44
I don’t let myself malinger. As soon as I can convince the doctors to get the IVs out of me and the pain meds lowered enough that I can walk without swaying, I’m back in my office.
Li Xiao doesn’t like my office. I can tell on the first day, because she paces until it freaks me out.
“I know this is a weird thing to say, since I did just have my hand bitten off by a werewolf, but maybe you could dial the hypervigilance back a notch,” I say, frowning down at my handwriting. It’s horrible. The guy took off my right hand, also my dominant hand. I should have thought of that before attacking with the fork. Now, I have to try to learn how to write legibly with the left.
There’s a knock on the door; it’s Hannah, we can both tell from the pattern. I nod, and Li Xiao opens the door, hand on the taser at her hip just in case.
“What are you doing?” Hannah asks, nodding toward the paper on the desk.
“Practicing.” I push the scribbles away and drop the pen.
“You could always just type,” she reminds me.
Typing is its own frustration. “I have to relearn that, too. Good news, though!”
“Yeah?” Hannah asks.
I give her a sweet smile and bat my eyes. “I have an assistant who can take dictation.”
“Brat.” She sticks her tongue out at me, then goes back to all-business. “His Majesty the King wants you in the throne room. He said you would know what it’s about.”
My nerves immediately skyrocket. I do know what it’s about.
I glance down at my outfit. I’ve been rocking sweatpants and tank tops exclusively. I’m not even wearing a bra because I can’t hook it in the back.
Gosh, it would be really neat to have some ladies-in-waiting right now.
“We need to run by my room first. And I’m going to need a hand.” I wave my arm at her.
Hannah rolls her eyes. “That’s going to stop being funny soon.”
“I’m the queen. You still have to laugh.” I lean around her to ask, “Right, Xiao?”
“Ha ha, Your Majesty,” my bodyguard responds in wry monotone.
“His Majesty suggested you might want to change, anyway,” Hannah says. “He suggested something ‘serious’.”
Because what we’re doing is serious. But I don’t want to mention it in front of my bodyguard. Thralls are good at keeping secrets, but right now, I feel I’m justified in having a little paranoia.
Xiao follows behind Hannah and I as we head to my bedroom. I cradle my sore arm against my chest and let Hannah get all the doors. We move quickly through my sitting room; I don’t like to spend much time in there, after what happened.
The cleaners did an excellent job getting the blood out of the carpet, though.
Upstairs, Hannah and I head straight for my closet. “Xiao, can you hang back?”
“Certainly, Your Majesty,” she says with a deferential nod. She stations herself at the top of the stairs and I close the door behind Hannah and me.
