Witch Fall(37)

“Lilette,” Han whispered. She turned back to him. He’d reached the top of the wall and paused, his face in shadow. “Don’t try to escape again.”

Without answering, she slipped into the shadows.





Chapter 13



Han terrified me. He was violence personified in muscle and scowls. But Lilette seemed drawn to terrifying things. ~Jolin



Voices called Lilette’s name. Cold waves of fear pulsed through her. She was dressed in a eunuch’s clothes, with kohl in her hair, and bruises on her body. No explanation she could give would satisfy Chen. She looked around, hoping to find something, anything, to help her. And then she saw the lake. Creators’ mercy, this was a foolish idea—most of her ideas usually were. But she didn’t have anything else.

She stripped out of her eunuch’s robes, shoved them inside one of the boats at the dock, and waded into the lake until it reached her waist. The water was cool, but the bottom was muddy. Keeping her mouth and eyes firmly shut, she scrubbed the kohl from her hair, rinsing at least a dozen times.

Soaking wet with less-than-savory water, she crossed her arms over her nearly translucent smallclothes. Forcing herself not to limp, she moved toward the voices.

It wasn’t long before she caught glimpses of torchlight flickering through the trees. One of them yelped in surprise when she burst into sight. “Are you looking for me?” she asked innocently.

He looked her up and down, his brows drawn in confusion. “Yes, honored madame. The heir has come to see you, but you were not there.” He whistled for the others. They escorted her back to Ko’s house.

Ko was pacing in front, her hands wringing together. She froze when they came into view, her expression giving away nothing, and Lilette wondered if her friend had betrayed her.

The chief eunuch huffed into sight, his strange, hunched-over gait exaggerated by his wide steps. “Where have you been?”

She gestured to her dripping clothes. “Swimming.”

His eyes narrowed. “Do you know what you have done?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” he sputtered. He opened his mouth to say more, but Chen stormed into view. The chief eunuch clenched his jaw, his throat working around the words that seemed to choke him.

Chen still wore his battle armor, though with its condition he clearly hadn’t been in the midst of the fighting. His gaze pierced Lilette to the core. He took in her barely clothed state, and she had to resist the urge to cover herself with her hands. “You were not to leave Ko’s home,” he reminded her.

She bent into her three kowtows, then blinked up at him.

“I came to share our decisive victory with you, but you were gone. Where did you go?” Though his words were soft, the tension beneath them frightened her more than shouts would have.

She rose to sit on her heels. “It was so unbearably hot. I went for a swim.”

Chen frowned. “In the lake?”

“I used to go swimming at night all the time.” A blatant lie. She’d always been too tired to bother. “I miss the water.” At least that was true. She let her eyes fill with tears—genuine ones.

He motioned to the eunuchs. “All of you go.” He jabbed a finger at Lilette’s personal eunuch and Chief Wang. “You two wait for me inside with the other concubine.”

Everyone filed quickly away. Chen took Lilette’s arm to pull her outside the house and out of earshot. He pinned her against a tree. Pain lanced through her injured side. She forced herself not to react, not to cry out.

“You were trying to escape.”

“No,” she gasped, her head swimming with pain. “I was—”

“Lilette, there are things even I can’t protect you from. If you’re caught, do you know what my father will do to you?”

“The same thing you did to Laosh?”

Chen released her as if she’d burned him. “I spared her a public execution—and the torture that comes with it.”

Lilette reeled her anger in. Trust, she reminded herself. If he trusts me, opportunities to escape will come. “I’m sorry.”

He blew out through clenched teeth.

“I promise I wasn’t trying to escape. I just went swimming.”

He studied her, his dark eyes glinting. “Are you willing to prove it?” He stepped toward her, his gaze trained on her lips.

Lilette forced herself to tip toward him and press her mouth against his. His mouth was wet and cold. All she could see was soldiers lined up behind the keepers, hear the dark, pounding chant. See Chen watch impassively as Jolin was bludgeoned. As the kiss went on, Lilette couldn’t stop the bone-deep tremors that started inside her.