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“Stay away. Stay safe.” I spoke before I’d fully woken, a dream of Sakurako stealing my tether and using Gunner as a blood slave sending me fumbling for the light. Only after I stared down at my stomach and easily picked out my mate bond did I relax my muscles. Two of the human males’ tethers had sloughed off during the intervening hours, but Gunner’s had burrowed deeper down into my flesh and stuck.
Being able to physically see a connection that pulsed beneath the skin of my belly should have been disconcerting. But, instead, I stroked the tether gently while straining—and failing—to feel the werewolf on the other end of the line.
Nothing.
Closing my eyes, I reminded myself that Gunner was there even if I couldn’t communicate with him. Still, he was also at risk due to my proximity to Sakurako. I pursed my lips, fully aware that the smart solution involved breaking our mate bond immediately. But, instead, I resolved to find a way to maintain our connection without risking my werewolf partner to Sakurako’s wrath.
A seemingly impossible task...so I’d better get right on it. Even though it wasn’t yet dawn, I pulled on clothes and padded out into the hallway. The library. Kira had emoted over that room before I’d told her she was leaving, and it seemed like the obvious place to start.
Light was beginning to filter in various windows by the time I’d peeked into ballrooms and kitchens and guest rooms before finally arrowing in on my goal. But then I stood gaping in the doorway rather than getting right to work.
There were so many books. Hundreds of them, thousands of them, spines spanning every inch from vaulted ceiling to tiled floor. This collection bore no resemblance to the few, handwritten journal entries Elle had found during the summer we spent sussing out my abilities. Instead, as I slipped book after book from the shelves, flipping through pages full of fox shifters and magic, I knew I’d struck the mother lode.
The question was—how to find a needle in this tremendous haystack? The only solution appeared to be to read. Which is exactly how Sakurako found me three hours later, my nose in the tenth or perhaps twentieth musty old book.
“Looking for something?”
I jumped at her question, slammed the cover shut so quickly I nearly took off my own hand. Then the book was being yanked out of my possession by impatient fingers, the same pages fluttering open as my hostess pored over the title page.
“Kitsune History for Beginners.” Sakurako raised one eyebrow. “Very basic information, granddaughter.”
“In case you weren’t aware, that’s the level I’m currently at.”
We watched each other in silence for one long moment before a hint of softness rose behind the old woman’s eyes. “Your mother was equally willing to admit to weakness. It’s a surprisingly useful trait.”
She graced me with that same smile of a proud teacher I’d seen on her features earlier. And to my disgust, a cloud of confused acceptance promptly roiled through my gut.
***
WE SETTLED INTO A PREDICTABLE rhythm thereafter. Mornings were for reading and practicing. Afternoons were for building bonds with my honor guard. Every day, I woke with a plea on my lips—“Stay away. Stay safe.” And every night, I fell into an exhausted slumber, alone in my solitary bed.
“When will it be my turn to spar again?” Koki asked me a week—nine days?—later when we passed each other in the hall. He must have rotated off night shift because it was just after lunchtime, yet he appeared unusually bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
“You cheat. It’s no fun to fight a cheater.” I tried to glower at the human, but he was too perkily cheerful to serve as the focus of my ire. The last time we’d sparred together, I’d been sure he was actually struggling flat out against me...until I’d slipped on a patch of mud and still managed to come out ahead.
“Mai-sama, losing to you is such supreme pleasure. Why would I want to win?” As he spoke, the human raised my hand to his lips, eyes not flickering away from mine for even a second. And, in response, the surge of energy along our shared tether transitioned from a trickle into a flood.
“I haven’t sparred with everyone yet,” I protested. “It’s not fair to fight against you a third time until everyone else has had a shot.” As I spoke, I removed my hand from his and averted my own gaze while butterflies danced in my belly. It was painfully difficult in that moment to remember the shape of Gunner’s face.
“Not true,” Koki countered and began spouting off semi-familiar names. I counted on my fingers as he listed his compatriots, then I nodded definitively when he came to the end.
“That’s seventeen,” I agreed. “But there are eighteen doors in the honor-guard hallway.”
And, for the first time in our acquaintance, Koki turned evasive. “Mai-sama, perhaps now is not the time to...”
“The eighteenth door is locked. I tried it yesterday. I want to know what—or who—is inside.”
“Mai-chan.” The endearment wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it nonetheless raised a knot in my throat I couldn’t quite decipher. “Please believe me. You don’t want this.”
“I do want this. Do you have the key or should I ask my grandmother?”
Our standoff lasted for nearly thirty seconds before Koki caved beneath my stubbornness. He was the unofficial leader of the honor guard and we both knew it. Of course he possessed the requested key.
So, silently, we descended to the ground-floor level. Koki reluctantly trailed me down the hallway before slipping a thin chain off over his head once we reached the end. The silver key waited there between us, Koki’s mouth compressing with the effort to restrain the warning on the tip of his tongue.
I accepted the key but not the warning, noted how the metal was hot against my fingers while the doorknob was cold against my skin. I was suddenly unsure whether I did want to uncover this secret. And Koki confirmed that fact as his fingers drifted reassuringly across the back of my neck.
“What you have to understand, Mai-sama, is that any of us would willingly sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the mistress. Kaito volunteered to help Sakurako-sama punish the wrongdoer and was chosen above all of us for his strength and loyalty. I also requested the honor, many of us requested the honor, and Kaito would do it all over again.”
The door swung open as I struggled—and failed—to come up with an answer to that expression of extreme fidelity. And what I saw inside wasn’t as terrible as I’d been led to expect.
In the room, IVs trailed from a strange male’s body as he lay unmoving on a hospital bed. His chest rose and fell with regularity, but I didn’t see so much as an eyelash-flicker of voluntary movement in response to our presence or to Koki’s voice.
This wasn’t a monster, but simply a man in a coma. The monster lay elsewhere in the mansion, far above this formerly locked room.