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He laughed, wrapping an arm around my waist and steering me towards the elevator doors. I thought the guard would accompany us up, but once we walked inside, he merely hit the correct button, used a thumbprint scanner to clear us, and walked out.

He stood there, hands clasped, as the doors closed.

The last thing I saw was his broad face.

Then the car was moving, traveling up at what felt like a good clip.

Exhaling, I turned to Revik, holding up my new bracelet.

“Blocking device?” I asked.

He pointed up, indicating the elevators would be bugged.

As if I needed to be told.

It didn’t take me long to figure out what the bracelet did. As soon as I placed even the faintest whisper of awareness on the structures I used for telekinesis, I winced at the hard shock that vibrated my light.

When my vision cleared, Revik smiled at me, quirking an eyebrow.

We’d expected this. Not many people were comfortable having two telekinetic seers wander around, leash-less.

Rolling my eyes a little, I leaned my body into his, melting into his side. I felt him try to relax and mostly fail. I felt him react to me in the dress again, too.

When the elevator car finally stopped and the doors slowly began to open, I found myself looking at a star-filled sky hanging over the South China Sea.

We were on the same terrace I’d been looking at from the dock.

I’d been looking at stars for weeks from the deck of the ship, so I couldn’t help noticing how muted they were here, washed out by the lights of Macau.

On the ship, Revik and I would sit on the deck for hours some nights, dangling our feet over the sides as we watched the churn of wake. Revik had taken up smoking again, while I’d been gone that half-year. Our compromise was to go outside, talk in the air where thehirismell didn’t get in all our clothes and bedsheets.

Clicking my mind back to the present, I followed Revik onto a carpeted foyer.

A freestanding stone wall stood directly in front of us.

A trickling sheen of water ran down the sculpture in the center, wetting the carving of a lion etched in marbled, blood-red rock. Gold eyes and white teeth stood out sharply from the stone.

The teeth looked like real teeth?like they came from a real lion.

Staring at that image, I couldn’t help but feel the warning in it.

Revik tugged on my fingers. “Tick-tock, wife.”

I nodded, still staring at that lion’s head as we passed.

Behind us, the elevator doors silently closed.

Chapter3

Dulgar

The terrace opened up as soon as we passed the lion’s head.

The patio and overhang were dark, probably intentionally so, since it made it difficult to discern faces. Colored lights hid discretely among leaves and artistic rock formations. The pool deck slid out under the stars, opposite a luxurious lounge and bar.

The largest pool had a glass wall on one side, flush with the edge of the terrace. I saw an all-glass segment that extended out past the edge of the building, as well, giving a dizzying view straight down. A group of people hung their feet off the edge, cocktails clutched in their hands as steam rose off the water.

On either end of the pool, waterfalls splashed down from elevated sculptures, surrounded by palms and glowing glass boulders. I saw beautiful women kicking their legs lazily from the rock sides, clearly naked in lit water, their make-up untouched and martini glasses in their hands as they smiled and talked to much older men.