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“Me?” I spluttered, almost springing out of my chair.

“Are you out of your mind? I don’t even know you. How can you be in love with—”

“Don’t be dense, krill.” Elang looked cross.

A red flush dusted his human cheek.

“Don’t imagine I would choose to take someone like you as a bride. It would be for appearances only. Until our business is complete.”

Business?

Yesterday he wanted to kill me, today he wanted to marry me.

I was starting to think that the mishmash of bloods going up to his head had warped his senses.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said.

“I know the stories. Dragons disguising themselves as humans and seducing innocent men and women, luring them from their homes, then turning them into concubines and never letting them leave Ai’long.”

“Where do you get your stories?” Elang balked.

“First, you’d be my equal, my wife—not a concubine. And second, it’d be temporary.” He muttered something incomprehensible before expelling an exasperated breath.

“It is an elegant solution. One that permits me to return to Ai’long and allows you to accompany me.”

The man had gall.

“What makes you think I’d want to accompany you?”

“You are entitled to refuse,” he replied.

“Only understand that, in that case, you and your family will leave my property in the morning. The governor’s prefects will arrest you, and Madam Yargui will take your mother and sisters away.”

“That’s blackmail.”

“Call it what you will.” He poured himself more tea.

“Your troubles outside this estate are not my concern. For me to be involved, it is more than fair that I should have a price.”

“You call an arranged marriage a price?”

“As I said, it’d be temporary.”

“ How temporary?”

“That depends on how quickly you can deliver my painting,” said Elang, sipping calmly.

“Once it is finished, there will be no need for further deception. You will be free to resume your lawless activities in peace.”

I glared.

“What about my mother, my sisters?”

“Your family will not be joining,” he replied.

“It is difficult enough to contrive a way for you to come.”

“I won’t leave them.”

“You will, if you wish them to live,” said Elang.

“Ai’long’s protocols are strict, and my grandfather and I are not on cordial terms.” He reclined into his chair.

“But do as you like—they are your family, not mine. I care not what happens to them, and I did promise you’d be my equal.”

Insufferable dragon.

I downed my tea in one gulp and hated that it really was quite comforting.

I almost forgot about my swollen cheek and the pain in my jaw.

“Where will they go, then? Madam Yargui will be looking for them.”

“While you are in Ai’long, your mother and sisters will reside here on my estate. You have my word that they will be protected and want for nothing.”

I noticed his pause.

“But?”

“They will not be permitted to leave or receive visitors, for their own safety. Until you have kept your end of the bargain.” Elang preempted my objections by lifting a small wooden chest onto his desk.

“Should you succeed, your family may have this as payment for their troubles.”

Inside the chest shone a mound of sparkling jewels.

Rubies, emeralds, diamonds—some as large as chestnuts—an emperor’s bounty!

Not to mention, they sat atop a generous bed of plump and lustrous pearls.

I hated that I was tempted.

Just a handful of these jewels would be enough for Mama and my sisters to live comfortably for years.

No more scrambling to find work, no more worrying about having enough coin to buy Nomi medicine in the winter.

We could finally leave Gangsun and find out what happened to Baba.

“Say I come with you to Ai’long,” I began.

“What would I need to do? What are the parameters of this…arrangement?”

“You would need to convince my grandfather that our marriage is genuine.”

“You mean, make him think we’re in love?” I had to restrain myself from cackling.

“I’m not that good an actress.”

“Dragons measure love in many ways. Some fondness for me will suffice.” Elang inclined his head, an eyebrow ticking upward.

“That is, unless you prefer to—”

“No!” I didn’t even want to hear what he had to say.

Just imagining having to embrace this monster, to kiss him…

I shook away the thought.

“Fondness is fine.”

“Agreed.” He sipped again.

“Now, once my grandfather is convinced, then we may progress to the next part of our deal.”

“The part where you need me to paint the future,” I remembered.

“Let me guess, a cousin has been trying to take your throne, and you want me to reveal who. Or maybeyou—”

“Your imagination is most amusing,” Elang said, not sounding amused at all.

“But spare yourself from guessing. You won’t have it right.”

Insufferable and arrogant dragon, I adjusted in my head.

“What do you need me to paint?”

“If I tell you now, you will have to accept our deal.” His yellow eye glowed.

“Or I will have to kill you.”

Normally I’d roll my eyes at such an ultimatum.

The problem was, I believed him.

“I can keep a secret.”

“Not this one.”

“You don’t trust me?”

He gave me a look that said, Obviously not.

“I suggest that you be patient and take the evening to read over the contract with your family. We will revisit this discussion.”

“What you’re saying,” I concluded, “is that my mission will be dangerous.”

“Everything about Ai’long is dangerous.”

I closed the chest of jewels.

“Then this isn’t enough.”

Years of dealing with Gaari had taught me to negotiate.

I wasn’t settling for this deal.

“I want three chests of jewels,” I asserted, “which my family will keep regardless of whether I succeed. I want tutors for my sisters while I’m away—for whatever they wish to study. I want Nomi to have an education rivaling the National Academy’s, and I want Fal to have the wardrobe she’s always dreamed of: silk dresses and slippers and jade hairpins. Everything a lady might wear.”

Elang leaned back, his expression inscrutable.

“Is thatall?”

“No.” I leaned forward, picking the prince’s dark eye to focus on.

“There’s one more thing. I had a friend in Gangsun—an old man.” The muscles in my throat strained.

“He died yesterday, defending me from Yargui’s men.”

Elang was unmoved.

“If he was old, then it was likely histime.”

“He died because of me,” I said sharply.

“What is your request?”

Heat swelled to my throat.

I struggled to keep my voice steady.

“His name was Gaari. I don’t know his surname, or even where he lived. But will you find him, and will you see to it that he’s buried and given a shrine?”

A shadow passed over Elang’s face, and his nostrils flared.

He probably thought me a sentimental fool, but I didn’t care.

“It will be done,” he said.

“Your requests, I will honor them.”

“Do you need me to write it down for you? The restaurant, Gaari—”

“I’ll remember.”

Without another word, Elang opened a drawer to his left and presented me with a lacquered box.

Inside was a book bound by a single red twine.

“This is a contract outlining the details of my proposal.”

The paper was thick and fine, every word perfectly printed in minuscule calligraphy.

I flipped through, startled to see my name on nearly every page.

Impossible.

How had he written this all in one day?

I pushed the contract back toward him.

“I’ll read it after you’ve included my additional terms.”

“Everything you asked for is there.”

“The lessons for my sisters, the—”

“It’s there.”

His tone dared me not to believe him.

Grudgingly I took the box.

“Are we finished?”

Elang leaned forward in his chair, and goose bumps prickled my skin as he slowly pressed his mask back to his face.

I could understand why he wore it.

To the left, he was a dragon with glossy blue scales, a plumed white eyebrow, and a snout rather than a nose.

To the right, he was a man with a boyishly smooth cheek, a sharp and implacable jaw, and an ever-furrowed brow softened by flyaway strands of black hair.

Either half would have been striking on its own.

Beautiful, even.

But together, the stark difference between the two made for a chilling effect.

Especially with that yellow eye, burning like a ruthless torch.

I could hardly look at him without shuddering.

“For tonight, yes,” he finally answered.

With the subtlest lift of his fingers, the doors opened.

“My servant will attend you and answer any questions you may have.” Elang rose, his claw outstretched in a gesture for me to leave.

“I await your decision in the morning.”