Page 73 of Heir to a Curse
I backed away from the door, but couldn’t make myself leave. Instead I crouched over my knees, fighting to sort the tide of overwhelming emotions. Fear, worry, hope, and love. Breathing hurt, having him close but unable to touch him. Was he real? Maybe I’d finally snapped and my brain was conjuring what I really wanted to see.
“Xiang,” I hissed, needing him so much right that second. “Are you here? Am I dreaming? How?”
He sank to his knees on other side of the door. Forehead pressed to the edge, looking at me with one eye, but seeming as tired of fighting to stay back as I was. “The doors began to close,” he whispered. “This one first.”
I sucked in a hard breath, almost choking myself at the idea that we’d shut him out. The first one? Zhao had been the first one to do his forgiveness ceremony. Had they really worked? Or had he gotten out another way?
“Then each one, one after another.”
The ceremony. It must have worked. It was the only reason they would have closed like that. I bowed over, pressing my head to the floor, tears streaming down my cheeks. I needed to touch him, hold him so fucking badly it hurt. I sucked in air.
“Tell me the rest, please,” I begged, needing some sort of distraction to hold me back, to keep him safe. “Stupid fucking pandemic.”
He laughed softly, a welcome sound, tugging on a thousand memories and my heart at the same time. “The door to my sanctuary… I was inside… it vanished.”
“What?”
“Turned into a wall, and began etching lines of the family into it.” He paused thinking. “Like the talisman.”
“The glow? Magic?”
He shrugged. “It was powerful. Bright. I slept… unnaturally.”
“Passed out,” I amended.
“Yes. When I awoke… I was somewhere else? The family found me. They were my family? Relatives? I explained who I was. They recalled my name from the ceremony. Told me you had asked all of them to forgive me.”
“I did. Was willing to give them everything I had. Didn’t know if it would work.”
“I asked them to bring me here.” He frowned. “There were lots of rules. They explained there is a sickness.”
“Half the world is on lockdown. I’m surprised you got here at all.” I collapsed onto my side, lying on the floor beside his door, boneless, doing everything I could to keep from reaching for him. “Xiang,” I half whined his name.
“Time?” he asked. “Days must pass? I have books, but I have listened for your voice this past week.” He put his hand over his heart, which I could only partially see since he kept the door between us. Probably better that he did as I was sure I’d leap at him if I could see him completely. “When you spoke at the door earlier, I thought I’d go mad…”
He’d been here a week. I tried to calculate how long it had been? Ten days? I’d lost track of time drowning my grief over losing him in the renovations of the house. Mr. Yamamoto would know. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed him, putting him on speaker phone as I didn’t try to get up. Any movement in his direction would make me fling myself at Xiang.
Mr. Yamamoto answered on the second ring, “Yes, Mr. Frank?” He still wouldn’t call me Zach.
“How long has our guest been here?”
“Eleven days. Is something wrong? Do you wish for him to leave?”
“No!” I shouted, then calmed myself. “No. Please.” I sucked in air. Three more days. Would it be safe then? “Are there testing facilities anywhere nearby?”
“For the virus?” Mr. Yamamoto clarified. “Is our guest sick?”
“No. And I want us both to stay that way.”
“I believe we’d have to go back to the city for that.”
Which meant at least an hour drive. In the small space of a car was that safe? I didn’t want to risk Xiang. I could go, get tested, that half was easy enough.
“Do you wish me to call around and find some place testing? I know it has been sporadic,” Mr. Yamamoto asked.
“For me, yes. Please. Just in case. Fourteen days is still the recommended quarantine?” That felt like a lifetime, though I’d already endured so much longer.
“Yes,” Mr. Yamamoto agreed. “Though I believe our guest was quarantining before he arrived as well.”