Page 51 of The Cinders
‘No, I couldn’t eat a thing.’Xian shook his head, pacing across the room, staying well clear of the window.‘You didn’t answer my question.’
‘Because it was a stupid one.’
‘Iwishyou to tell me.’
‘Gods, did my work break your mind?’The Englishman returned to the moon-gazing chair, his hair dishevelled, his lips far redder than they’d been before all this began.‘You know I am not actually a fairy godmother, don’t you?Nor a djinn who shall grant you wishes, should you rub their lamp just the right way.Nowthatis myth, I can tell you.The djinn I’ve met would no sooner grant you a wish than suck off a nuckelavee.’
‘William.’Xian balled his fists, causing his aura to billow like smoke puffed from a pipe.‘You must tell me more than that I am…huli jing.What am I to do with that knowledge?I hardly feel much different than before.’Not true, but Xian was on a panicked tirade, breathless as he’d been in the shrine.‘Now I not only have scars, I have glowing scars…glowing…everything.’He picked at the clasp at his wrist, relaxing the tight fit of his sleeve, and pushed the fabric up his unhindered arm.A whimper escaped him.‘What flows so strongly from me?Will I be drained?’
The topaz glow rose from his forearm in thin tendrils, tiny vines that snaked their way skyward.
‘When did you say your mother was killed?’
Flinching at the bluntness of the question, Xian replied, ‘It was eighteen years ago, I was five.’
‘That’s a long time for your true self to be crammed into such insufficient space.’The Englishman gathered up his skirts, and rose from the chair once more.He made his way to another lacquered cabinet on the far side of the room.‘I suspect your aura is simply enjoying the freedom.And no, those who are not like you or I, can’t see the auras.Though it would have been a splendid addition to your performances, don’t you think?Imagine the crowds.Come see the fox prince, he glows, he twirls, he has a lovely bushy tail you can fiddle with.’
Xian frowned.‘I am quite glad I’m not a daemon, if that is what you truly are.I’d not like speaking nonsense all the time.’
‘Ha!Now that seems a vulpine thing to say, don’t you think?You feared your own shadow not a few hours ago, now you’re mouthing off to someone who could snap you like a twig with a flick of his wrist.’
Xian looked up from where he ran his fingers through the swaying aura; the tendrils slid around his fingers like seagrass in the tide.
William was watching him, his eyes a subdued green, his smile indefinable.‘I jest, of course.I’ll not harm you.We are similar, you and I, two princes badly treated.And you have amused me this evening, which is a good thing, I assure you.I’m rather grumpy when bored.’He opened the cabinet, searching through the bottles lined up inside.‘Now I know Margaret brought a bottle of whisky with her.So help me, if she has gifted it to a lover I’ll not be a merry fellow.’
Xian stared at him, incredulous.‘So that’s it then?You’re done with me?You shall just leave me here with a thousand questions.’
‘What questions?’He pulled a dark green bottle from the cabinet and held it up towards the lantern.
‘What questions?’Xian repeated, astonished.‘What am I to do now?Why did my mother keep such a truth from me?Were she and I the same?What does it mean to be…to be huli jing?’Calling himself a fox spirit felt like marbles in his mouth, large and smooth, and taking some work to roll over his tongue.
‘Ugh, stop!Or I shall reconsider the twig snapping.Don’t you have all the knowledge in your head, now your knots are undone?’
‘No,’ Xian cried.‘I am the same man I was before.’
William’s low chuckle was infuriating.‘That you are most certainly not.’He thrust the green bottle back into the cabinet and sighed.‘Do you know, I am too famished to bother with a drink.I need to feed.Playing fairy godmother to you has left me too damned hungry to think straight.But I can’t tell you anything of being a huli jing, because I am not one.I shall take my leave, if you don’t mind?’
He wriggled his way out of the gown, revealing himself to be very much naked.Xian spun away.‘Your leave?’His voice pitched.‘I mind very much.’
‘Mores the pity for you then.’There came the rustle of clothing, coarser sounds than the whisper of the gown.‘Right, that will do.I shan’t be clothed long enough to bother with much else.By Enoch’s arse, I’m famished, which is astonishing considering I’ve fed on three men and two women this evening.’
Xian turned to face him, taking in the daemon’s new attire; clothing of his foreign land, black formal trousers and a long coat of deep blue with lace at its cuffs and gleaming silver buttons.
‘Fed?’he whispered.‘Did you harm—’
William rolled his exquisite eyes.‘I’m an incubus…remember?’
‘And I understand as little of that as I do of huli jing.’
William lifted a hand mirror from the travelling chest, admiring his reflection as he fixed the unruly waves of his hair.
‘You’ve been done no favours being kept in the dark.Incubus feed on pleasure, of all kinds, but I prefer that which comes from intimacy.A decent fuck, if I need make it plainer.’
‘You need not.I am not an idiot.’
William hiccoughed a laugh and lowered the mirror, giving Xian a not unkind stare.‘It is quite rousing to hear you so forthright, do you know?’
Xian folded his arms across his ribs.‘You are just going to leave me here?’