The Shadow Kingdom

Chapter 23 - Night Games

One day before Adrian's centennial, Seven Hills is in a mad frenzy as the final arrangements are being made for the party. Security at the manor is extra paranoid as all of the Sirens have been called in to protect the Shang royal family. The servants dance around the house like bees, polishing things that are already clean and preparing the most elaborate feast imaginable.

Octavia has been working them and Adrian like a slave driver, which of course is exactly what she is. Adrian has been forced to practice proper, princely etiquette for the past week, one of the few things he has not mastered in his hundred years. I've been meaning to get to know some of the servants, but none of them speak English. Adrian has taught me a handful of phrases in Mandarin, but I am nowhere proficient enough to have a real conversation.

Twilight is upon me, so I have to make the most of my time. I have been working on a painting of the manor's backyard recently, and it has proven to be more arduous than climbing Mount Everest. Even with waterweaver magic and my natural talent for fine art, nothing I have created in the past mirrors the supernatural majesty of the Seven Hills Manor. I should consider practicing photography.

I leave my half-finished canvas at the patio and venture deeper into the backyard. The most magnificent thing happens in the garden during nightfall. I don't know if this is caused by the Mens Tempus or if Adrian is somehow behind this, but some of the flowers bloom when the sun sets, and others bloom when the sun rises as if a change in day were a change in season. The sight alone is beautiful enough to bring a girl to tears, but the scent and touch bewitch my senses. Red, blue, green, yellow, violet, soft, smooth, thorny, hard, woody, sharp, minty, sweet; there are not enough words to describe all the different sensations. Every time I see this, I scan each of the windows that face the backyard, trying to find Adrian's smirking face. So far, I haven't succeeded.

I journey deeper still, and the round pool greets me. The reflection in the water captures the starlight exactly almost as though the water itself is starlight. Spending time with the Sirens has made me indifferent to modesty. My summer dress awaits me at the poolside while I allow the mesmerizing blanket of night to envelope me. I swim laps back and forth through the pool without bothering to count, and each time that I do, I forget the face of one person I want to kill; Verina, Selena, Nathaniel, Octavia, Augustus, and finally William.

An unexpected splash in the pool snaps me back to reality. "Enjoying yourself?" Isabella smiles at me from the opposite end of the pool. She lounges with her arms over the poolside.

"Don't you have work to do?" I ask in irritation. "Protecting your lord and master?"

"Yes, I do actually. Unlike you, I actually work for a living." I scowl at her. Nothing infuriates me more than being known as "Adrian's mistress." I hate it when she and the other Sirens look at me as if I'm a freeloader.

"I earn my keep in my own way." I retort. And it's true.

"I'm sure you do. Keeping Adrian satisfied is no easy task. I should know..." Her eyebrows rise provocatively, and I stifle the urge to drown her in a whirlpool. "Don't be so easy to taunt. It's a weakness." She says callously. "I'm taking a break. Iris and Diana can keep the Shang Majesty company for the time being." Someone contacts her through her earpiece, and she responds in Mandarin.

"You speak Mandarin?" I ask.

"Doesn't everyone?" She replies snidely. The surprise in my voice betrayed yet another one of my shortcomings. "You're in China. It might be a good idea to start learning."

"Adrian's teaching me." I sound like a high school girl trying to defend herself against the head cheerleader's insults. How pathetic. "How is it that all the spellbinders I've met speak English?"

"Everyone in the Shadow Kingdom speaks English and a whole bunch of other languages. Diana speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and Russian. I speak Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. When you've been alive for as long as we have, you gradually pick up new languages. It's a very useful skill." I wince; it's daunting enough just to master one new language.

"How long did it take you to learn the language fluently?"

"You mean English or Mandarin?" Isabella chuckles. "I was born in China, remember? I didn't start learning English until I lived in Australia for a while with Tiberius. That shows you how cosmopolitan our society is; the Chinese guy teaches English to the Italian girl. It took me about five years before I could have a meaningful conversation without Tiberius's help."

"Five years?" I startle.

"Believe me, time moves faster as you get older. You have nothing to worry about." Isabella begins a backstroke around the pool. I don't know if it's because of the water or the starry night, but I find myself scrutinizing her naked features. Isabella is a strikingly beautiful woman with a figure to die for. My eyes caress her body from her silky amber hair, to her full breasts, to the smooth curves of her hips, and all the way down to her enticing thighs. Every time she swims past me, she completely ignores our proximity. And so do I. "You and Adrian, you two are the real deal."

"Excuse me?" I ask.

"Adrian, he really does love you." Isabella answers. She stops and rests her elbows on the poolside. "I've known the guy my whole life. I've even sworn an oath to die protecting him. I can tell when he's acting differently." I sit silently, not sure how to respond. "Has he ever told you why he disowned his family?" I shake my head. "It was about fifteen years ago. He and his father had a major falling out after an uprising in Japan. House Kamakura tried to make a move against Augustus, to declare themselves a major house.

"They never got their plans off the ground. Augustus found out, and he had Shinji Kamakura's entire family tortured and killed. Adrian understood why his father did it, and it certainly wasn't the first time. But it was the first time Augustus forced Adrian to do it himself." An arctic chill claws its way across my skin. The thought of Adrian doing something so atrocious, I don't know if it would cause more pain to the victim or to Adrian himself. "Adrian hated his father after that. He came home to Shanghai and spat in Augustus's face, literally. Even Adrian could have been executed for doing something like that. So he disappeared. Since then Diana is the only person to whom he speaks.

"But then one day he meets you. And then Nathaniel Ashcroft tries to kill you. And he knows that the only place where he can protect you is in Shanghai. He put his idealism, pride, and his personal feelings aside in order to keep you safe. He's even willing to risk a full-scale war with House Ashcroft for your sake. If that's not true love, I don't know what is."

My mouth could not be drier. After all the times that Adrian has told me he loved me, I thought my love alone would be enough to balance the ledgers. But he has always had so much more to offer me than I have to offer him. And yet he still offers it without expecting anything except hearing those three words from time to time. "I love him too." It frightens me how true those words are. "I love him more than silver or gold."