Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 105815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Only, Leo didn’t wrap the soft blankets about his body and turn away from Junjie as he got comfortable. He actually laid his head on Junjie’s chest, his ear right over the vampire’s heart, while dropping his arm across his stomach. Junjie pulled the blanket up higher so that it covered most of Leo’s chest and back.
“Comfortable?”
“Completely.”
Chapter 19
Zhang Junjie
Junjie paced his room, his arms wrapped around his middle as if that could suppress the rolling waves of nausea in his stomach. He paused at the closed door to stare over his shoulder at the top drawer of his bureau. After a second, he resumed pacing, his footsteps silent on the floor.
The timing couldn’t be more perfect. Ming Yu had taken Erik grocery shopping with her so the child wouldn’t feel so cooped up. Erik needed some exposure to the outside world. Xiao Dan and Leo had tagged along as protection for both of them.
The house was quiet, and he’d prepared everything. Almost. A low table sat in the center of his room and a couple of candles flickered in the dim lighting. Incense smoke curled up from the burner, creating a calming atmosphere.
Since the fight with Trin two nights ago, the fae had retreated and not stirred up any new trouble. They’d seen nothing of Jiang Chong.
He needed to do this now while there were no distractions.
Putting it off was harming his clan. They needed the information he might glimpse, thanks to his gift.
He could do this. He could be brave for his clan. For Erik. And for Leo.
Junjie sucked in a deep breath and crossed the room to his bureau. An icy chill bit into his fingers as they wrapped the slender handle and pulled the drawer out. The only thing resting inside was a long, slender, scarf-like cloth he’d folded several times.
Swallowing hard, Junjie reached in and pulled out the cloth. He closed the drawer with his hip and shifted the cloth to his right hand while he grabbed a small case of special threads and needles from another drawer.
It hadn’t taken too long to realize that his vampiric gift was the ability to see into the future. The problem was learning to focus and harness it into something he could understand. At first, he’d thought what he was seeing was nothing more vivid than nightmares.
Until those nightmares began coming true.
Afterward, Jiang Chong had forced every manner of device into his hands. From scrying using mirrors and pools of water to kau cim,1 yarrow sticks, tea leaves, and animal entrails. Nothing had worked, and Jiang Chong then became more violent in his demands.
It was as Junjie was mending the hem on one of his robes, his fingers moving along the detailed embroidery that a vision had come to him. This time, it was clear and ordered, giving him the chance to understand what he was seeing.
What was more, he could repeat the process when he closed his eyes and dragged his fingers over another bit of embroidered cloth. There was something about feeling the silken swirls and designs on the fabric that calmed his brain and organized the chaotic images lurking in the back of his mind. He’d never been able to explain it, but no one cared why his skill worked this way. The only thing that mattered was that it worked on command. Particularly Jiang Chong’s command.
The one problem was that he couldn’t focus his powers on a specific person or time period. His gift was more like looking out a window rather than flipping channels on a television. What was outside the window was what his power allowed him to see.
In every vision, the person he saw would be someone who was in his life. The few times he’d thought he’d seen complete strangers, he’d later discovered that they were people who were destined to enter his life within the next few weeks.
With the length of cloth and threads in his hands, he turned to the table and kneeled on the small round cushion he’d put in front of it. He set the threads aside and spread out the cloth. To the left, a variety of swirling, complicated stitches filled the fabric, but they didn’t create a coherent image or even a flowing design. It was pure chaos. But the point wasn’t to create what he was seeing. No, he just needed the bumps and swirls to trigger the images in his brain. Sometimes the colors he used ended up being linked to certain people, but that was about it.
For instance, a satiny gold thread he’d used repeatedly for a century was now forever linked to Yichen. But then, he’d been using his power constantly during the hundred years the fae had held Yichen, trying to get some glimpse of their missing brother.
Today, he opened the wooden case to reveal the rainbow of neatly organized threads on tiny spools. His left hand on the cloth, Junjie closed his eyes and placed his right hand on the box, the tips of his fingers lightly running over the spools. He was halfway through the box when a spark pricked his finger and traveled down his arm like an electric current. He picked up the spool and opened his eyes to see that the thread was orange.