Chapter 5

I searched his room for clues, but it was as bare as a snow cave.

Many officials filled their chambers with painted screens, calligraphy, and shelves of books. Jiang Yinxue had none of those things.

There were only a few stools, a round table, several lanterns, and a writing desk near the window.

Ink, brushes, paper, and an inkstone lay on the desk. I waved my hand over them. My fingers had become solid enough to touch the inkstone.

Some bond had formed between Jiang Yinxue and me after my death.

Remembering what Shen Feng had said, I floated to the bed and studied the sleeping man.

Jiang Yinxue lay on his side with his head pillowed on one palm, his features relaxed. Asleep, he had none of the claws and teeth he showed while awake.

I asked softly, “What did you do?”

Faint noises came from outside the window. Within the room, there was only the sound of Jiang Yinxue’s breathing.

I lay along the bedside and tilted my head to study his sleeping face.

Fine lines had appeared at the corners of his eyes.

A light rain began to patter outside.

I touched one finger to the corner of his eye, and a memory flashed through my mind.

At an autumn hunt, his horse had bolted. I wrapped my arms around him, and we tumbled from the saddle, rolling over the grass again and again.

When we finally stopped, his hand was cradling the back of my head. Dizzy and disoriented, I remembered only the stunned look in his eyes.

Pleased that he owed me a favor, I ordered him to call me “grandaunt.” The corner of his mouth twitched, but he could not suppress the smile that brightened his eyes.

His face had been streaked with mud, grass, and blood that day. Yet his eyes were so clear and radiant that everything disheveled about him faded away.

We had plainly been on the verge of making peace.

How had things turned cold again?

My gaze went unfocused as I rummaged through my memories.

Everything else remained vivid. Only the events before my death were blurred.

I saw Shen Feng. We were arguing. Then came darkness.

I sighed soundlessly.

If I told Jiang Yinxue I could not even remember how I died, he would mock me again.

But…he treated me well now. If I explained, perhaps he would lose his temper a little less.

And the healthier he was, the more I could feed.

I would tell him tomorrow night. Perhaps I had not died saving Shen Feng after all.

Rain fell throughout the next day. Jiang Yinxue attended court as usual.

I could not manifest under daylight, so I spent each day curled beneath his blankets, nourished by the scent he left behind.

No one was permitted inside his room. Yet today, a jumble of footsteps approached.

The door opened. Several people entered. I recognized the middle-aged couple at their center: Jiang Yinxue’s parents.

The capital held them up as the perfect strict father and loving mother who had raised an exemplary son.

An old man in blue-green robes accompanied them. The moment he entered, his face turned grave. It was as though he could see me. He stared directly at the place where I lay.

“Yin energy churns in this room. A female ghost is indeed causing trouble here.”

Jiang Yinxue’s father erupted. “The steward told me he was growing more exhausted by the day. I thought official business had worn him down. I never imagined he would be so useless as to fall under a ghost’s spell!”

His mother edged closer to the old man in fear. “He moved his bedchamber here for no reason. The room is supposedly empty, yet the servants hear him talking to someone. A ghost must have bewitched him. Master, you must drive this evil away from my son.”

The moment the old man entered, an unseen force pinned me in place.

He stepped forward, formed a hand seal, bit his fingertip, and drew something in the air with his blood. An invisible weight crushed me down until I could not rise.

“Evil creature, reveal yourself!”

My body weakened and grew more transparent by the moment.

All the essence I had taken from Jiang Yinxue just to hold my spirit together was being stripped away. I hovered on the edge of dissolution.

I could not lift a finger. My mind dissolved into fog.

Jiang Yinxue’s mother cried out, “Is that…General Shi?”

She could see me?

Someone rushed in from outside and furiously kicked the old man aside.

The crushing weight vanished. Dizzy and half-conscious, I collapsed onto the bed.

Jiang Yinxue’s voice cracked through the room, cold and fierce.

“Out. Out! All of you, get out! Is she haunting you? No? Then mind your own business.”