The Swindler and the False God - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After that night, Xize moved me into the room next to his.

His reason was to keep the black market from sending anyone else after me.

I said, “Lord Saint, isn’t putting a female con artist next door even more dangerous?”

He was applying medicine to my neck.

His fingertips brushed over my skin through the medicated cotton.

So lightly.

Yet it made me more uncomfortable than the hand that had choked me.

I turned my head away.

“I’ll do it myself.”

Xize handed me the bottle.

“All right.”

He backed off too quickly.

And that annoyed me too.

“Why are you always like this?”

“Like what?”

“When I say no, you really stop.”

He looked at me.

“Isn’t that how it should be?”

I had nothing to say.

He was clearly the most ascetic man alive.

And yet those words made me burn hotter than any touch could have.

Because I had met too many men who did not listen to no.

At gambling tables, in taverns, in dark alleys, they used silver coins to buy women’s silence.

Xize was different.

He was like a wire pulled taut.

The harder you tried to tug him, the less he moved.

But I was beginning to suspect there was fire trapped beneath that wire.

I deliberately tossed the cotton back onto the tray.

“It hurts.”

Xize frowned.

“Weren’t you going to do it yourself?”

“I changed my mind.”

He was silent for a moment, then picked up the cotton again.

This time, he leaned in closer.

I could see his lowered lashes.

Even the Lord Saint’s lashes looked like they were repenting.

The medicine touched the wound, and I drew in a soft breath.

His hand stopped.

“Does it hurt badly?”

“No.”

“Then why did you make that sound?”

I lifted my eyes.

“Has the Lord Saint never heard a sound that wasn’t from pain?”

The air went still.

Xize looked at me.

For the first time, his gaze was not so clean.

Not dirty.

Just heavier.

Like a dark river buried beneath snow, the ice cracking by an inch.

I smiled.

“See?”

“It’s not like you don’t react.”

Xize set down the cotton.

“Miya, don’t play with fire.”

“I make my living playing with fire.”

He lowered his head and leaned closer.

I thought he was going to kiss me.

But he only reached past me and shut the window behind me.

The latch clicked.

Like some form of restraint locking into place.

His voice brushed against my ear.

“Then you should know fire can burn you too.”

My spine went taut at once.

Xize drew back.

“The medicine is done.”

He walked to the door, then suddenly stopped.

“One more thing.”

I looked at him.

“That line you said just now-don’t say it to anyone else.”

“Why?”

His hand gripped the doorknob, his knuckles turning white.

“Because I’ll want to kill them.”