The first pill clicked against Sera’s teeth before dissolving into a torrent of liquid heat.
A sharp hiss escaped her lips as the medicine surged straight into her chest.
Under the pale moonlight of the stone courtyard, the pale green luminescence of the Cloud-Veined Supreme Blood-Lotus Pill radiated through the skin of her neck, illuminating her throat in vivid emerald rings.
Satisfied that the courtyard gate was barred and Sera had begun her first circulation cycle, Kaelen had ambled back across the dirt yard and climbed into a hemp hammock strung between two stunted pear trees.
Fifteen minutes into her meditation, his boots were kicked off and his ankles were crossed over the woven rope edge.
In his left hand, he held Book Three of The Bandit King’s Secret Bride, angling the battered paper toward the tallow lantern hung from a low branch.
If she screams too loudly, the night patrol will think I’m slaughtering pigs, Kaelen thought, turning a dog-eared page with his thumb. Then some idiot sergeant will knock on the gate, force me to stand up, and reset eighty hours of perfect horizontal accumulation. She’d better chew quietly.
A low chime echoed softly behind his eyes.
