The carriage rolled onward through the mud and the rain, carrying a traumatized child, a panicked chef, and a predator who had just decided to stop playing with his food.
The journey to the Azure Empire had just become the most dangerous mission of Lin Ji'an's life.
***
The heavy, enchanted mahogany carriage of the Imperial Second Prince rolled over the deeply rutted, mud-slicked roads of the provincial borderlands.
The violent thunderstorm that had trapped Lin Ji'an, Lin Xuan, and Xiao Yichen in a suffocating bubble of terrifying, predatory sexual tension had finally broken, leaving behind a thick, oppressive humidity and a dense fog that clung to the ancient, towering pine trees flanking the highway.
Inside the carriage, the atmosphere was a completely different kind of stifling.
Lin Ji'an sat rigidly on the plush velvet bench, her arms crossed so tightly over her chest that her fingers were digging into her own biceps.
