Page 161 of Bliss & Her Idols

Torin’s sweet vanilla tea scent was soured with distress.

I haven’t raised the courage to ask Torin what the doctor said yet in case it’s bad news.

Why did Jin collapse? What’s wrong with him?

I’ll fucking die if anything happens to him.

I snatch up the cool, damp cloth that’s resting on my knee and dab it lightly on Jin’s forehead.

Jin’s eyes appear to move underneath his eyelids. The movement is enough to make me press my fingers to his cheek.

Cricket and I exchange a concerned glance.

Cricket has stripped off his jacket and undone his bow tie. He has rolled up his sleeves and is on his knees on the hard, wooden floor. He has rustled up a bucket with soapy water from the staff and is scrubbing the filthy floor.

Torin shoots him an unreadable look. “You shouldn’t be doing that. We have servants.”

“But they don’t appear to be keeping your room clean.” Cricket holds up his cloth, which has already been transformed from white to black. “This is what I’m good at. Let me serve you. I’ll launder the sheets, dust, and make this place look as good as the rest of the manor. My Alpha deserves to be cared for. I can do that. Also, when Jin wakes up, I want him to smell a fresh, clean room.”

He gives Torin a careful look on thewhen Jin wakes up.

Cricket is getting a hang of this undercover work.

He almost messes it up, however, by glancing at me for approval shyly.

Of course, I smile and nod.

Cricket glows.

Torin catches the look and sighs, turning to face me. “I take it that my little darlings want to know what that asshole doctor had to say?”

“Yes,” Cricket and I say at the same time.

Torin clenches his hands at his sides. “He said a number of things. But firstly, he tested Jin. Then he hurriedly made up an antidote and injected him with it.”

“Antidote?” My brow furrows. “What for?”

“The poison,” Torin replies, “that was only a couple of hours from killing him.”

My heart stutters to a stop. I sit bolt upright with a gasp.

“Fuck.” Cricket cusses so rarely that it’s startling.

He slams the cloth into the water with enough force for it to slosh over the sides.

“Who’d poison him?” I’m shaking. “Who wants him to die?”

I grab Jin’s lax hand, entwining my fingers with his like I can always hold onto him.

As if I can deny the fact that I almost lost him.

“At least a thousand people that I could list.” Cricket’s amber eyes have become molten. “The anti-fans group send death threats daily, Bee. Do you remember how cruel they are? They’re unhinged bullies who fixate on something that they hate about an Idol and then tear them down. That one anti-fan, Kennedy, is the most vicious. The only reason that I’m glad our Dragon hasn’t had access to the internet is that he won’t have seen what she writes about him. It would dim how brightly he shines.”

“Only a thousand people who may be our suspect,” Torin drawls. He leans against the wall, crossing his ankles. “I’ll make sure the cops get that list. Except, Iwon’tbecause that would be a scandal. And right now, the press department are working overtime spinning this situation, pretending that Jin was simplyovercomewith the emotion of the selection of his pack bonds.”

“Are the public buying that?” Cricket huffs. “Do they think that heswoonedlike he was in a romance novel?”

“That’s how PR are playing it. Actually, it’s going down well with the teen demographic in particular. From the messages that I’ve seen, they’re only pissed at me for not catching him in my arms to give them the perfect photograph.”

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