Page 9 of Jade Lion and the Witch Boy
I shake my hand and shift it back to human form. “What is wrong?”
“Your…your hand!” he says. I shrug and stare at my palm. “No, I mean, you just changed it.”
I smile. “Yes. I recall that I am a lion shifter.”
“A what?” He shakes his head. “I’m going to need the others here for this.”
Unsure of what he means, I get back to grooming. I glance at the mirror and run my hand through my soaking wet hair. “Do you have a cloth for me to dry my hair?”
Seb’s eyes perk up. “There’s a hairdryer connected to the wall.”
I frown at him. “Hair…dryer?”
Sebastian gives me an incredulous look. “Uh, what year do you last remember being…” He gives a vague gesture up and down at me. “Being yourself?”
I lean on the sink and try to reach into my memory. Tenuous visions of celebrating the Lunar New Year shoot across my mind. “I believe…1925.”
Sebastian gasps, and when I look up, his eyebrows are raised. “Nine…teen…what?” he whispers.
“Why? What year is it now?”
When he replies, my head becomes dizzy. I was…in a statue…for over a century?
“I am sorry, Zhou Kai, but you left us no choice. No one will find you for decades…”Hooded figures raise their glowing palms at me. I am restrained in the arcane circle, unable to fight back.
I gasp and gaze at Sebastian. I’m back in the bright washroom of the Boysen House. “Hey, Kai? You spaced out again.”
I shake my head and lean on the sink. “I…apologize, Sebastian.”
“No, I’m the sorry one. This all must be a shock.” He gently leads me out of the room, and we walk down the hall. My bare feet on the wooden floors give me something to focus on. The warm presence by my side grounds me as well. Sebastian’s hand on my back somehow both calms and excites me. “I should be more mindful that you’ve been stuck in a statue for a really freaking long time.”
He sits me down, and when his hand traces my arm, the dizziness subsides. Is he performing witchcraft on me?
“Just breathe.”
“I am alright, now, Sebastian Suarez.”
He smiles and stands up, and I immediately miss the contact. “Hey, we have some time before the coven gets back. Let me introduce you to the internet so you can catch up on history. You’re new to the twenty-first century, after all. Ooh, I can even show you what a video is!”
The witch boy seems so eager, how can I refuse? I nod and reply, “Very well.” He runs off, and I let out a soft laugh. Ifliving in this new century means spending more time with Seb, perhaps it will not be an entirely awful experience.
CHAPTER 4- SEB
“SO HE HASno recollection of his life before this?” Lisbeth whispers. She, Anika, and Ashley stand before me in the foyer. We have a clear view of the living room where Kai currently sits, intently reading on my laptop. Hopefully we’re at a distance where the dude can’t hear us discussing him.
“None,” I reply. “Well, somewhat, but it’s fragmented pieces. And every time I bring up his past, he gets more and more upset.” I frown and glance at him. He idly pushes back his long, dark hair as he continues to read. Kai got used to the internet in a surprisingly short amount of time. He informed me that electricity was rare in his home, so I gave him a crash course on some devices. He was apprehensive of the hairdryer, but he seems to be enjoying the articles I’ve pulled up. He has over one hundred years of history to catch up on.
“But has he…” Ashley rolls her head around, trying to find the words.
“No, he hasn’t tried to hurt me or even cast any spells.”
“So, he is a witch?” Anika looks between the other two ladies. “Have we confirmed?”
“We all saw his magic,” I say.
“That was the beast’s magic,” Lisbeth retorts. She plays with her curly brown hair, and I know she’s lost in a dozen thoughts. That’s fair, after all, we just freed a shadow beast and turned him back into a muscular, sexy Chinese guy.
I mean, regular guy. Kai is a regular guy, and his British accent certainly does nothing to my body. Nope. I swore off menfor the time being, and I formally told off Kevin approximately five minutes ago. I’m not going to fall into the lap of a literal stranger who came from my statue. Though, the image of his abs leading down to that cock is forever seared in my memory…
