Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,57

eyes. “Imagine in your mind, the ball moving very slowly. Very slowly. From your foot to your ankle. Slow, slow.” He kept his voice low and smooth. “Then it moves slowly, further up your leg, into your calf muscle, slow, slow, to your knee.”

He was silent for a while, listening to Crow’s deep, measured breaths.

“Nice and slow, up your thigh.”

Those thick and masculine thighs. Thighs that filled those black pants far too well . . .

Now he was thinking about Crow’s body, how close he was, how anatomically gifted he was. Tancho swallowed as silently as he could and let out a long, calming breath.

“To your hips . . .”

And your groin. I’ve seen how anatomically gifted that is . . .

“At the base of your spine,” he said, his voice low and rough. Surely Crow had to hear the desire in his voice? Tancho was certain if Crow turned his head and looked at him through those long dark eyelashes, Tancho wouldn’t be able to restrain himself.

He wanted him. Right here, in his room, in his bed. He wanted to give himself to Crow, let him have his wicked way with him . . .

But then Crow’s lips parted and he began to snore, ever so quietly. He was sound asleep.

Tancho was relieved and embarrassed, and all he could do was laugh. As if that haze of lust evaporated around him, he could suddenly think clearly again. He was still aroused, and the buzz of anticipation lingered in his blood for a few beats of his heart before fading away.

He shook his head at his own ridiculousness. Then he concentrated on his own mind, his own body, clearing his mind of everything but his own breathing. He let the sound of the ocean set the pace, feeling the strength and power of the waves fortifying him.

He’d missed the water. He’d missed the rivers and the streams, and he’d missed the sound of it, the power of it, and how it calmed him by just being close to it.

But before he could fully relax, before he could lose himself in his mind, a soft knock at the door startled him. “My king,” Asagi’s familiar voice said.

“Come in,” he said quietly.

Tancho stayed where he was, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and waited for Asagi to come into his room. Asagi stopped and stared at Crow, still splayed on the floor beside him. “Is he . . . ?” Asagi whispered.

“Asleep,” Tancho replied quietly. “He tried to meditate.”

Asagi pressed his lips together so as not to smile. But then he gave Tancho a nod. “I came to advise that Maghdlm found a book she thought might be of use, and she’s asked that we fetch her some . . . components.”

Tancho tilted his head. “Components?”

“Ingredients, elements . . . what she needs to open the doorway.”

“Oh.”

“They may take a while to procure,” Asagi whispered. “One, in particular, is not an easy find. We have sent guards out to anyone who dabbles in alchemy. And even blacksmiths.”

“Good.” He nodded to the book Asagi was holding. “Is that the book?”

Asagi nodded. It was a white leather-bound book and Tancho could make out an embossed koi on the front. It looked old. “But I would call it a grimoire. It seems incomplete, and there are drawings I can’t decipher, but Maghdlm was very interested in it. She asked to take it but I thought it best to ask you first.”

Tancho smiled. “Good man. If she asks again, tell her to speak to me. Tell me again,” he went on, “you sent guards out into the ocean where they walked out from, yes? And they found nothing?” Asagi had told them this when they exchanged information earlier, but he needed to hear it again.

“Yes, my king. There was no underwater ship, no submerged vessel. There was no sign of them at all, as though we had imagined it.”

“Or, as though they had a doorway under the waves,” Tancho murmured.

Just then, Kohaku and Soko appeared behind Asagi, both of them taken aback by Crow lying on the floor. Soko did a double take, then seeing he was simply asleep, burst out laughing.

Crow shot upright, and in a move that defied gravity and Tancho’s eyes, Crow swung himself around and in front of Tancho while pulling a dagger from his boot. He landed, crouched in front of Tancho, dagger raised, facing whatever the threat was. Protecting him, defending him . . .

Tancho knew it was the lacuna curse,