Suspicious Acts (Anastasia the Nonbinary Dragon)
“Come on, don’t you want to join in the fun?”
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Revi paced the room he was locked up in, his brows furrowed with worry and mounting panic.
He ran his hand through his hair, and he wished he could switch to his dragon form and raze this place to the ground. But he wouldn’t risk making his precarious situation even worse.
The guest room that Bei Feng threw him in was more lavish than the rooms in Revi’s mansion. Silky smooth bedsheets, expensive paintings on the walls, luxurious curtains, elegant potted plants… Even the floors were so plushly carpeted that he could barely hear his own footsteps.
But maybe that was the problem. The room was so extravagantly beautiful that he was like a bird trapped in a pretty cage. Or rather, a dragon trapped in a pretty box.
Revi could try to flee from the room, but the dragon shifter guards posted right outside his door would outrun him easily. As he pulled back the velvet curtains, he could see some guards outside his windows, too, the bothers.
The gold dragon shifter gripped his fists in frustration and turned his attention back to the room. A musky fragrance lingered in the air. The more paranoid side of Revi wondered if it was a sedative. More likely it was just a perfume sprayed here by the servants earlier.
Then, Anastasia came into his thoughts. Was ze okay? Ze had quietly promised him that ze would be back — not that Revi would let Bei Feng keep him forever.
Perhaps a part of him blamed Ana for giving up the fight so soon and leaving with Byron to go see Ero. Yet, ze was the sovereign, truly the sovereign, not just for show. Revi had to get used to being put aside as ze attended to more important matters. Revi’s chest hurt at the thought. Perhaps Ana was tired of him, too.
While the gold dragon shifter was thus submerged in his thoughts, a knock sounded on his door. Revi grumbled and shuffled towards it. He didn’t open it immediately and instead asked in a sharp tone, “Who goes there?”
A gentle voice replied, “It’s me, Bei Feng.”
Her voice was always deceptively soft. Once again, Revi wondered what his father had over her. He hesitated for a moment before opening the door.
To his shock, tears stained the woman’s cheeks. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.
“What happened?” Revi asked with dismay.
Bei Feng hurried inside and closed the door behind her. She sat on his bed like this room belonged to her, which it probably did. She said in a shaky voice, “It’s none of your business. But your father is a difficult man to please, bless his heart.”
Revi gave her a strange look. “Are you saying that my father is here?”
Bei Feng arched an eyebrow. “No. And thank goodness he’s not, or it would have been even harder for me. He is sending me messages, though, and he’s impatient for a response.” She sighed and leaned back on the bed, looking pitiful and dejected.
“Will you get off of my bed?” Revi asked, his tone hard as stone.
The brunette woman shot him a dirty look. She leaned forward again, miffed. “This was originally my bed.” She shrugged one shoulder, with such a casual air as if she were the mistress of this house. “I can do whatever I like here.”
“Clearly. So, what exactly are you and Byron?” Revi inquired, his arms crossed and his foot tapping the silent carpet.
“Why? Do you think we’re secretly lovers?” Bei Feng laughed.
Revi grimaced. “At least you’re able to say it out loud.”
“Yes, I can say it because I hear those rumors all the time. No, Byron and I are not romantically involved. I feel bad for his wife, Qing Shui, and Byron feels guilty, too. But I need Byron here with me.”
Originally, the gold dragon shifter wasn’t interested in Bei Feng’s relationship with Byron. But since Byron was to be their spy and ally, it was better to know what he and Ana were up against.
So he said, “Then what have you come into my room for if you can’t tell me anything of use?”
The brunette gave him a smirk and wiped some of the tears from her face. “Ha. I didn’t come to your room to tell you about your father’s arrangement with me, sorry, except that he wants me to keep you properly separated from our dear sovereign.” Revi bristled at this, but she continued, “I actually came here for you. Do you want to stay stuck in this room, or do you want to go somewhere else and have fun?”
Revi blinked, then snarled. “I’m not sure what your idea of ‘fun’ is — ”
“I’m not sure what yours is, either,” Bei Feng countered. “But if you prefer to stay inside this bedroom…”
The gold dragon shifter growled and stood straighter. “Where do you want to take me?”
A slow smile stretched across Bei Feng’s lips. “It’s a surprise.”
Revi really should have pressed her further to explain what the “surprise” was.
But when he asked, she refused to tell him. Revi gave up and followed along because anything would be better than rotting in that beautiful, sweet smelling room.
Bei Feng swung her arms with a confident poise as she led the way. Her hair bun bobbed as if with childish glee.
The two of them passed through the courtyard and into another attached building. Revi could hear the sound of laughter before Bei Feng took them inside.
He gaped when he beheld a large indoor bathing pool, with steam rising from it like a hot spring. A ton of dragon shifters around his age made merry, swam around, and played with each other in a way that made Revi distinctly uncomfortable.
Bei Feng laughed at his face, and she sounded more carefree than he had ever heard her. “Come on, don’t you want to join in the fun?” She pointed at the pool full of people mingling and cavorting.
But Revi backed away, eyeing the pool and the mass of people warily. “Not interested.”
Bei Feng was not deterred, however. She advanced on him until their noses were only inches apart. She whispered, “Just get in the pool and don’t ask any questions.” She indicated the guards stationed nearby.
Revi gritted his teeth. “Why?”
Bei Feng grinned, like a viper. “If you care about your life, do as I say. Get into the pool with me…and enjoy yourself.”
The gold dragon shifter glanced behind him, and again saw the guards’ stern and implacable faces. As terrible as this was, he could survive this, couldn’t he? Even if it looked unsavory.
And there were too many witnesses here to summon Phaeton the ice unicorn.
Revi should have tried contacting Phaeton while he was stuck in Bei Feng’s room earlier. The gold dragon shifter was too stubborn to ask for help then, believing he could dig his way out of Bei Feng’s trap himself.
But it was too late for regrets. Nevertheless, knowing Phaeton, he would probably enjoy Revi’s humiliation anyway.
While he still hesitated, Bei Feng nudged him. “Boy, go change in there. You’ll see bathing suits to choose from.”
Revi glared at her, resenting the command. Yet he was too aware of the threatening men behind his back. So he trotted towards that changing room.
The gold dragon shifter wrinkled his nose as he stepped inside. There was heavy air freshener here, as if it was covering something. And nobody else was around.
For a moment, he pondered whether to just not change and stay here. But he thought better of it. As awful as the giant pool looked, at least there was more space there than in this cramped changing room.
After he put on a dark blue bathing suit, he cringed. He had never been this exposed.
Revi slipped into the pool in a hurry, submerging himself until only his head was visible. The heat of the water was soothing, he admitted. But seeing the other shifters thrashing around him was not a comfort.
Especially when a curious man, a little older than Revi, waded towards him.
Revi was saved from the need to rebuff him when Bei Feng’s voice rang out, “Sorry, he’s off limits.” She wore a lilac bathing suit, and her skin glistened from the water.
Her eyes seemed lively, even friendly, but Revi stayed vigilant. She wove her way towards him, until she was close enough to whisper in his ear. “Swim with me. I have something to tell you.”
With much dread but also anticipation, he followed Bei Feng as they swam. He hadn’t paid as close attention, but the enormous pool had hidden corridors and branches.
They soon got to an isolated channel, where the water looked darker. The sound of people laughing in the distance was the perfect background noise to cover what Bei Feng was about to say.
The brunette smiled up at him, looking entirely too smug for his liking. Water droplets glistened on her eyelashes, and she moved way too close to him. She murmured, “I bet you think that I’ll tell you what your father has on me.”
Revi took a step back from the woman. “I did hope you would, but I couldn’t be certain. But what is it you’ve come to say to me?” he hissed.
Bei Feng tossed her head back and laughed, exposing her throat. Even if he were in his golden dragon form, Revi would not have dared try anything on her in this unsettling place. She stopped laughing abruptly, then gave him a peculiar stare.
“Lord Revi, I do have a favor to ask of you.” She moved closer to him again. Revi was about to step back again out of instinct, but he didn’t want to seem like a coward. The woman got so close to his face, that he could see the individual shadows in her irises. She said, in a soft caressing voice, “Pretend to kidnap me.”
