#lxcuna

s p i l l e d  w a t e r

parted lips, exposed wrists, lidded eyes, and pretty lies; these are the things men like.

a soft silk pillow cushioned carina’s knees from the hardwood floors of their traditional house. mother lounged on an intricate golden chair fitted with crimson-velvet covers and throw pillows; the midnight sky tumbled down her back in thick, soft curls and she ran graceful, thin fingers through the strands, checking for dry ends. her red-painted nails glistened beneath the evening light.

carina bo yok hong is the eldest child of the hong clan. in her father’s eyes, her talent for strategic violence will never eclipse her womanhood. the dragon head title she covets will fall to her incompetent secondborn brother instead while she becomes a wife to a man chosen by her father. but if she cannot choose her future, carina will undermine any attempts to stifle her potential.

d e e p  o c e a n s

“is she blooded?”

he met her heavy gaze. “no one will say.”

out of fear or loyalty? her unasked questions hung in the air like the impenetrable humid summers in the south. wing hong’s eyes glided over the snow-dusted water gardens outside the windows where the fog sat low against the clear pond; a layer of white frost erased all nuances of color—a rebirth in waiting. 

“no one will say,” he repeated.