Still kneeling. Still pale. Still alive, which was the part that mattered and the part he'd arrived for.
Then back up.
To the woman.
She smiled at him.
It was the most dangerous smile Sabrina had ever seen on a face, and she had spent three years in tiger clan tournaments looking at faces.
"Hello," the naked woman said, to him.
Conversational.
Warm.
Exactly as she'd been when she'd been draining Sabrina's soul, just — redirected.
"I've been looking for you."
Tianlong said nothing.
For exactly three seconds, which was three seconds longer than he'd been silent since he arrived.
Then:
"Put your hand back."
A pause.
"We'll talk."
The woman's smile widened.
She did not put her hand back.
She tilted her head the way she had tilted Sabrina's chin — the same angle, the same assessment — and said, with the complete self-possession of someone who has not taken directions from another person in a significant amount of time:
"'Make me.'"
She pulled her finger out slowly.
