“Don’t be nervous.” Bai Xue’s words left a puff of his breath in the air that floated for a moment in front of Xiaokai before dissipating. His face was soft, his expression gentle. He reached up with one gloved hand and put it against Xiaokai’s cheek. “I really didn’t want to do this,” he said. “When your parents contacted me, I wanted to say no. I think you and I both felt that our appointments with each other were a sweet respite from the rest of our lives. You really are the most pure part of the List.”

“Do what? Bai Xue, what’s—”

Bai Xue’s mouth caught his in a kiss. It was harder than Xiaokai was used to from him, but not hard enough to hurt, and he was left even more confused than he usually was afterward. “Just hold on for a bit,” he said.

“Hold on?”

Bai Xue bent and started pulling at whatever was binding Xiaokai’s hands together and to the chair. “It was some List goons that brought you here. I told them not to tie you up, but they did anyway. They thought you were a danger or something.” The ropes fell to the floor and Bai Xue kneeled in front of him now to work on the ropes tying his ankles to the chair.

“A danger? Bai Xue, what’s going on? Why are we here?” Why are you here, Xiaokai wanted to ask—out of all people Liu Baiyan and Sun Yue could have asked, why you?

“Hm.” Bai Xue, finished with the bindings, rested his arms on Xiaokai’s legs and then his chin on top of his arms. “Your father is under the impression that you’re a traitor.”

Xiaokai suppressed the shiver that immediately threatened to wrack his body. Don’t show weakness, Xiaokai, think—it wasn’t one of the appointments, no matter how disastrous they had been in recent weeks. If it had been, Sun Yue would have talked to Xiaokai directly, not outsourced to someone like Bai Xue and risk getting family secrets out. So why Bai Xue of all people? Was he the one who noticed the mistake? No, not necessarily. Xiaokai couldn’t jump to such a conclusion. What else?