Xuan paced.
The room was small enough that three steps in each direction brought him back to where he'd started. He'd been doing it for twenty minutes. Yilin watched him from under her blanket with the patience of someone who had seen this before.
"You're going to wake Aunt Suyin," she said.
"She's down the hall." He turned. "She can't hear me."
"Xuan-ge."
"I know." He stopped. His hands were at his sides. "I know. I'm just—" He exhaled through his nose, slow and controlled in the way that meant he was working hard to keep himself level. "Ji Hanjun grabbed her wrist today. I saw the mark when she came home."
Yilin's expression went still.
"She didn't say anything about it," Xuan continued. "She just changed her shoes and took us out like it was nothing." He looked at the wall. "She does that. She absorbs things and keeps moving. She always has."
Yilin sat up. "We can't interfere directly. Grandpa was clear about that."
"I know what Grandpa said."
