AIKO
"If you stab me with one more hairpin, I swear I'll set your eyebrows on fire," I hissed, batting away Sadako's hand as she wrestled another section of my hair into submission.
Sadako snorted, jabbing the pin in with surgical precision. "Please. You couldn't light a match with that sad excuse for dragon fire. Now stop squirming—I'm trying to make you look less like you've been rolling around with that slobbering beast all morning."
"Shishi is not a beast," I protested. On cue, my lion-dog lifted his massive head from his corner nap, golden eyes blinking sleepily. "He's a noble guardian spirit."
"Noble guardian spirits don't steal entire roast pheasants from the kitchen and bury them under the emperor's favorite rosebush," Noriko drawled from her perch by the window.
"Or pee on vi
