Chapter 24 · Survival Menu - Chapter 24: Blood Between the Recipes

The guards are already at the corridor when Yan Xiao grabs my wrist.

I don't pull away. I should. Every rule I've lived by says run, disappear, let him burn alone. But his hand is shaking and his eyes are on the cabinet behind me—the one where I hid the recipe book two nights ago.

"They're coming for me," he says. Not a question.

I nod.

He lets go and moves past me, fast, yanking open the cabinet door. His fingers find the book in three seconds flat. He knows where I put it. Of course he does. He's been watching me the whole time.

"You read it," he says.

I nod again.

The footsteps are louder now. Boots on stone. At least six men.

Yan Xiao flips the book open, scanning the pages like he's looking for something specific. His jaw is tight. I can see the pulse hammering in his throat. He's afraid. Not of the guards. Of what's in the book.

"She wrote down everything," he mutters. "Every dish. Every name. Every—" He stops. His finger freezes on a page near the back.

I step closer. I shouldn't.