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A laugh broke from his throat, and he slapped his hand over his mouth to stop the sound. It didn’t sound sane. He flashed Xiao Dan what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’ve never known a home like what Yichen has told me about. The home I knew was not a place I would want to return to. My home is Yichen. As long as he wants me at his side, I am home. And if he wants me to die for him to protect his home and family, that is what I will do.”
Xiao Dan sighed as his eyes followed a bluebird that landed in the courtyard and pecked between some of the rocks searching for a meal. It jumped here and there, fluttering its wings in a blur. The creature stared at them for a second before darting into the clear blue sky. “This clan has done enough dying for each other. I think it would be of more value to him if you could fight to live for him.”
Rei blinked burning eyes that had nothing to do with the brightness of the sun. Living for Yichen.
Living a long, happy life with his Yiyi.
Yes, that sounded like a wonderful idea.
He just had to figure out how to survive killing both the king and the queen of the fae.
Chapter 25
Wu Yichen
“Yichen!”
Mei Lian’s voice echoed down the hall a second before her slender body slammed into his back, her long arms wrapping about his neck. He just barely caught himself from stumbling forward under her unexpected weight.
“Are you busy?” she whispered in his left ear.
“I suspect it would be safest if I answered yes to that question,” he muttered.
Mei Lian grunted and released him. However, she was sure to hit his shoulder as she walked around to stand in front of him. Tonight, she was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with two animated characters in a passionate embrace while silver-white butterflies circled them. Her short hair was pulled up on top of her head in two small buns with red ribbons flowing from them. The entire outfit made her appear young and sweet.
Meimei was a dangerous, sneaky killing machine when she wanted to be. He doubted she’d changed all that much during their century of separation. No, he wasn’t fooled. She was neither young nor sweet.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’ve got something dangerous cooked up in your head and I’m better off heading in the opposite direction.” As soon as he finished speaking, he started to turn away from her, but she grabbed his hand in both of hers, stopping him.
“No! You have to help me. Shixiong says I haven’t been practicing enough, and he’s been talking about setting up a new training course. Please, spar with me, Yichen! If Shixiong makes me go through the training course, you know he’s going to make the entire clan do it.”
Yichen mentally flinched at the suggestion. Xiao Dan’s training courses were grueling, evil creations that left all of them sweaty, bloody, and wanting to sob in exhaustion. They were good at getting them in the best fighting shape possible, but they were also pure torture. Even Chen balked at the idea of going through them.
That being said, he had been restless the past several nights with no fights with the fae. None of them could afford to grow rusty or lax in their skills. Maybe a sparring session with Meimei would help to knock some of the rust off.
“What did you have in mind?”
The young woman punched a fist into the air in celebration. She pointed both index fingers at him with a wink. “Your sword and my spear.”
“No.”
“What—”
“Rei is sleeping, and the noise will wake him.” Or more specifically, he didn’t want his lover waking to the sounds of battle and immediately panicking. The elf was struggling to find a rhythm to his nights and days. He was remaining awake too many hours during the daylight hours to protect the clan with Xiang—even though he hadn’t actually admitted to it. He was also attempting to stay up at night to spend as much time as he could with Yichen. Rei was running himself ragged. This evening nap was rare, and Yichen didn’t want to disturb him if it could be helped.
“How’s your archery and skill with the throwing knives?”
Mei Lian’s shoulders slumped and her back bowed under an invisible weight as she frowned at him. “Throwing knives is mostly solid. Not necessarily standing on the roof of a moving car good, but strong otherwise.”
“And archery?”
She whimpered. “Yichen…”
“You’ve had two thousand years to get good at archery, and you’re still struggling. Let’s go.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her mostly limp body in the direction of the armory. “You don’t have to master every weapon, but it is important to have a strong understanding of it if you are ever trapped and have nothing else at your disposal.”
A loud, tortured groan rattled up her throat. “You’ve been gone for a century, and you still know how to sound like Chen-ge. That’s just wrong.”
