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Rei’s full lips parted on a silent sigh and the smile he flashed Yichen was lopsided as he opened his eyes. “Do I have any other choice? Even if this is a trap, it could be my one chance in a very long time to attack him. King Ash needs to be taken care of now. The more time he’s allowed to run free, the more humans who die.”
“And we all know how concerned you are about the humans,” Yichen teased.
“Of course I am! The humans are inventing all the interesting things like microwaves and fast cars and those tiny packets of lubricant. We need the humans.”
“So very true,” Yichen murmured, and he lay down again, wrapping himself around his lover.
The fight was coming.
This time it would be in a place called Coldwater.
As much as he wanted to see King Ash dead, Yichen knew his primary concern was going to be keeping his Rei alive. Nothing was coming between them. Not even the entire fae army.
Chapter 28
Rei
Coldwater was not what Rei was expecting when they reached the outskirts of the tiny, remote town in southwest Connecticut.
First, the town abutted a state park that was rich in old trees and growth, touched only by the occasional hiker. It was as if the place had been stewing in its magic for centuries, forgotten by most of the world.
Second, the town and all of the park resided next to a river, which only added to their problems.
“This is bad,” Rei whispered, talking mostly to himself.
Yichen put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “What’s wrong?”
“Old trees. Old growth. Old magic,” Rei muttered. “Not to mention the bubbling energy churning all the magic up from the river.”
“I take it you mean that the king and his army will be at an advantage here,” Xiang drawled from where he stood near Yichen.
“Very much.”
It took some effort to turn his back on the tiny town that numbered no more than a dozen old homes and a convenience store with a pair of antique gas pumps out front. A metal sign let out a high-pitched squeak as the wind gave it a nudge. The magic from the old forest crept out and ran soft fingers across his spine, beckoning him closer, teasing him with a taste of magic he could only find in his own realm.
Rei ran a hand across his face to clear his head and forced himself to gaze up at the gathering of the Zhang clan a few feet away.
“I can see why my father chose this as a starting point for his newest conquest efforts. If he can claim this land entirely from the humans, it will provide him with even more magical fuel to expand his reach. Both him and his army will become harder to kill, harder to track.”
“Harder to stop,” Chen finished.
“Even though I suspect my mother has been poisoning him, he won’t be easy to defeat tonight. And neither will his army. While my informant says he’s bringing only a squadron, I don’t trust that information. He may bring hundreds of fighters…”
“Or he might bring his most elite fighters,” Yichen filled in. “Which is like bringing hundreds.”
Rei fell silent, his eyes skimming over the dark rolling hills, dotted with little squares of golden light from the distant homes where humans were settling in for the night. If he failed to stop King Ash, they wouldn’t be slaughtered by elf warriors or even other members of the fae sent by his parents. No, nature herself would creep over them. They’d fall into a deep sleep from which they could not wake. And as they slept, vines and plants would wrap around them and pull their bodies into the dirt. They would be buried alive and slowly consumed by plants and animals, their lives sacrificed to nature.
There would be no bloodshed. Their screams would never be heard by another human.
But they would be alive and quite possibly conscious as they were slowly eaten over many, many years.
Most fae would argue that it was justice after what the humans had done to the earth.
Rei was more inclined to believe that his people had no right to place judgments on the heads of others after all the schemes and wicked plots the fae had twisted in the name of amusement.
“Do you want to retreat and take a different approach to eliminating King Ash?” Xiao Dan’s soft inquiry pulled Rei from his dark thoughts.
A wry smile lifted one corner of Rei’s lips as he looked over his shoulder at the head of the Zhang clan. “If I asked you all to leave, would you?”
