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A soft grunt escaped the witch as he rose. “That makes sense.” He strode off the path that wound to the house, moving slowly between some trees with dark, glossy green leaves. “I noticed you use the term sect and clan to refer to your group, but the terms don’t feel interchangeable.”
“Because they are not the same thing.” Chen strolled behind him, allowing Moon to lead in his wanderings. “For my people, clan refers to a grouping of people who are a family, whether by blood, marriage, or adoption. A sect is a grouping of people who follow and study a specific teaching or belief. The Zhang clan started the Sword of the Heavenly Garden Sect several generations prior to my birth. It was never a large sect, and it was mostly comprised of members of the Zhang family or clan.”
“Wait!” Moon spun and strode toward him. “Chen Bo Cheng. You don’t use Zhang as your last name like Junjie or Daniel, I mean Xiao Dan. Does that mean you’re not part of the clan? You’re part of the sect?”
Chen just barely fought back his grin, loving the way Moon’s mind worked. “Yes…and no.” That earned him a scowl. He reached up and lightly flicked the center of Moon’s forehead. “Shifu Zhang Shi Lei had me formally adopted into the Zhang clan because of my dedication to the clan and sect. I was also estranged from my family. I was technically entered into the family scrolls, but I never changed my name before everything changed. Junjie is the only one of us that is a blood member of the Zhang clan. He’s the nephew of Shifu.”
“Zhang Xiao Dan?”
“Shifu found Shixiong as an orphan and adopted him when he was a child. Li Xiang and Wu Yichen could never be accepted into the clan because of existing ties to their own family.”
“So they’re only sect members.” Moon wandered away. He lifted a hand up, running his fingers across some leaves on a low-hanging branch. “What about Ming Yu and Meimei?”
“Meimei started as an accident of poor timing. Her parents arranged her marriage with one of my sect brothers. She’d been sent to him for their wedding, but he died before they could make their bows.” Chen paused and glared at the ground, an old ache throbbing to life in his chest when it should have long since healed. Neither Mei Lian nor Ming Yu should have suffered the fate they had. It wasn’t right. But none of them had been given many choices in those dark days.
“Chen?”
“Ming Yu had been a servant in the Zhang household,” Chen continued in a brisk, clipped tone.
“What?” Moon marched over to him, his mouth hanging open. “How—”
“I don’t wish to discuss it further tonight,” Chen cut him off. “The memories are not pleasant. All you need to know is that both Meimei and Shijie are honored and valued members of our sect.”
“Ming Yu isn’t still your servant, right? Two thousand years later?”
Chen gasped and lifted his right hand to flick Moon’s forehead. Only this time, the crafty witch caught his hand and smirked. So Chen flicked him with the left one. “Absolutely not. As I said, she is an honored and valued member. She and Mei Lian are on equal standing with myself or Jun-Jun or Xiang.”
“Good!” Moon released his hand and rubbed his forehead. He began to stroll away, but Chen caught him with a question.
“Are you worried about your friends coming here?”
Moon half turned to him and grinned over his shoulder at Chen. “Stubborn, aren’t you?”
“I must protect my clan.”
His companion huffed a laugh and nodded, resuming his walk into the thin woods that lined the rear of their property. “Yeah. I get that. But I’m also hoping that you and your clan or sect can show a little patience with Red and Sky. They can be just as overprotective as you.”
“Do you believe they will attack when they see you being held by vampires?”
Moon spun, his eyes wide. “Attack? No.” He chuckled. “Nah. Not attack. At least not at first. As long as they see me walking free and unharmed, they won’t attack. However, there’s a damn good chance they’ll be rude until they get the full story of what’s going on.”
Chen sniffed, his chin tilting up. “I am not intolerant. I can overlook rude behavior if it means saving my brother.”
A loud cackle danced through the trees as Moon stumbled to Chen’s side. He threaded his arm through Chen’s, causing his heart to skip. Moon pulled him along, still holding on to his arm.
“You’re hilarious.” Moon giggled.
He shrugged off that comment. He was being completely serious and couldn’t understand what Moon found so funny. “Do you trust your friends?”
“Yes, absolutely.” There was no hesitation in Moon’s answer. “They might be rude and verbally combative, but they are worried about my safety. I don’t think they’d do anything that would be viewed as a threat to your clan. Once they hear the fae kidnapped your clan mate and you’re trying to rescue him, I’m sure they will be happy to help.”
