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“But you’re a close brotherhood?” Chen pressed.
“Oh, yeah. They’re my ride or dies.” Chen’s brow furrowed as he searched his brain for the term. Moon chuckled. “They’re the people I’d do anything for,” he clarified.
“So, you are like my clan.”
“Except we didn’t train together. Our magic differs vastly from each other’s.” Moon continued to wander down the hall, moving toward the room where they’d made the phone call earlier in the evening. “Even Mad and Red—who are both earth witches—approach magic differently. You can ask them to cast a simple protective ward, and they’ll bicker about the proper way to do it. Sky and I just roll our eyes at them. It’s the one good thing about being a blood witch—those two don’t have any room to bitch and moan about how I do things.”
Chen grunted, sitting on the sofa next to Moon. He attempted to keep an entire cushion of space between them, but Moon smirked and scooted closer. “Junjie and Xiang argued constantly about form and technique when they were younger. Shifu and Shixiong were always pulling them apart and punishing them.”
Resting his elbow on the back of the sofa, Moon grinned at him as he laid his head in his hand. “And you weren’t a troublemaker too?”
Chen threw a harsh glare at the witch. “Absolutely not.”
Moon shoved him with his free hand. “I’m teasing. You scream ‘rule follower.’ Probably drove Sean nuts. And Daniel…or Zhang Xiao Dan?” Moon said it cautiously, as if his tongue were feeling out the syllables before looking up at Chen. He nodded his approval. The American wasn’t all that bad about getting their names correct.
The witch’s chest puffed up, and pride pulled his lips into an even bigger smile. “Zhang Xiao Dan seems like that doting older brother. But I noticed you don’t speak about your other brother much. Yichen?”
Chen jerked his gaze away from Moon and stared straight ahead at the garden beyond the glass. A few small solar lamps glowed among the leafy plants, giving the garden an otherworldly glow.
“Wu Yichen,” Chen started and stopped to clear his throat against a sudden tightness. He didn’t talk about his youngest brother because there remained this traitorous voice in the back of his mind, screaming that it was already too late.
And it was all Chen’s fault.
No!
He would not give up. It wasn’t too late. They could still save their didi. Yichen had survived for so long, fought so valiantly over the years. They would not lose him now. Not like this. Not while Yichen was so far away from his brothers and the rest of their family.
“There’s no reason to speak of him, because you will meet him soon enough. You will see what he is like and you can talk to him yourself,” Chen snapped.
“Really? I’ll get to meet him?”
Chen’s head jerked at what sounded like teasing from Moon and replayed his own words. It took a second for it to click in his brain. Meeting Yichen meant that he expected Moon to be around after the fae door opened and they rescued Yichen.
But that was wrong. They needed Moon to make the introductions to his earth witch friend and the necromancer, who could connect them properly with the Variks. It was very possible that if this Red could cast his location spell tonight, Moon would leave with them. There was no reason for him to see Moon after tonight.
These could be his final minutes with the blood witch.
“I…” No other words followed as Chen’s throat closed up, sealed by the heart that had jumped up to stop him from uttering anything that could damn him.
How could this be the end already? They had to need the witch for something else. There had to be another reason for him to stay. Yet remaining close meant putting his life in danger. As a blood witch, the fae would have no interest in him. However, if he remained near the Zhang clan as they attacked, that interest in Moon would change.
“Chen?”
“No, I…” He didn’t know what to say. It should be that he misspoke and that he wouldn’t get to meet Yichen. He should say that Moon would be returning home tonight and that they would never speak again.
“Chen-ge?”
That snapped Chen’s frantic thoughts like a taut rubber band. Chen’s gaze flew to Moon’s joyous face. The man appeared to be barely keeping himself from exploding with laughter.
“Do not call me that,” Chen snarled, but the insane witch didn’t look deterred in the slightest. In fact, the lunatic scooted closer so that the elbow resting on the cushion now brushed Chen’s shoulder. Moon bent his right leg, tucking his foot under his left knee while brushing his right knee on Chen’s thigh.
“Chen-ge? What about that? Can you be Chen-ge?” Moon asked in a low voice.
