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Kill the king and they would get their brother.
But there were too many. Creatures of all shapes and sizes scrambled toward him. For every one he destroyed, three more would spring up in its place. He lost all sight of his clan and Moon in the fray. The scent of blood hung heavy in the humid air, igniting a bloodlust in his chest he thought long since dead. It gave him energy when his muscles burned and limbs trembled.
“Chen!” Moon’s voice cut through the din of clashing weapons, dying screams, and guttural war cries.
Chen jerked his head to see Moon had summoned up the growing pools of blood that couldn’t yet sink into the saturated ground. From that thick, viscous ball, Moon sent out a blast, plowing through a huge swatch of the army. In the blink of an eye, the path between him and King Ash was clear. No one was standing in his way any longer.
With a roar of rage from the very depths of his soul, Chen launched himself at the king, but the elf in the shining armor met each strike with a block. Sparks flew through the darkness each time their blades struck. Chen attacked again and again, adding in bursts of ice and frost when he could. The elf king danced around both while his people were frozen into statues.
“Another vampire. How…unexpected,” King Ash drawled after several minutes, sounding mildly interested.
“We’ve come for our brother. Release him,” Chen snarled.
King Ash cocked his head to the side, sending hair spilling over his shoulder as he blocked another attempt to remove his head. At this point, Chen would be content to remove an ear. Or that smug expression. “Your brother?”
“Wu Yichen! How many vampires do you have prisoner?”
“Oh, that one belonged to you.” King Ash darted away, hopping up onto a fallen log several feet away. “I don’t think you’ll be getting him back. In fact, I think maybe I’ll keep you as well. I always liked my pets to be a matched set.”
Chen lunged for him when a hand grabbed his elbow. He changed his momentum, bringing his sword up to kill what had a hold of his arm. He barely stopped himself from removing Moon’s head. The blood witch wasn’t looking at him, though. He threw another red-tinted spell at the elf king, wrapping him up in what appeared to be a sticky web.
As soon as he caught the king, Moon tugged Chen’s elbow. “We have to retreat.”
“What?” Chen jerked his arm free of Moon, but didn’t get more than a step away from him when the witch’s words cut through him.
“There are too many. They hurt Junjie. We’re overwhelmed. Ming Yu and Meimei are missing. That spell won’t hold him for much longer.”
Jun-Jun was hurt?
For the first time since he’d entered the battle, he scanned his surroundings. All the witches who helped the fae were dead, killed by the Zhang clan or by the fae themselves. Fae bodies lay shredded and broken on the ground, but more were still pouring through the opening every second.
He glimpsed Xiang helping Jun-Jun to escape while Xiao Dan was covering their retreat. Moon had remained behind to pull him out.
And yet, in all the chaos, there wasn’t a single sign of Wu Yichen. He didn’t want to leave. Not until he had his brother in his arms.
But if he didn’t leave now, he wouldn’t be able to protect the clan members he still had. He wouldn’t be able to keep Moon safe either.
Moon gave his arm another tug, pulling him in the opposite direction that he saw Xiang and the others moving. “Come on. We’ll lead them away to give the others time to escape. I think I know another way to the cars.”
Chen nodded and set off behind Moon as they cut and blasted their way through the crowds of fae as they attacked. Others seemed to disperse in every direction through the woods, skipping and singing as they enjoyed their new freedom.
But they didn’t get far before they discovered they were being hunted.
The elf king’s laugh echoed through the forest. Sometimes it sounded as if he were behind them and others it was as if he were in front of them. He moved like a ghost between the trees. Chen caught flashes of silver and white just prior to an attack. The elf king would lunge in. They would trade a few blows, and then he’d retreat again.
Chen’s hands shook. A cold sweat soaked into his clothes, leaving them sticking to his frame. Every fiber of his being hurt. It was only as he chanced a glance up at a break in the trees to find that the sky was changing from midnight blue to paler and paler gray. The sun was rising. The elf king was keeping them on the run, herding them away from their escape route so that he would be trapped outside when the sun peeked above the horizon.
