Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 117167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Not that he thought Rei was his mate!
Absolutely not!
Just that Chen knew what a mate looked like and maybe he could talk some sense into him. That was all.
“Yes. It’s…it’s all a fucking mess. We’re friends. That’s it. We started out as allies simply because we had a common enemy—the king and queen. It’s simply that over the years, our friendship grew because there was no one else we could trust. No one else to depend on.”
Chen raised one of his thick, dark eyebrows while his fingertips deftly turned the cup on the table without making a sound. “Is that all there is between you? You trust him not to kill you?”
“No. That was only at first. The first decade or so of living in the fae realm. But…” His words drifted off, and he licked his lips while trying to put into words a bond that was forged out of necessity, trust, respect, and pain. “Being with Rei is similar to what I see with you and Moon. He’s my opposite in so many ways. His sense of humor is twisted, and he makes me laugh at the worst times. It’s like he knows what I’m thinking without needing to say the words. He can talk me out of my bad moods.”
“He sounds like a good friend, but that doesn’t explain the kiss. Xiao Dan and I have been close friends for longer than I’ve known you, yet I’ve never felt compelled to kiss him.”
Yichen glared at Chen, but his clan brother didn’t even flinch as he returned the stare. Sometimes, Chen was such a pain in the ass.
Naturally, Yichen cracked first.
He threw up his arms. “I don’t know what happened! First, we had that stupid meeting with that meddling witch. Then he put his damn life in danger again, standing on that car. He could have gotten killed falling off or having one of those dogs tear out his throat. The damn elf does that shit all the time. He jumps in without planning things out, trusting too much in his own skills and magic when he needs to have someone protecting his back.”
“Sounds like he has become accustomed to you protecting him,” Chen murmured.
“It was too much! He could have died tonight! And when he was in my arms, he looked so pale and vulnerable, like he was about to shatter. I wasn’t thinking. I-I-I wasn’t thinking.”
“So, you kissed him.”
“Yes!”
“A one-time thing.”
“Of course!”
“And you want him to stay here in the human realm after the door closes.”
“Gods, yes!” he moaned before he could stop the words. He slapped both hands over his mouth the second the last syllable left his tongue. He hadn’t meant to say that.
No, he meant it. He’d just never meant to say it out loud.
Chen smiled, happy as an oriole who snagged himself a mantis. He took a long sip of his tea, still not saying a word. He didn’t need to.
“Fuck! I forgot what it’s like talking to you sometimes,” Yichen snarled after lowering his hands to his lap.
“Considering we are fighting a clock to defeat King Ash and push the fae back to their realm, I thought it wise not to let you continue to lie to yourself,” Chen stated as he poured himself some more tea.
“How long do you think I’ve been lying to myself?”
“Quite a while.” Chen looked up at him, his smirk softening into something tender and a bit sad. “I saw it that night we found you and Rei. Even though we’ve been separated for a century, I still know you, Didi. When you protected Rei from me, I saw it in your eyes. It wasn’t only fear and desperation. There was a fire. The same fire that burns in me for Moon. If I would have taken another step toward Rei, you would have tried to kill me. That is more than friendship you feel for him.”
“Ge, I don’t know what I’m doing. Rei, he’s…he’s been this constant in my life for years. I don’t want to let him go. Don’t want him to get hurt. But what if I’m simply accustomed to having him at my side? That it’s not really about attraction.”
Chen lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “Kiss him again. If you feel no attraction to him, it was fear you were reacting to. You have only brotherly affection for him.”
Yichen groaned. “I don’t think kissing him a second time is a good idea. Right now, I’m praying he doesn’t remember the first kiss.”
“Even if he doesn’t remember the first kiss, you will.”
“I know.”
“What if you kiss him and discover that there is more than fear there?”
He rubbed his eyes with one hand while wishing that Chen had brought in a bottle of wine rather than tea. “What you mean is, what if I realize I love him? What am I supposed to do with that if I do love him? He needs to kill his parents and steal the throne. It’s the only way to protect this realm from the fae. He can’t stay here, and there’s no fucking way I’m going back there. I can’t…I just can’t.”