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)
Yichen shrugged. “I didn’t think he returned my feelings. Besides, the plan was always for us to part after we escaped the fae realm. I would return to the clan, and he would go off to raise an army to defeat his father. The only reason we stuck together this long was because of the blood bond.”
His shimei1 leveled a look at him that stated that she thought he was an idiot. “Yeah,” she drawled. “Totally the only reason he stuck around. Definitely not because he was making wide lovey-dovey eyes at you the entire time.”
“Whatever,” Yichen mumbled. “The point is, Rei and I were together a long time purely as allies, but it later developed into friendship. It wasn’t until much later when I thought I was going to lose him that I realized he was more than a friend.”
“So…it’s not weird for feelings to change for someone over a long period of time?” Meimei asked, her voice low as if she were trying to be nonchalant, but it was too late. Red flags were popping up everywhere. The voices of self-preservation were screaming in his head to back away.
But he couldn’t.
Even if they weren’t related by blood, Gao Mei Lian was his shimei. His meimei. He couldn’t abandon her even if he wanted to shout for Ming Yu and chuck this query right into her lap. They’d been together for two thousand years. If she’d chosen him for this question, it meant she was comfortable with him.
The only question left was, who had her feelings changed for?
Yichen cleared his throat and nocked another arrow, as if target practice was going to save him from this predicament. “Um…yeah. Sometimes feelings can change for a person after a long time. Gods know I wasn’t expecting to fall for an elf while being held captive.”
Their conversation died off while they resumed shooting at the targets. But no matter how many arrows he sent flying through the air, he couldn’t get his mind off what she’d said. No, he had to ask.
“Um…is there someone your feelings have changed for?” Yichen waded in, praying to all his ancestors this didn’t blow up in his face.
“What?” Meimei’s voice cracked as it jumped so high it was almost a screech. Her own shot flew off into the trees, nowhere near any of the targets. “No! Of course not! That’s crazy. You’re all my family. I’d never do that.”
Uh-huh. Yeah. He believed that.
But the smart thing was to leave that one untouched.
Nope. He bowed his head and concentrated on helping her archery technique. When he was done, the first thing he was going to do was wake up Rei and tell him about the land mine he’d narrowly dodged.
No, the first thing he was going to do was kiss his mate awake and tell him how wonderful he was.
Then he was going to tell him about the land mine.
After that, maybe they’d speculate on who Meimei had feelings for.
Couldn’t be Chen. Nah. Or himself.
Xiang?
Oh, Gods no. Not a chance.
Junjie? Xiao Dan?
He needed Rei to help him figure this out.
Chapter 26
Rei
Climbing over the wall was easy enough to accomplish, even with his bad knee. The sun was drawing near the horizon, and all the little vampires were tucked into their beds. Even daywalker Xiang was napping the early morning hours away.
The real hard part was sliding out from under Yichen’s arm, as it was possessively wrapped around his waist. Not so much the escaping part. That wasn’t difficult. It was finding the will to slip away from his lover.
Yichen had come to his room with the wildest story about Meimei developing feelings for someone within their clan, and he was terrified to figure out who it was.
Rei—being nosy and wanting to know everything—had immediately tried to leave the room so he could begin a very important investigation. Yichen had needed to resort to sex to keep Rei from leaving.
Yes, so terrible for both of them. So sad.
Alas, someone was here, and it was better if he handled the matter without the rest of the clan there to “help.” Well, maybe not so much better, but safer.
Safer for him.
Unless Yiyi discovered he’d sneaked away. Then he was in for a world of hurt.
Landing on the opposite side of the wall, Rei brushed his hands off against each other and moseyed into the woods that abutted three sides of the Zhang clan property. For once, he couldn’t sense the huli jing lurking about. Either the fox spirit was off monitoring the fae army or running an errand for Xiao Dan.
Magic lingered in the air. Shifter mixed with hints of old magic from the former blood witch. Tinges of earth magic from Moon’s friends. He could pick them all apart and follow them to their sources. They were as unique as the fragrances from different flowers.