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)
Xiao Dan led them to a large room with several long sofas with cushions covered in the softest fabric. Much better than the rough, lumpy sofa they had in their apartment. He rubbed his hand across the material after he sat, and shot a smirk in Yichen’s direction.
His companion snorted and gave his shoulder a shove. “Don’t start with me.”
“What?” Rei aimed for an innocent tone, but Yichen’s glare declared he wasn’t buying it. “I’m only saying that this is nice. You might have to get the Blood Witch to kick me outside your wall.”
“And I thought it was you rubbing it in that we could have been living here weeks ago if I hadn’t been so stubborn,” Yichen grumbled.
“Well…that too,” Rei drawled. He could feel the tilt of his lips turning a little wicked.
“I don’t understand,” Meimei interrupted. “You didn’t want to return?” She pointed at Yichen and then snapped her head around to Rei. “It wasn’t…”
She didn’t need to finish. Every member of the clan had been thinking it. The elf had to be the one keeping Yichen from his family.
“No! Not Rei. It was me.” Yichen shoved a hand through his incredibly long hair, pushing it away from his face. It slid over his shoulder to caress Rei’s bare arm. Yichen dropped his hand into his lap with a loud slap in the silent room.
Everything in Rei screamed to reach over and touch his hand, his cheek. Something to reassure him that he wasn’t alone, but he froze, his hands resting on his knees. He wouldn’t do anything that would cause Rei’s family to hate him more.
“There’s a lot I don’t wish to talk about.” A slight tremor crawled through Yichen’s words, but his voice grew stronger as he continued. “Not now. Maybe never. The one thing you need to know is that I would never have survived my captivity if not for the man sitting next to me right now. This is Crown Prince Wistari Elnaril Reymaris, the child of King Ash and Queen Belladonna of the fae. Heir to the Dawn throne.”
Otherwise known as traitor, Rei thought, but kept that to himself. His level of guilt about turning on his parents was fairly nonexistent. His father had lost his mind and was going to destroy the humans and his own people.
Did he care about the imminent demise of his people?
Probably not as much as he should.
Okay. Not much at all.
The vampire at his side was currently sucking up all the concern he was capable of.
Of course, it was very hard to care about a people who saw him as something to use or manipulate.
Xiao Dan rose to his feet, jerking Rei out of his swirling thoughts. Rei’s eyes widened as the vampire held his arms in a circle in front of him and bowed deeply. The others of the clan quickly joined him, sending a streak of panic through Rei.
“Thank you for saving and protecting Wu Yichen. Our clan is in your debt. You will always be welcome in the Zhang clan,” the clan leader announced. Each word became a heavy stone that landed on his chest, threatening to crush him.
“No, please!” Rei jumped to his feet, waving his hands at them all. “No. It’s not that simple. There’s a price. I didn’t—” He broke off as panic threatened to suffocate him and turned pleading eyes on Yichen. He needed to make them understand they couldn’t thank him. Not when they were going to hate him in the next breath. “Yiyi!”
Yichen snagged his elbow and pulled him to the seat. Despite sitting on Rei’s left, he reached across and captured his right hand, his fingers gently caressing the long-healed wound where his mother had cut off his pinky finger. Without a word, his Yiyi reminded him they’d both made sacrifices and come out scarred.
“You had to drink his blood.”
The voice was soft and somber, but the words ripped everyone’s eyes to the blood witch still standing beside Chen Bo Cheng. Moon narrowed his eyes on Yichen and rubbed the tip of his chin. Rei’s heart threatened to stop. He didn’t dare move as the witch stared at them, reading gods only knew what in the magic rippling up from Yichen.
“You were tortured during your stay with the fae,” Moon continued, lowering his hand to wrap his arm around Chen’s waist as if he suspected his mate would need his support. “We’ve seen what the fae have done to the humans they’ve encountered. No one here would believe it if you weren’t harmed. Naturally, you would have needed blood to heal, or you would have died. Even if the fae kept a stockpile of humans for you to feed off of, I imagine you would have eventually needed a member of the fae to be a donor.” Moon’s all-too-perceptive gaze slid over to Rei and it was a struggle not to flinch. “The crown prince offered his blood to save you.”