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)
Rei chuckled and batted his hands away. “Enough. Did you consider that you might have changed during the past century? You’re not the innocent boy you were when they stole you away.”
“Fuck you!” The vampire pressed his hands into the bed behind him and tried to shove to his feet. Rei threw a leg over Yichen’s shoulder and pressed his calf against his chest, pinning him in place.
“Don’t move. I’m not done braiding your hair.”
Yichen grabbed his ankle, his cool touch somehow scalding his flesh, causing muscles to stiffen, but the vampire clearly didn’t notice that Rei was melting. “You’re an asshole. I was not some innocent boy who was ruined when I stepped into the fae realm.”
Rei grinned and leaned close so that his lips were next to Yichen’s ear. “Say it a little louder, Yiyi. I don’t think all of your clan heard that. Let them wonder about all the ways you were ruined in my hands.”
“You’re such a pain,” Yichen growled, but he dropped to the floor and released his hold on Rei’s leg, much to Rei’s chagrin. Whatever, he still had Yichen’s hair to play with and the gentle scent of him filling the room where he would sleep. He took what small victories he could claim before they were separated forever.
Pressing his cheek to the top of Yichen’s head, Rei sighed. “And you’ve always been fun to tease. My grumpy prince.”
“Spoiled, arrogant prince,” Yichen sniped. Yet there was no heat in his voice. They were the same barbs they’d traded for years.
With his fingers working through Yichen’s hair, he picked up the thread of their conversation. “I understand. You’ve built up this moment of returning home to your clan for a century. You thought it would be like sliding into your old life, but that old life doesn’t exist anymore. Your clan experienced a century without you, along with all the changes the human world went through. You’ve returned tied to a damn elf. It’s going to take time to fall into a familiar rhythm with them. But in a matter of weeks, maybe just days, you’re going to find that the clan you cherish is there under all the layers. Your place among them is still waiting for you. It’s been one evening. Give it more time.”
“I hate that you’re always so logical.”
“One of us has to be logical from time to time. It was my turn. I’ll allow you to be the logical one tomorrow, and I’ll have the meltdown.”
Yichen breathed out a laugh, his shoulders shaking. It wasn’t entirely the truth, but close enough. There had been only a few times Rei had stormed into Yichen’s prison, waving a dagger and cursing his parents or the royal court for some bit of nonsense that had threatened to push him over the edge. During those times, Yichen had been the one to talk him through his ravings and keep him from getting killed.
“It feels…weird,” the vampire commented, his voice barely above a whisper.
Rei held in a teasing comment about how he’d never thought getting his hair braided in the past was weird. Yichen had calmed from his panic. It wouldn’t be much longer before he was ready to slide into his bed and sleep. “What feels weird?”
“Having people supporting me again. When I arrived in your realm, I was alone. After a few years, I had you there helping in what little ways you could. It became us against the world. Plotting and scheming, lying to carve out a safe niche so we could breathe. So many years like that…” He paused and rubbed his forehead with one hand. “I forgot what it was like to sit in a haven. To be surrounded by people who cared for me.”
A wintery chill sank into Rei’s bones, leaving behind an ache so deep his fingers stilled in the middle of a braid. That had been his existence almost since birth. From the moment he’d drawn back the string on his first bow, his father, King Ash, began plotting his death. Every child born from his wife was a threat to his place on the Dawn throne.
Exaggerating? Not likely. Just ask the six siblings who’d come ahead of him and died under “mysterious” circumstances. At eight hundred and seventy-five, he was already the oldest of all King Ash and Queen Belladonna’s children.
He’d been alone for centuries, constantly tangled in his father’s schemes, the whims of his mother, and the plotting of the Silver Court, who wanted to win the favor of the king. The few allies he’d cultivated over the years had been killed off one after another.
When Yichen came on the scene, the king and court had a new distraction. Rei welcomed the respite while he could get it. In the beginning, he’d sided with Yichen to spite his parents. He hadn’t really cared for the bloodsucking creature.