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)
“I asked Chen the same question when he announced he and Moon were mates,” Meimei announced, breaking into his thoughts.
“What did he say?” Yes, maybe that would help him gather his thoughts.
“He said he knew when he and Moon had sex on Moon’s front lawn, when it was littered with the corpses of vampires he’d killed to protect his mate.”
The arrow he had pinched between his fingers on the drawn string slipped and sliced through the air, heading nowhere near any of the targets. “He did not say that!”
“I swear he did! It’s exactly what he said!”
Yichen’s mouth bobbed open, but in the end, he snapped it shut with a click of his teeth, not saying a word. Chen had always been a bit bloodthirsty—even before becoming a vampire. It was just that he hid it better than Xiang or himself as they went into battle.
With his eyes squeezed shut, Yichen repeated, “You’re telling me, after killing vampires to protect Moon, they had sex on the front lawn. Next to the dead bodies. That’s when he knew he loved Moon and that the witch was his mate.”
“Yep, that’s what he told me.” Yichen opened his eyes to see a very matter-of-fact expression on Meimei’s face as she worked. She lifted her eyes a bit to meet his gaze.
“I was gone too long,” Yichen muttered under his breath.
“Yes, you were, but that has nothing to do with this. You know Er-ge has always been super repressed. Moon helps him break out of his little repressed cocoon. It’s good for him.”
Okay, he couldn’t argue with any of that. Er-ge was stiff, reserved, and repressed. Moon couldn’t be more of an opposite to Chen, and yet they worked together so perfectly. Two strangely formed puzzle pieces that fit together, their seams disappearing.
“But what about you and Rei? When did you know?”
“Well, it wasn’t when we had sex for the first time,” he grumbled, turning his attention to the arrows resting in his quiver.
“Duh. It had to be earlier.”
That was…unexpected. His head snapped up and his hand stilled. “Why do you say that?”
Meimei’s own attention was on her bow, nocking an arrow and drawing back the string. “Probably because you returned snarling and threatening everyone about Rei, like you expected people to attack him because he was an elf. It was obvious to the entire clan that Rei was more than some guy you escaped the fae realm with.”
“Oh. Sorry—”
“No sorries!” Meimei shouted as she released the arrow. It didn’t hit the center, but it at least hit the basket, unlike his last shot. She shook her bow at him. Yichen stumbled a couple of steps to keep from being hit on the head with the oak bow. “We’re family. That means there’s no sorries between us. We know. Or…well, we don’t actually know, but we understand as best we can. No one took offense.”
Silence settled between them as they returned to their target practice. The only sounds were the soft rustle of the leaves in the light breeze, the distant burble of the stream, and the thwang of the bow string with each release.
“It was about a month before the door between realms opened. We were finalizing our plans for our escape. We’d talked about it for years, but we’d gotten the plan worked out so that it looked flawless. Rei had said something about how I’d never have to see another elf again after I reached my clan, and…it was like all the air had been sucked out of the room.” Muscles tightened in his chest at the memory, squeezing his lungs. “Cold sweat covered me, and my every instinct was to grab him, to pull him into my arms and never let him go. At first, I told myself that Rei had become a crutch. Someone to watch my back. I wouldn’t need him after I returned home to my clan.”
“Except…” Meimei prodded when his words dried up.
“Except when I thought of Rei, it was never about how he protected me. I only thought about his laugh, or the stupid stories he’d tell. Or that I’d never wake up to discover he’d braided my hair in some weird way during the day. I wouldn’t ever hear him brag about his skill with the bow. Without that, the world seemed so empty.” He sighed. “I’d spent years telling him stories about the members of my clan. I guess some part of my brain imagined him meeting all of you when I was free, as if it were a natural conclusion to what had happened.”
“Maybe your heart had already decided that Rei needed to be here with us too,” Meimei whispered.
“Probably.”
“When did you tell him?”
“Pretty much when I kissed him in the middle of the road.”
Meimei huffed and rolled her eyes. “You and Chen do things so weirdly. You waited that long and then kissed in the road.”