Page 131

No.

There had been two things.

Rei.

The elf had taken so many risks over those years to keep him alive. To relieve his pain and suffering. To keep the tiny flickering hope alive in his chest.

Yichen slowed his steps even though he didn’t really need to.

“How am I supposed to go to them like this?” he whispered when he felt more than heard Rei catch up to walk beside him. “I can’t drink human blood. The only blood my body will accept now…is yours. And you know their reaction to you is going to be the same as Chen-ge’s. Do you really think I can keep them all from killing you?”

One corner of Rei’s mouth twitched and lifted a centimeter. “I have faith in Yiyi’s ability to keep me alive. If only so you can keep on living.”

Yichen rolled his eyes. He led them out of the city park and toward a grim part of downtown Hartford. Neither of them was a fan of staying in a place that was so crowded with humans, but all the humans came with tons and tons of concrete. Seemingly endless amounts of concrete and very few trees. The powers of the fae—specifically the king and queen—were blunted by the human city and their obsession with concrete. The city allowed them to hide.

Unfortunately, while it protected them from Rei’s parents, the elf struggled. Rei was losing his luster, and the circles under his eyes were growing darker. Each evening, Yichen walked them to the park so the elf could wrap himself in the healing powers of nature, but the park was too small. As time went by, it was helping less and less. They needed to leave their hiding spot and return to the more heavily wooded areas for his health.

But returning to the woods came with a lot of risk. There were eyes everywhere, watching for them. No way was King Ash going to let his only son escape with a fucking vampire.

Especially when that elf and vampire planned to topple their scheme to invade the human realm.

That was the tangle, though.

If Rei were to return to the fae realm, he’d have to kill both his parents. It would be the only way he’d survive.

And if Rei returned to his home, he’d be dooming Yichen to an excruciating death by starvation. He might not need to feed often, but it had to be more than once a century.

And what if Yichen was injured in a fight? His body would demand blood.

Rei’s blood.

This was a mess. A giant, knotted ball of a mess.

They had to stop the fae from taking over the human realm. They had to kill the king and queen so Rei could live in peace. And they had to separate the ties that bound them together, allowing them to go their own ways at last.

Yichen would never return to the fae realm. He’d rather die now than step foot there.

However, Rei remaining in the human realm after the door between worlds was shut wasn’t an option either. No fae could remain behind. Without the magic from their world, they would wither and die.

Rei picked up his pace enough to step in front of Yichen and stop. He grabbed Yichen’s shoulders, his slender fingers digging into his flesh through the thin T-shirt. “Do you really believe they would reject you if they knew you drank the blood of an elf? I listened to hundreds of stories about these people you call your family. I cannot believe they would judge you so harshly.”

“No, they wouldn’t,” Yichen mumbled. They would understand.

It wasn’t as if he’d had much choice…the first time. He’d lost so much blood. There had been so much pain. He couldn’t think or move. The red haze of agony and need clouded his thoughts.

And then there was a perfect pale wrist pressed to his lips. There had been no conscious decision. He’d simply bitten down and drunk deep. With each swallow, the pain had receded and his mind cleared.

But with the first sip, it was already too late.

“As much as I hate to say these words, we need help. We know no one in this world. It is only a matter of time before my father’s forces locate us, and we have devised no useful plans for stopping his insanity. We need an army of witches, vampires, and whoever else we can get our hands on to stop him.” Rei stepped forward and pressed their foreheads together. “Please, Yiyi, it’s time to contact your family. Two broken warriors are not enough to win this war.”

Yichen closed his eyes and swallowed the sigh that tried to push past his lips. He hated when Rei was right. For the past three weeks, he’d poked around the city, trying to catch up on a century’s worth of history and technological development all while trying to come up with a cure for his problem and a solution for Rei’s.