Page 52 of Two Thousand Blades

Thankfully, reason kicked in. Kai was a dragon. As long as Queen Belladonna wasn’t there to stir up trouble, Kai was going to be just fine.

Chen jerked the SUV up onto the curb and slammed the vehicle into Park. “We travel on foot from here. Grab weapons. Protect the humans. Slaughter the fae.”

“Bel and Winter have homes at the end of the block closest to the woods,” Moon instructed.

Meimei snorted as she jumped out of the car. “They’ll be the easiest to find. They’ll be the ones in the middle of the fight.”

Xiang moved to follow her out of the back seat when a powerful hand clamped on his arm, holding him trapped. He jerked around to find Kai glaring at him, his brow deeply furrowed and his face pale in the flickering light. Gone were the soft gray eyes, replaced with a sparkling gold. Dragon’s eyes.

“I am allowing you to enter this fight because I respect your skill and years of training,” Kai bit out, sounding as if saying these words were killing him by bits and pieces. “But I do not give you permission to become injured. Do you understand me?”

Something inside of Xiang melted into a puddle. What was this dragon doing to him? If anyone else had uttered those words, they’d be chewing on the end of his sword. But Kai—a dragon who placed him in his hoard and saw him as his own property—was trying so very hard to let him be his truest self. This was as bad as Kai fighting the commands of the heart of his hoard to keep him safe.

Xiang wrapped his hand around the nape of Kai’s neck and pulled him forward, slamming their mouths together in a brutal kiss that held a bevy of promises for the future. They would survive this and continue that kiss later.

“Hey!” Chen bellowed from the open trunk. Xiang released Kai, and they looked over the rear seat to see Chen pointing a dagger at them both. “Work out your weird relationship nonsense on your own time. We need to move now.”

That asshole!

Like he had even a centimeter of room to talk about weird relationships.

Later. He would deal with that later.

Xiang and Kai jumped out of car and rushed to the rear, where Xiang loaded himself up with weapons while Kai stood at his side, not touching anything.

“You don’t want a weapon?” Xiang inquired.

“I am a weapon,” Kai countered with a very smug smirk. “My collection preserves their beauty and perfection. I don’t actually use them in a fight. They might be damaged.”

It was hard to argue with that. Xiang nodded. “Then, before you take on the fae, can you try to do something about the fire? I have a feeling at least one of those homes belongs to a Varik.”

“Understood.” The word had barely left Kai’s lips when he was streaking toward the sky, his human body disappearing, replaced with his long, scaled dragon form as he rose into the air.

A sharp metallic clang tore his eyes away from Kai to see Chen’s empty hand open and a sword lying on the asphalt. Er-ge’s wide eyes were locked on the sky and his lips were parted. “He is a dragon,” Chen choked out.

“You didn’t believe me?” Xiang cried.

Chen jerked his gaze from the dark, churning clouds and hurried to pick up his weapon. “I believed you, but I don’t think my brain fully comprehended the words until…” His words faded and he awkwardly motioned with one hand at the sky.

Xiang reluctantly had to give him that point. Understanding that Kai the human and Kai the dragon were the same person didn’t kick in until he shifted in front of you.

“Come on! We need to find Bel and the others!” Moon shouted. As he finished speaking, a crackle of thunder cut through the skies, followed by the patter of rain. It steadily increased from gentle spring rain to a monsoon, dropping water in thick, blinding sheets.

Unwilling to wait another second, Xiang ran in the direction of the fighting, which was now muffled under the rain. He ran past the houses where the fires retreated, hissing as the rains saturated the buildings. Smoke cleared from the air, and the fleeing humans grew scarcer.

But not the fae.

The army was massive, and predominantly elves armed with bows and swords. Here and there, he caught sight of smaller creatures that scrambled up trees to hide within the thick leaves as they shot tiny arrows at him. Xiang focused on cutting his way through the fae with his clan.

Hot blood splattered across his skin, but the cool rain chased the sensation away as it washed him clean. Countless creatures fell to the slice of his blade. Dwarves, elves, fairies, even creatures he didn’t know the names of. If they attacked, he countered with the singular goal of ending their lives.

A trio of elves attempted to surround him. Blood splattered their leather armor and stained their swords. For only a blink, Xiang wondered if Rei knew these men. Were any of them relatives? Old friends?

But the thought was gone when they tried to move on him in unison. He blocked one blade with his and dodged the other two with a spin. He slid his sword free, plunged it into the chest of one elf, and slugged another hard enough to break his jaw. With one dying and another staggered, Xiang sliced through the third’s throat and returned to disembowel the attacker with the broken jaw.

Before they had fallen to the ground, Xiang was continuing on, his blade singing as it sliced through the rain to take out every foe who dared to cross his path. The earth squished under his feet, the downpour saturating the dry summer ground. Trees thrashed wildly in the wind seemingly possessed by the spirit of battle, demanding to join in.

“There! On the rise!” Xiao Dan shouted.

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