Page 90 of Two Thousand Shadows

It was a painful understatement to say that the fae vastly outnumbered them. Even with a dragon on their side. Ellora was supposed to bring her army of resistance fighters, but they didn’t know how many she had on her side or what kind of damage they could do.

“Shit!” Xiao Dan swore suddenly, ripping Junjie’s gaze from the movement of the fae army.

Xiao Dan was kneeling on the ground, curled up in the fetal position. Huli flew from where he’d been lurking in the shadows,shifting into human form the second he reached Xiao Dan. He laid an arm across his bowed shoulders and pulled him in close.

“Gege, what happened? Where are you hurt?” Huli demanded.

“It’s the fae magic,” Xiao Dan panted. “I can’t hold my glamour in place on the field. The closer those wizards get to us, the more their magic burns through mine.”

Junjie swore under his breath and stared at the field. The glamour Xiao Dan had created had been barely noticeable. A few changes to the field and sky. Things that most wouldn’t see even if they were searching for them. The hope was that Jiang Chong would walk into their trap without realizing it, giving himself away. They hadn’t considered that the fae could disperse Xiao Dan’s glamour.

But Jiang Chong would have.

A chill ran up Junjie’s spine and he spun, turning his back to the field and the fae army. He scoured the wooded area where his team waited for the first sign of Jiang Chong. Thunder crashed again; the heavenlyboomcame closer this time as the storm bore down on them.

“There!” Huli shouted, pointing at Moon.

The young vampire didn’t even have a chance to move. Philippe dove across the short distance separating them, hitting Moon square in the chest and taking them both to the ground. They were briefly lost in the brush while all eyes turned to the blade that poked through a hole in the very air.

Jiang Chong stepped through the opening, a grin slashing wide across his face. “We have unfinished business.”

The monster’s words must have served as a signal, because a cry rose around them in the woods and more than a hundred elves poured through the trees with bows and swords raised. Trin had gifted Jiang Chong his small army to use.

“Leo! Keep your eye on Jiang Chong!” Xiao Dan shouted as they all dove into the fight. Without Xiao Dan’s glamour spell to help give them some warning of Jiang Chong’s presence, Leo was the only one who could see the vampire when he dipped into the dead realm.

A fierce roar erupted from Leo as he jumped from his perch in the tree and raced toward Jiang Chong. Junjie followed on his heels, leaving the rest of his team to fight the fae. Gunshots rang out above the cries of the dying. Philippe and Rafe had no training in bladed weapons but were excellent marksmen. The air crackled with magic from both the fae and Huli. Junjie exhaled, and it came out as white fog. The temperature of the forest had dropped more than twenty degrees in a matter of seconds, thanks to Chen and his ice magic. Frost crawled up the trees and gilded the grasses at their feet.

But Junjie didn’t let his gaze waver from Jiang Chong and Leo. The jaguar was almost a liquid black blur as muscles stretched and danced under smooth fur. He leaped at Jiang Chong, and the vampire moved to bring his sword down. Yet Leo shifted from a massive jaguar to a tiny house cat in the blink of an eye. The vampire didn’t have the chance to adjust his attack. Leo landed right on his face and kicked off, supplying Junjie with the perfect distraction to attack.

Their blades clashed, and Junjie laughed at Jiang Chong’s surprised expression. His haughty demeanor was long gone. He might have caught them off guard, but they were not about to be beaten so easily.

“I never expected to have another chance to kill you,” Junjie bit out as he deflected each of Jiang Chong’s slashes. His old creator had gotten faster over the years, but so had Junjie. For two thousand years, he’d regularly trained with his clan, determined to be a powerful defender of his brothers and sisters. He was not about to let such an evil threat defeat him now.

“You would never have gotten so close the first time if it had not been for the rest of your clan,” Jiang Chong snarled. “You could never defeat me one on one.”

“That may be true, but I don’t care. I will always have my clan and my mate at my side to see me through any adversity. Together, we will destroy you.”

Just saying those words lifted an ancient weight from his chest. It was as if the words Shifu Shi Lei had whispered in his ear a hundred times had clicked into place. He wasn’t alone or an outsider because of his birth. The Zhang clan was his family and his home. Leo was his mate. They would always be there to support him. There was no need for him to face Jiang Chong alone.

It began as a small bubble. A giggle. But soon the laughter broke forth, shaking Junjie’s entire body as he continued to match Jiang Chong.

“Have you gone mad?” Jiang Chong demanded, taking an extra step back to disengage from Junjie. He stared at Junjie as if he’d lost his mind, but for the first time in his entire life, everything felt right.

“No. I finally figured out how little you matter.”

Jiang Chong snarled and lunged at Junjie. The clashes of their swords rang out again and again as their battle raged over the woods. Junjie was vaguely aware of the rest of the clan fighting swarms of fae around him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off his creator for even a second.

He caught flashes of orange in his peripheral vision. Those flashes were usually followed by horrific screams as Leo, now in his Bengal tiger form, took down any member of the fae who got too close to him and Jiang Chong. No one could aid the monster across from him. Tonight, this had to end.

Muscles burned, and a cold sweat tricked down from his temples. A knot formed in his stomach, and a realization rosein his mind. He was slowing down. The fight was stretching too long. Jiang Chong was giving him no opening to steal the advantage.

Patience.

It was almost as if Shifu were whispering in his ear as he fought with Xiang back in the training ground of their youth.

“Patience…and trust in your training.”

The panic receded, and he could breathe a little easier. Jiang Chong had never trained with them. He’d always stood on the sidelines and barked orders. Only Shifu—and later Xiao Dan—had actively participated in their drills, gently correcting their stances and movements so they were perfect. Jiang Chong had never practiced the Sword of the Heavenly Garden sect techniques and fighting style.

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