He Freed the Kings He Once Chained, They Chose to Bind Him novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Tiger

They rode east for two days, and the smoke met them before the border did.

It lay across the sky in a brown bar, and the wind brought the smell of burned pine down the valley.

Su Ming had stayed behind to bring his council to the Charter, with a kiss for each of them and a promise to catch up at the Pass.

So it was Ren and Ken alone, on two hard-ridden horses, with the chains jingling at their wrists.

At the edge of the forest, Ken pulled up.

His hands were shaking on the reins.

"It's my forest," he said. "I haven't been in it for three years."

"Ken."

"I haven't shifted in three years." His voice was small. "What if she doesn't come?"

Ren got down from his horse, walked over to Ken's stirrup, and took his chained wrist.

"The silver is gone," he said. "Whatever comes, I'm here."

Ken stared down at him.

Then he slid from the saddle, pulled off his shirt, and let it fall in the ash.

He went down on his hands and knees on the burned grass and shut his eyes.

Ren had seen the tiger once, in a fever, in the dark.

He had not seen it come on purpose.

Dark stripes ran along Ken's back and spread across his skin.

His spine arched, his shoulders thickened, and a low sound rolled out of his throat that became a roar.

When it ended, a great tiger stood in the ashes with amber eyes, and shook himself.

He turned his head and looked at Ren.

"You came back," Ren whispered.

The tiger pushed his huge head against Ren's chest, nearly knocking him down.

Then he ran, silent and fast, into the smoke.

Ren followed on foot with a pack on his back, and for six hours he was a nurse again.

The fire had burned out two villages and stopped at a river. He washed blistered hands and cleaned burns and set the arm of a girl who would not stop apologizing for crying.

Nobody asked him whether he was a prince.

At dusk the tiger found him by the water and walked him, in a ring of dark pines, to a clearing no one had touched.

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