I Sealed the Demon Lord for a Hundred Years, Now He Wants His Jailer novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Brand

"Full means it closes," Wuhen said. "I understood that part."

"Lan Zhu found the last page this morning."

Chenjue stood at the window of the east wing with his back to the room.

Beyond the glass the sky was the color of a bruise, and the ash garden below was going gold in the last of the light.

"It closes at midnight on the thirtieth night. But a keeper's brand grows roots in the core as it drinks, and it can be torn out while it's full."

"By whom?" Wuhen asked.

"By the one whose qi filled it."

Wuhen said nothing for a moment.

"You've been pouring yourself into me for nine days on purpose."

"Yes," Chenjue replied.

"You said it was to heal me."

"That was also true," Chenjue answered.

"Will it hurt?"

Chenjue turned.

His face was calm, and his hands were not.

"It will be the worst thing that has ever been done to you. I have to drive my qi through the brand faster than it can drink, and you have to stay open and awake the whole time."

"I could do that sitting in a chair."

"No." The red eyes held his. "I have to be inside you. It's the only way the qi goes all the way to the root."

"Of course it is."

"I'm sorry," Chenjue said.

"Don't be. I've been sealed for a hundred years. I can do one night."

Chenjue crossed the room in three strides and knelt in front of him.

He took Wuhen's hands, and he kissed the knuckles, one at a time.

"Where?" Wuhen said. "Not the bed."

"The garden."

"You want me to be tortured in the garden?" Wuhen asked.

"You wanted the sky."

Wuhen looked at him for a long moment.

Then he laughed, short and unsteady.

"I did."

They carried out the furs themselves, or Chenjue did, and Zhu Ao and a white-faced Lan Zhu brought braziers and lit them under the ash-blossom trees.

Zhu Ao looked at Wuhen only once.

"If you die," the general said, "I'll never hear the end of it."

"I'll try to be quiet about it."

"Don't be."

He left.

Lan Zhu bowed three times and fled.

By the time the stars came out, the white flowers lay in drifts on the black ground, and the braziers glowed red, and Wuhen was naked on a heap of furs with the whole sky open above him.

He had not seen a night sky in a hundred years.

The stars were thick, and sharp, and very cold.

Chenjue lay down beside him, pulled him over onto his chest, and kissed him until the stars blurred.

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