He Freed the Kings He Once Chained, They Chose to Bind Him novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: What Yes Costs

Su Ming had spent three years deciding what to say to men in power before they could ask him.

He knew the answer to the envoy's question in his bones, and it was the old one.

I am well. Everything is as it should be.

He opened his mouth to say it.

Then he felt the key in the pocket of his robe, small and cool against his thigh.

"I am not held," Su Ming said.

His own voice surprised him.

"Your Majesty..."

"The prince has taken the bolts off the bed. I have the key to the lock in my pocket." He drew it out and held it up in the steam, where the envoy could see. "I stay here by my own choice, until the coronation. Tell the council that. Tell them to wait."

The envoy looked at the key, then at Ren's bare shoulders and Ken's grin and Ryu's silent face.

His throat worked.

"Wait for what, Majesty?"

"For the Release. If anyone marches before it, they march against me."

The envoy bowed so low that his letter dipped into the water.

He left, backing out, and the door clicked shut.

Ken laughed until he coughed.

"Against me," he said, in a deep voice. "Look at him."

"Be quiet," Su Ming said, and found that he was smiling.

It was a real smile.

It hurt his face a little.

That night he lay awake in the big bed with the other three asleep around him, listening to their breathing.

He had never lain awake in that bed without waiting for a hand.

Now the only hand was Ren's, curled loosely on the sheet beside his hip, and Ren was asleep, mouth open, snoring faintly.

Su Ming watched him for a long time.

Then he reached over and touched his shoulder.

Ren woke at once, with his hand already reaching for a pulse that was not there.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Come to the window."

They sat in the deep sill with the shutter open to the summer night, close together, with their shoulders touching.

"I'm trying to tell you something," Su Ming said.

"Okay."

"For three years every man I touched wanted something, and I gave it before he could ask. I thought that was a skill." His fingers worried the hem of his sleeve. "Now you want nothing, and I've been trying to find what I want, and there's nothing there. It's like reaching for a shelf in the dark and finding the wall."

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