The Immortal Who Holds the Demon Lord's Heart novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Give It Back

"Take your time, Zhaohe," Fu called, from far down the passage. "I have two hundred men and a very long afternoon."

Han stood with his back to the voice and his eyes on the door.

Mo had not moved.

"Wen Qi," Mo said, without turning. "How long to widen the crack?"

"The ice is thick, my lord." The crow stood on the slab, feathers up. "They will need a long while to break it."

"Then we have until they do."

Mo put his right palm flat on the black wood.

"It opens for the two of us," he said. "I wrote it that way."

Han laid his left hand beside Mo's.

The wood grew warm under their fingers, and the carved script lit red from the inside.

The door swung inward without a sound.

Behind it lay a small round room of black stone.

A lamp kindled by itself, over a wide low bed heaped in old black furs.

It was Mo's private chamber, sealed three hundred years ago and never touched.

They stepped through.

The door closed behind them, and the voices of the soldiers went out.

"Wen Qi stays outside," Mo said. "He can talk to Fu if he must. Fu will hear nothing from us."

Han looked at the bed.

Then he looked at Mo, who stood in the middle of the floor with his arms hanging.

Mo seemed to have forgotten what to do with them.

"Zhaohe."

"Yes."

"Put your hand here."

He took Han's wrist and pressed his palm against the scar on his own chest.

Under it, the heart beat steady and strong.

"That is yours," Mo said. "It was yours before it was mine."

"It kept me alive for three hundred years, and I have no right to it."

"Xuanyi."

"Let me finish." His voice was quiet and very even. "I read the door."

"You can have it back."

"Mo."

"I will cut it out myself, if your hand shakes."

"It is a clean way to go. You get your own heart back, and you walk out of here whole."

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