Sent as the Alliance Leader's Hostage Husband novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Bathhouse

"Roof," Ye-han breathed into Gyeong-wook's chest.

Gyeong-wook did not look up.

"Three," he said, just as quietly. "They have been up there since the second watch."

"You knew?"

"I heard the first one climb."

"And you let me go on like that?"

"You were very loud."

Ye-han hit him in the ribs.

Gyeong-wook caught his wrist and kissed the inside of it.

It was so tender, in the middle of a murder, that Ye-han forgot to be angry.

"Bathhouse," Gyeong-wook whispered. "The next room has one skylight and no windows.

"Whoever comes in will come from above.

"I would prefer they did not break the bed."

They rose.

The bath-closet was a stone room full of steam, with a deep square tub cut into the floor and a rack of lamps.

Ye-han stepped into the hot water naked, with his fan folded in his hand.

Gyeong-wook followed in his drawers, and nothing else.

Ye-han looked at his empty hands.

"You haven't a weapon."

"I have two."

The skylight shattered.

Three men dropped through the glass in black, with short blades in both hands, and the lamps hissed as they hit the water.

Two went for Gyeong-wook.

The third came straight for Ye-han.

Ye-han snapped his fan open and felt its iron ribs sing.

He'd been born with a fan in his hand.

He turned the first cut aside and drove the edge up under the man's wrist, and the man dropped his knife and screamed.

Ye-han spun, and the edge of the fan went across the man's throat.

It was clean, and quick, and he didn't enjoy it.

Behind him came the crack of bone.

He turned and saw Gyeong-wook with a man in each hand, one by the hair and one by the belt.

Gyeong-wook brought their heads together once, and dropped them.

The tub slopped over the stone.

Steam rolled in clouds.

One of the black-clad men was still alive, on his back, chest heaving.

Ye-han knelt over him with the fan against his neck.

"Who paid?" he said.

The man grinned with bloody teeth.

"Hall Elder's steward," he said.

"He said the Leader would be found in his bath with a Cult knife in his back.

"He said you would hang for it."

His eyes rolled up, and he died.

For a while they stood in the red water and listened to each other breathe.

Ye-han's hands were shaking.

It was not fear.

He had been waiting to be afraid.

Instead there was only a strange roaring in his blood, the animal joy of being alive after a fight.

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