The Eunuch Who Guards the Crown Prince's Bed novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Fourth Watch

Seok-woo did not bring the tea that night.

He brought the knife.

It was a short plain blade, a hand and a half long.

He had worn it strapped to his thigh through three weeks of hiding and nine days of travel.

At the fourth watch the Hall of Quiet Dawn was dark, and the bare plum branches outside rattled against the paper doors.

Seok-woo slid the door back one hand's width and went in on stocking feet.

Hyeon lay on his side on the sleeping mat, his hair spread over the pillow, one arm flung out.

The white lock caught a thread of moonlight.

He looked younger asleep.

He looked twenty-one, the age he had been when he signed the warrant.

Seok-woo stood over him with the knife in his fist and heard his sister's note in his head, over and over.

The Councillor is selling me.

One cut.

It would take only one.

His father had walked to the block with his chin up.

He had not said a word, because he trusted the prince's father to see the truth.

Seok-woo raised the blade.

The man on the mat did not move or open his eyes.

His throat lay bare a hand's breadth below the point, the pulse ticking slowly under the pale skin.

Seok-woo's arm shook.

It would not come down.

For five years he had promised himself he would not hesitate.

This man had kissed him in a gallery that morning, and Seok-woo's arm would not come down.

"Not tonight, then," said Hyeon.

Seok-woo flinched so hard he nearly dropped the blade.

Hyeon's eyes were open.

He had been awake the whole time, lying still, looking at Seok-woo along the line of the knife with a face Seok-woo could not read.

"Hyeon..."

"Give it to me."

"I..."

"Seok-woo." Hyeon sat up on one elbow, slowly, so that Seok-woo could see his hands. "Hand it over, handle first, and I'll put it away."

Seok-woo stood there.

Then he turned the knife in his fingers and held it out.

Hyeon took it without a word and weighed it in his hand.

He slid it under his pillow.

"You can have it back whenever you like," he said. "I would only ask that you don't try again before I've decided what to do with the rest of the night."

"You're not going to call anyone."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I told you. I won't ask who sent you, or why, or what is in your sleeve." His voice was perfectly steady. "Is it true that you can't do it?"

"I don't know."

"Then come here and find out."

Seok-woo knelt on the edge of the mat.

His legs felt unmade.

Hyeon reached up and drew him down by the front of his robe until they lay face to face on the pillow.

"I thought about you in council," Hyeon said. "I thought about you all day."

"You said that."

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