Page 105 of Savage Throne
“She’s not for me.”
“She’s for Lei.”
“And. . .I’ll go to heaven.”
“You will.”
But the doubt was there, like a splinter festering beneath the skin. The conflict of doing what was necessary versus what was selfish burned through me, twisting everything into an unbearable knot.
Song stepped back. “We end this tomorrow, Leo.”
"Tomorrow.” I nodded.
Soon, the dawn would come, and with it, a reckoning.
“Turn around, brother.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And do what?”
“Walk tohertent and go to sleep there.”
“I could sleep in here—”
“Next to her? No.” And to my shock, Song pulled out his blade. “Turn around, Leo. The night is over.”
My heart pounded in my chest, a rhythm as relentless as the seconds dwindling towards sunrise.
I watched as Song’s blade glinted under the dim lantern light.
Sharp.
Unforgiving.
Fear gripped me, not of the blade itself, but of what it represented—an irrevocable severance.
A finality.
Song meant business, and he would kill me if necessary.
And my sisters would surely help.
“Leo. . .I stood by you. . .watched you slice my niece’s head for the purpose of a better future for our family. . .but I will not let you crossthisline.” Song lifted the blade.
I remained still.
The man before me was not only my brother by blood but my brother-in-arms, and yet in that moment he felt like a stranger.
“Turn around.”
I swallowed down sadness, gazed at Monique on the bed one last time, and did as he said. “I would have behaved, brother.”
“Maybe.” Song remained by the bed as I walked away. “Maybe not.”
And I knew without him saying it that he would stand watch over Monique for the rest of the night, making sure that I did not sneak back in.
Chapter seventeen
The Fox Spirit
