Chapter 13 · free to read
Two doors. Behind one, his cover. Behind the other, a rival reading Xiaohan's name out loud in a room full of elders. He had promised to be nothing. He broke the promise in under a heartbeat.
One name, asked politely. Three hundred years in the dark had made her very good at making more of it.
He was steered out like water off a flagstone. He never saw a hand, never took a bruise, and never for one instant believed it was an accident.
Alone, in the dark, with the book. He had meant to close it. Instead he read all night.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.