Shen Wei never wanted to be an Emperor, but on the anniversary of the peace deal he discovers that Kunlun might be alive.
Part 1 of the The Leaves Of Autumn Are Memories series
Dark eyes holding foxfire brightness in their dark depths, watched and calculated.
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The Gate whispered to him, its power still seeping into his blood. Anger and worry coursed through him, making him feel even more unstable with the amount of power loose in his system. When he closed his eyes, the former king of Shangbei could see the energy coursing through everyone in the courtyard.
The light hidden within everyone glowed, but in Shen Wei is was nearly blinding. Ten years had reinforced Shen Wei's power, a fountain of rainbow lights flowed through him, disappearing into darkness that surged in him like the tide. Again and again. A storm that raged, lighting as it flashed across the sky. This was Shen Wei. Winter's cold and the fire of the earth bound into one.
Shen Wei.
His heart had traitorously beat faster when Shen Wei had kissed his forehead and hope, that cursed, blessed thing that had kept him alive and...Shen Wei wasn't his anymore.
Somehow everything he had survived at this point was easier, burning alive was easier, somehow so much easier than facing a reality where Shen Wei would be forced to walk away from him.
He had seen in those eyes beyond the fierceness, the desperation in that kiss, the fear...he had seen the grief before it had been marshaled by anger.
Focus, he chided himself.
There was no question even now that Shen Wei loved him still. Even without that kiss, what Wang Zheng had told him...shown him...all that grief and pain...perhaps some of it was for his brother, his mother...but most of it was for him.
Shen Wei kneeling in the snow...Wang Zheng terrified of upsetting him more, grieving for Sang Zan watched as his Wei cried, a trembling name in near silent gasps, 'Yunlan'.
Shen Wei seated on a throne with the tigers and dragons woven around. Beautiful, untouchable, remote. "Lord Kunlun will be remembered as Dixing's hero." Shen Wei said, his voice colder than ice. "Announce my decree."
He had broken Shen Wei's heart.
He, Zhao Yunlan had wielded the dagger that was buried in Shen Wei's ribs and he knew, didn't he? He knew when he fell, when his own death seemed so certain, that Shen Wei would endure. He would not stagger, he would stride with the weight of his pain and the world on his shoulders, bear it all for the promise of seeing Kunlun again.
