ch 26 The Devil’s Shelter
🛏 The Awakening
Rui Xuan's lashes fluttered.
The first thing he registered was silence — not peace, but the kind that thrummed too low, too still, like the hush after a storm's breath.
Then came the scent. Earthy and sharp — bitter herbs steeped in smoke, and a faint trace of iron. His body ached with a deep, bruising weight. Heat licked his side, pulsing in rhythm with the dull sting of a wound.
His eyes opened slowly.
He wasn't in the Celestial Court's infirmary.
He wasn't anywhere he recognized.
He lay on a large bed — dark velvet sheets clinging to his skin. Strange glowing runes hovered along the curved walls, shifting like restless ink. Flames in glass spheres flickered blue along the edges of the room, casting long shadows that moved like watching eyes.
He sat up halfway — and hissed.
Pain spiked across his ribs. Bandages — black and etched with silver thread — wrapped his side and shoulder. His robes were gone. In their place, a loose tunic with a scent not his own.
Rui Xuan's voice came low. Dry.
> "Where… am I?"
And then he saw him.
Mo Jue.
Standing silently near the far wall, arms crossed, white hair cascading over one shoulder, golden eyes burning through the dim light.
---
🔥 Words That Burn
They stared at each other.
No threats.
No weapons.
Only silence and the weight of too many near-deaths.
Rui Xuan forced himself to sit straighter. "You brought me here."
Mo Jue didn't deny it. "You nearly died."
"I've nearly died before."
"Not like that," Mo Jue said. "You were alone. And bleeding out in cursed soil."
Rui Xuan clenched his jaw. "I could've handled it."
"You would've become bones."
"Maybe that's what you wanted," Rui Xuan shot back. "You win the war, and I disappear. Isn't that the dream?"
Mo Jue pushed off the wall and walked forward. His steps were silent, but his presence surged — dark, graceful, inescapable.
> "You're not a war trophy," he said coldly. "You're the only one who makes this war worth enduring."
---
💔 The Weight of His Hands
He stopped just at the edge of the bed.
Rui Xuan didn't move. But his hand twitched — instinctively reaching toward where his blade would have been.
It wasn't there.
Mo Jue's gaze dropped to Rui Xuan's side.
Blood had soaked through part of the bandage.
Without asking, he reached forward.
His fingers brushed the exposed skin.
Rui Xuan flinched — not from pain, but from the heat that rippled through his body at the touch.
> "Still bleeding," Mo Jue murmured.
His voice softened.
> "You were struck by abyssal iron. That poison doesn't fade easily."
Rui Xuan's lips parted. "How do you know that?"
"I've used it."
A chill crept down Rui Xuan's spine.
"Then why save me?"
Mo Jue looked up.
And for once, his expression wasn't mocking.
It was something dangerously close to human.
> "Because I've ruined too many things in this life. I won't ruin you."
---
🌒 Close Enough to Burn
Mo Jue reached into a lacquered box and pulled out a small vial. He poured a black salve onto his fingers.
Rui Xuan stiffened.
Mo Jue gave a dry chuckle. "Stop glaring. I could've devoured you hours ago."
"You still might."
"But I won't," Mo Jue said. "Because I'm trying."
He pressed the salve to Rui Xuan's ribs. The pain seared like fire. Rui Xuan gasped, gripping the sheets.
Mo Jue worked in silence, hands steady despite the sweat forming along Rui Xuan's temples.
When it was done, he set the vial down.
Rui Xuan collapsed back slightly, chest heaving.
Their eyes met again.
> "You're not my healer," Rui Xuan said quietly.
> "And you're not mine to protect,"
Mo Jue replied. "But I can't seem to stop doing it."
---
🕯 Something Unsaid
For a long moment, they sat in the hush.
Rui Xuan was too weak to stand, too proud to admit it.
Mo Jue was too dangerous to trust — and too present to ignore.
> "You'll want to leave tomorrow," Mo Jue said, standing. "But you shouldn't."
> "I'll leave the second I can walk."
Mo Jue's gaze darkened. "Then I'll follow."
"Obsessive," Rui Xuan muttered.
"Maybe. But only with you."
A pause.
Then, very softly—
> "You asked me once why I save you," Mo Jue said.
> "It's not kindness," he continued. "It's not strategy."
He stepped closer, one hand trailing along the edge of the bedpost.
> "It's because I want you to see the part of me that isn't a monster."
Rui Xuan turned away.
But his heart betrayed him — beating louder, faster.
And Mo Jue heard it.
---
✦ End of Chapter 26 ✦
---