The Sins of the Serpent | Book 1.5 of TSOT and Prequel of TDH Trilogy

9 | The Wrath of Sathanas, Part One

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Zheng Zixin

I felt his heated gaze searing into the side of my face, urging me to look at him once more. He was my enemy; he was Wuzhen's enemy. I couldn't love a beast like him. I shouldn't.

"Why have you brought him here?" Hirayama Sosuke questioned. His voice sounded airy and dry, like he hadn't had a drop of water in days. For the creator of Jintui, he was not well kept. That fact alone angered my dragon.

His sires are negligent, my dragon grumbled in my mind.

"Forgive me, Master. But would you rather stay here and rot until you join Meihui in the Heavenly Realm?" Tui asked. There was still a slight snap to her tone. Her impatience was oozing from her words.

"Azusa wouldn't let me die. Being alive is a mercy only she can grant and she'll continue to exploit it to cement her support in the Clans. I don't wish to be involved in the Emperor's business by cavorting with his son," he replied, pointing his snout at me. Any other day, my dragon would have been insulted by being referred to in such a manner, but in my mind, he was jumping for joy at our mate's recognition.

"He can see them, Sosuke," Jin commented. "He's the one we've been waiting for. Azusa was right. Even you can't deny it."

"What are you talking about? I'm the one for what?" I asked, my gaze flickering rapidly between the three kitsune before me.

"All the more reason for him not to be here," the blind fox muttered under his breath. "If he truly can see the Virtues, he should leave while he can," he added, his sightless eyes raked over mine. I couldn't help but wonder what I looked like in his mind's eye. Was he proud to have someone like me as his mate? Or perhaps he was ashamed, like me?

"Only individuals with a connection to your bloodline can see them, Sosuke. We were created by you, and in doing so, we were added to your bloodline. This dragon is different. If he can see them, that means he's your mate," Jin explained. His words made my dragon bristle defensively, knowing the secret I wanted to contain had no future of remaining hidden.

"M-mate? He can't be Taizi Zixin's mate. He's a fox!" Sun Fang exclaimed. "Interspecies relationships are forbidden, unless approved by the Emperor!"

"Having a mate changes nothing," Jin replied somberly, ignoring Sun Fang. "He's the one."

Tui marched up to my mate and shoved him roughly. "Stop moping around, Master. This dragon is your mate, whether or not you like it. He is the key to restoring us to the throne."

"I don't want the throne," Sosuke said, turning his back on all of us to retreat to his bed.

"What do you plan to do for the next century? Sit here and count each hair on your body every century? That isn't good enough for us. We deserve better, Master. You deserve better. You led Mutsushina to glory, had the Dark Court on their knees, ushered in a new age where people once feared the kitsune clans," Tui argued.

"I led Mutsushina to its downfall. If I hadn't colluded with the Dark Court, things would have been different. Azusa is what's right for our people. She doesn't act selfishly, she acts with all the clans in mind, something I could never do. The best thing the two of you can do is accept the consequences and move on. You don't have to be trapped in this place with me. I split the two of you so you could have a brighter future, not to waste away with a disgraced ruler."