Chapter 4

Lang’s shack smelled of drying herbs and wet dog.

I set his arm. I used my own *Qi* to accelerate his healing, a forbidden use of Order magic on a non-human.

He healed fast. By the next evening, he was sitting up, eating a peach.

The air in the shack was stifling. The storm had passed, but the heat remained, heavier than before.

"You know what I am," Lang said. He wasn't looking at me. He was watching a moth circle the lantern.

"You are a *Tian Gou*," I said, standing by the door, keeping my distance. "A Celestial Dog. You caused the landslide?"

"I stopped it," he corrected. "Just like I stopped the Corpse Dogs."

I froze. "Corpse Dogs?"

"That sorcerer in the valley," Lang said, spitting a pit onto the floor. "He raises scavengers. They were the ones killing the livestock. I’ve been hunting them all summer. I tear them apart before they can get to the village children."

The room spun. *Corpse Dogs.* Scavengers. Dark creatures.

If that was true, then Lang wasn't the threat. He was the executioner. He was doing *my* job.

"The Order said..." I trailed off.

"The Order sees a wolf and assumes it's a killer," Lang said bitterly. "They don't look at the teeth marks. They just want a trophy."

He stood up and walked toward me. He was limping slightly.

"You saw me save those people, Wei. You know I’m not evil."

"You are chaos," I whispered, backing up until I hit the wall. "You are outside the natural order."

"I *am* the natural order!" Lang shouted, slamming his hand against the wall beside my head. "The storm, the heat, the blood—that is life! You think you can sterilize the world, put it in a box? You can't."

He was too close. The smell of him—musk, rain, peaches—filled my senses.

"You want to," Lang whispered, his anger dissolving into something more dangerous. "I see the way you look at me. You're starving, Wei. You've been starving your whole life."

He touched my face. His hand was calloused, warm.

"Let me feed you."

I should have pushed him away. I should have drawn my sword. I was an Executor of the Jade Order. I was righteous.

But the heat... the heat was unbearable.

I grabbed his wrist. I didn't push him away. I pulled him in.

The kiss was violent. It was a collision of teeth and desperation. It wasn't gentle; it was an exorcism of a different kind. I tore at his clothes, needing to feel the skin I had tracked through the forest.

We fell onto the cot. The sound of the cicadas outside drowned out our breathing.

For the first time in my life, I didn't think about the Code. I didn't think about Black and White. I just felt. I felt the scar on his ribs. I felt the pulse in his neck. I felt the wild, chaotic life of him.

I broke every vow I had ever made. And god help me, it felt like salvation.

\---