Chapter Two
Jian
Jian Li was many things. Brother to a powerful man. Unmatched warrior. And loyal general.
General Altan of the Kou was few of those things. Talented with the dao, he had loyalty to no one but himself.
When Jian saw him enter the b****y square, stepping over bodies of the people who’d be alive if it wasn’t for the Kou, he could see little else. For some unknown reason, he’d been searching for the girl who ran from his protection. A girl he could have sworn took an arrow to the chest. But that wasn’t possible. In the chaos, his eyes played tricks on him.
The girl cared little for herself as she bent over the fallen woman Jian recognized as one of the emperor’s consorts. Then he saved her, got her to a place she could hide from the foreign attack, and she’d run.
He shoo
