Wolf Eyes (2)

"We can see who kills who faster, or we can talk," he said while his eyes wandered down to her chest.

Yinyue felt something sharp against her chest and looked down at his hand holding the hilt of a Xirong trident dagger with the middle metal prong against the same area.

Halun knew a key weakness of her spider-silk armour under her clothing. She cussed her bad luck.

His metal prong was in between the vulnerable space between the weaves, and aimed between her rib bones.

And his speed at pulling out a hidden weapon matched hers.

One hard push and her life would end with a stab to the heart.

Her dagger at the kill spot along the side of his slender neck, and his sharp trident prong directed towards her heart, left them both hanging on the delicate line between life and death.

If her bodyguards tried to interfere, it may end up killing her. She didn't want to die, but her pride didn't allow her to negotiate like a coward for her life.

One wrong move and both would end with fatal injuries.

"You don't fear a war?" She asked.

The corners of his lips lifted up, and he replied, "If I die, what good is Taotang to me?"

No one had ever threatened Yinyue with her own life using such a counter threat in her two lifetimes.

Halun was the first. His wolf-like eyes locked with hers in a silent exchange of hostility.

She could see his black pupils dilating among the golden flecks of amber into a round black pool like an abyss of cold emptiness.

He wasn't like the rest, whose eyes filled with fear when they begged for mercy. Defiance flashed past in his eyes, like one ready to fight to the death. She admired and hated his foolish courage.

Her mind ran over her mistake of underestimating him and his past behaviours in front of her.

Halun didn't show fear about being outnumbered. The bitter smoke in the air from the still burning inn presented the hazy cover up of Halun's true cunning.

He acted without flaw since she knew him — a sly wolf well hidden in sheep's clothing. She knew he had a back-up plan if he survived killing her.

Yinyue regretted her brash decision to help him out. This was no helpless prince. She could only blame herself for assuming his low profile behavior in previous meetings alluded to his powerlessness.

Yinyue fumed within at making the same mistake as she did in her first life — she underestimated him from a superficial arrogant assumption that he, like Kelian, came from a smaller and weaker state.

She noticed how he joked with Kelian over casual matters. Of course, he held power over Kelian - Taotang state protected Youyu state under an alliance.

He chose his words with care when talking with Lieshan and her. Never too many words spoken from his mouth than necessary.

The most quiet one is the most dangerous individual — Halun qualified without a doubt.

She heard noises on the grass and spotted movement from the corner of her eyes. Her men came, but she wasn't sure how they could rescue her.

"LET GO OR—"

Halun didn't flinch or tremble at 02's threat. Instead, he smirked.

"Your men," he said in a very low tone, without averting those wolf eyes of his from hers.

She knew what he meant. Yinyue would feel any movement in the trident, even a light tremble.

Yinyue felt his slow breath flowing out on her hand like a gentle breeze before the coming gale in a thunderstorm. No sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Back off," she ordered.

Her bodyguards retreated a few steps behind.

Halun bore a serene facial expression, not like of that belonging to someone threatening another. It reminded her of the Dayan shamans in deep meditation.

His damn face, she cursed. Did she also underestimate him because of his face?

On the appearance, Halun looked docile with features which radiated a gentle look, with the air of an innocent lamb. His large doe eyes with those long lashes looked harmless in the shade. He had a fair rosy complexion with his upper lip like a bow, made him look feminine.

"Same question, and I don't like repeating myself. Are we going to talk or see who kills the other first?" He asked, with the tip of his tongue flicking along his chapped lips.

"Talk," she replied.

"Your dagger."

"Your trident dagger."

He fluttered his long lashes at her with the smile growing on his face.

"Your dagger first. Because it's cutting into my skin."

"You might not survive if I die from your trident dagger," she countered.

"If I wanted you dead, we won't be here talking," he said.

How dare he brag! She narrowed her eyes and tightened the grip on her dagger, with a sharp retort, "you were the one who wanted to meet me in private!"

"That's business, and no one told you to interfere with mine," he argued back with an arrogance which made her blood boil.

She helped him out with those assassins and the ingrate dared to call it interference. Yinyue clenched her teeth and tried to quell her swelling fury burning within.

Calm down, stay cool, she thought to herself. Anger achieves nothing. She could kill him later.

Yet the more Yinyue struggled to calm her mind, the stronger her emotions gushed with force against her mental dam. If that mental dam falls, the rush of emotions will drive her into a frenzy.

Thoughts of the metal prong piercing through her heart brought an onslaught of unpleasant memories in her first life's last moments.

Then a whiff of an earthy yet sickly sweet scent radiating from him calmed her down. Halun was poisoned by an unusual combination.

Ever since her rebirth, her keen sense of smell granted her the ability to detect if a person was poisoned and, at times, identify the poison.

Halun's assassins must have laced their weapons with poison. Certain poisons entered through wounds and spread. She didn't know what type of poison affected him, but it comforted her.

Halun's smile seemed to mock her. Her temptation to kill him, if he gave her an opening, faded. Even time seemed to stop in an seeming endless eternity until the pressure from his trident metal prong grew on her skin.

Her eyes snapped open to witness Halun's struggle to keep himself from collapsing forward against her. His hand remained steady and firm, gripping the trident, but his drooping eyelids hinted at his failing strength.

His pale face gave her a feeling he can't hold out for much longer in the stupid power struggle between them. And she didn't want to be his company to the afterlife.

She removed her dagger from his neck and he pulled away his trident dagger. He may not live long, after all.

"Not that difficult, eh?" He said as he stood up, dusting off the snow and bits of brownish grass slivers from his clothing.

The damn manipulative bastard tricked her. She fumed while standing up. Then again, why waste time with a dying man?