My heart races at the sound of her voice. Her joy is contagious, the butterflies in my stomach fluttering up a storm. My sisters rush over to me, bombarding me with hugs and kisses. Qin lovingly runs her fingers through my hair while Lu holds my hand tight. They talk all at once, laughing and teasing the way they always used to. I bask in their love, the threat of tears stinging my eyes as I’m caught between joy and heartbreak. They’ve been dead for so long, and yet here they are, alive and well.
And I’m…
Confused.
My thoughts are overcome with a warm and persistent haze. This blastedmagic. It twists at my mind, curling its fingers into the deepest recesses of my skull. It plucks at my consciousness like thestrings of a zither, changing my tune to something that suits its vile intentions all the better.
“How are you here?” I ask. I can’t… seem to remember anything.
“Have you been well?” Mihan asks, ignoring my question outright.
“Oh, how we’ve missed you!” Nuying cries while embracing me tight.
“My! Look how grown up you’ve become,” Chunhua says, pinching at my cheeks.
I happily drown in their attention, my nerves both frazzled and somehow soothed. All those years I spent mourning and wallowing in my grief… None of that matters now. I don’t understand how any of this is possible, or even how I wound up in this curious place, but I also don’t question it. I have my family back. What more could I want?
“How are you all here?” I ask. “I thought when demons die, they—”
“Never mind that,” Ahn interjects. “Tell us about you! What adventures have you been on without us?”
My brows pinch slightly. I can’t shake the strange churn in the pit of my stomach. “I’ve been…”
I search my mind, but for some reason I find it blank. I scarcely recall anything that’s happened in the last three decades, let alone the past five minutes. A heavy fog fills my head. The harder I reach for my memories, the more I try to grip them tight, they slip through my fingers like nothing more than smoke.
“The captain,” I mumble under my breath, turning slowly to glance over my shoulder. He’s the only one I can remember. Just the outline of him, the anger and distress he invokes whenever I look his way. But I find no one. Could I have hallucinated it all?
“Captain?” Jiayi giggles lightly. “There she goes again, making up her silly little stories.”
“But I could have sworn—”
“Are you hungry, little sister?” Mihan asks. “We found something to eat. He’s a big one, so there’s plenty to share.”
When I turn around again, we’ve been transported. I don’t see a clearing, but the lush foliage of our old jungle den. The smell of the soil mixes with refreshing petrichor, the sound of distant songbirds chirping with glee. My sisters gather together and remove their masks, stretching out their tails and pawing the earth beneath sharpened claws. Feeling at home, I, too, remove my own. There’s no need to hide what I am now that I’m with my family. I no longer remember how I got here, but I can’t bring myself to care. For the first time in years, I’m finally at peace.
Qin nuzzles up beside me, inspecting my scars. “Your poor face!” she exclaims. “Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes,” I reply quietly. “Not so much anymore.”
“I’ll go foraging for some gingerroot,” Su offers. “Maybe I can make a salve for you.”
I allow my sisters to fawn over me as we crawl into our den together. It’s cozy, just big enough for the nine of us, the narrow tunnel connecting our home to the outside world wide enough to allow for an inch of space on either side. It’s exactly how I remember it, not even a stone out of place.
“Come eat,” Ahn calls, turning toward a wriggling mass in the center of our den.
A human male in mulberry red robes with beaten leather armor pulled over the top. They’ve bound and gagged him, so he can neither move nor plead for his life. The longer I study his face, the more I feel like I recognize him. There’s something about the sharp line of his jaw and proud nose that’s familiar to me. Or perhaps it’sthe scent of cinnamon, star anise, and mangoes that pulls at the strand of a memory tucked into the deepest part of my mind.
I think I had a travel companion once, one who looked and smelled exactly like him, but for the life of me I cannot recall his name. He tries screaming something against his gag, but his words are an incoherent jumble.
“Go on, little sister,” Su urges. “You’re nothing but skin and bones. Eat as much as you want.”
I smack my lips, eyeing the human with great interest. Where to start? I could devour his whole left arm in three bites. Maybe I should put him out of his misery and eat his head so he doesn’t endure any pain.
But those eyes… those honest axinite eyes. Why does the thought of eating this man bother me so? It isn’t like me to pity my food, so why—
“Go on,” Chunhua urges impatiently. “Don’t you want a bite?”
I swallow hard, nearly succumbing to my hunger. “Yes, but—”
