I want to comb my fingers through her fur but resist the impulse. I stand straighter and clear my throat.
“We should get going,” I tell her.
Yet again, Yue says nothing.
Before we leave, I stoop down to pick up her discarded mask and tie its fastening strings to my belt. It may be of use, or at the very least, it will make for a fascinating study in my hunting log.
36Sonam
Hunting Log #397:
She possesses more good than I gave her credit for.
The fifth Court of Hellhas no signs of anyone present. The Court of Despair, Kelai had called it.
There isn’t even a star god here to oversee our trial. Instead, we find ourselves standing at the edge of a wide moat, its waters dark and eerie. I can’t make out the bottom. It must be deeper than it looks. But the other side is only about half a li out, the high walls of the sixth court standing there as if to goad us into coming over.
“A swim in the waters of Hell, this’ll turn outgreat,” Wen mumbles, sticking his foot out so that the sole of his boot just barely grazes the water’s surface.
“Wait,” I tell him.
I reach for one of the small daggers attached to my belt. One of my last. It’s taken a lot of damage—the edge is now blunt, and the leather wrapping around the handle is coming loose. It might not hold up during our next battle, but it can at the very least serve me one last time. I toss the dagger as far as I’m able, watching as it sinks into the inky water, leaving ripples in its wake.
Nothing happens. No monsters creep up from the depths, the water doesn’t somehow come to life on its own. I should be relieved—but the fact that we’re not met with chaos leaves me wholly unsettled.
I glare down at the crude map burned into my palm. The shortcut we’re looking for is somewhere on the other side of this moat. All we have to do is get across. I turn to Yue, who is staring blankly into the distance with a slight downward curl to the corners of her lips. Where once she was an inferno threatening to burn me to a crisp, now she’s nothing more than a candle flickering at the last of its wick.
My chest tightens.
“Do you know how to swim, Fox?” I ask, my voice so gentle that I sound foreign to my own ears.
“Yes,” she murmurs. “Don’t worry about me.”
But I do worry.
I don’t know when it began, this… fondness for her. All my life, I’ve trained to kill her kind. No hesitation, no remorse. Demons are nothing short of a plague; the damage they can cause is immeasurable. I’ve studied them for years. They’re cruel, driven only by an incessant need to devour human souls, and therefore simple-minded and easily felled.
But Yue is far from that. Hungry, yes—I can see it in the way she tracks my movements and discreetly licks the corner of her lips—but there’s something soft beneath her jagged, protective layers. Behind her rows of teeth and matted fur and the woman’s face she so desperately hides beneath. Her curiosities, her insecurities, her delights, and her displeasures. She lashes out in anger because it’s the only response she has in a world that’s made her unwelcome.
In a world whereIhave made her unwelcome.
I take a careful step toward Yue, drawn to her like the tide to the moon for which she was named. When she finally looks up atme, there’s but a foot of space between us. The dark circles under her six eyes are concerning, the heavy slouch of her shoulders so severe I can feel my own muscles ache in sympathy. My hand moves of its own accord, reaching out so that my fingertips ghost along her muzzle.
Yue doesn’t recoil, which I take as a good sign, but I don’t miss the way her breath catches and her eyes widen, vulnerable and unsure. She could tear out my heart for this.
Instead, she turns into my palm, the warmth of her fur soaking into mine.
“We’re almost there,” I whisper. “And then you can be free of me.”
I mean it as a jest to ease her tension, but Yue’s lip curls before she pulls away completely. “Right,” she answers tightly.
Yue advances without us, sinking her front paw into the moat. The embankment’s slope is subtle at first, rising to her ankles and then her calves. Sooah and Wen step in after her, and then I follow to bring up the rear, shivering against the obscene chill of the water. Even the harshest winters of the Southern Kingdom couldn’t have prepared me for the cold that bites through my skin and freezes my joints.
It isn’t until we’re all chest deep and treading the surface that I realize this is no ordinary water. Of course it isn’t. A simple swim across the fifth Court of Hell would have been far too easy. Even though I kick with all my might, do everything I can to keep my head above water, something strange happens to the moat.
The more we swim, the farther the distant shore appears, the space between us and safety growing with every stroke. Where once the moat was only half a li, now it’s grown to two, three—five. The currents turn violent, dragging us beneath tumultuous waves as the water expands into what can only be described as an endless sea.
Wen chokes on foam. I grab onto Sooah’s arm to help her stay afloat. And Yue—
