“When one kills the soul bound to a demon, the demon will simply find a new soul to bargain with. A new cycle of war and destruction.” Tai’s next words fell like the thud of a sword. “If Shàn’jun cannot save Zen…we may have unleashed the Black Tortoise. Right into the waiting hands of the Elantians.”
And there would be no one to stop them.
There could,came a distant voice from within her—a part of her, or a part of the thing she now knew lay within her. She thought she saw a flash of silver, a gelid eye cracking open to look at her.You could.
No, no, she couldn’t—shewouldn’t.Yet watching blood continue to darken the ground beneath Zen, Lan felt as though her mother had given her an impossible task. She had left Lan all the power in the world, and instead of asking her to use it, to fight with it, had commanded her to destroy it.
Her teeth began to chatter; she wrapped her arms around herself, feeling so completely lost and alone in this moment.
“Tài’ge.” Shàn’jun’s sleeves were soaked with blood. The flames of Tai’s lamp held steady as the yin energies in the air—the qì of the Demon God—continued to ebb lower. With each brighter surge of the lantern, Zen’s life dimmed a little more. “I need Master Nóng. My skills alone are inadequate to save Zen’s life.”
Tai’s brows furrowed. He closed his eyes, seeming to war with himself. When he opened them again, they were sad, tender. He held out a large hand to cup Shàn’jun’s cheek. “Wait for me,” he said.
Shàn’jun’s smile was painted in rain and firelight. “Always.”
Tai’s jaw set as he turned to Lan. “You need to fetch Master Ulara. She is closest, leading the second line of defense with the Swords disciples on the steps to Skies’ End. She will help. We must keep the Elantians away from Zen.”
“Ulara would leave Zen to die,” Lan replied.
“Ulara would protect his Demon God,” Tai retorted. “She is a member of the Order of Ten Thousand Flowers.”
Lan drew a sharp breath. But, thinking back, it all made sense—how fiercely opposed Ulara had been to the DemonGods, how she’d tried to stop Zen before he made the decision to bind it.
Mama, Dé’zi, and now Yeshin Noro Ulara…if there were members of this Order still alive, then there was hope yet.
Lan stood and brushed a hand against Shàn’jun’s shoulders. “Wait for us,” she said, and kicked off in a burst of qì. This time, the Boundary Seal was steeped in an ominous silence as she passed through. Behind, she heard Tai’s footfalls following, his use of the Light Arts clumsier and louder than her own.
Slowly, the darkness lifted, yielding to the faraway light of lotus lamps. Lan thought she glimpsed the entrance stone and the eggshell walls of school temples. She was less than a dozen steps away from the top of the steps.
That was when it happened. The qì around them shifted, parting to give way to something else: the overpowering stench of metal.
The hairs on Lan’s neck rose. She knew that scent, she knew that overwhelming feeling in the qì.
She spun.
The pine forest beneath the mountain was alive with movement: flashes of metal armor, everywhere, fanned out across the pass between Skies’ End and the rest of the Yuèlù Mountains, completely surrounding the forest.
The Elantian army had arrived.
Several steps below her, Tai alighted in a spurt of qì. His eyes widened as he scanned the pine forest below. “No.No.”His voice cracked. “Shàn’jun.Shàn’jun!”
“Tai!” Lan shouted as the Spirit Summoner turned and began to retrace his steps. “Tai—”
Streaks of lightning cracked open the sky. Fire surged up the pine forests, exploding against the Boundary Seal withforce that shook the ground they stood on. Lan slammed into the side of the mountain. She tasted copper in her mouth.
“SHÀN’JUN!”
Tai had fallen to all fours. The flames in the explosion seemed to gild him in a moment that Lan would never forget: eyes so wide, the whites ringed his irises, veins bulging from his neck and temples, fingers stretching in the direction of the boy he loved.“SHÀN’JUN!”he screamed again as he thrust himself up and launched himself forward.“SHÀN—”
The night lit up again as the second explosion came. This time, the world tilted; a bright pain seared through Lan’s head, followed by a high-pitched ringing…and then time seemed to slow. The raindrops froze, shimmering as a shape rose through them. It was a pale, serpentine silhouette she had seen before, and its voice wrapped around her, familiar, a part of herself.
Sòng Lián,the Silver Dragon said softly.You command the power of a Demon God within you. Use it, and you could be the salvation of your people.
No…No.When Zen had released the power of his demon, he’d taken the lives of all the innocent Hin in the outpost. And the Nightslayer had channeled the power of the Black Tortoise and nearly destroyed everything he had been fighting for.
Would you stand aside and watch their certain death, then,her god mourned,rather than take a chance to save their lives?
Once, a moon ago, she had witnessed the destruction of everything she had known in her life. She’d vowed to become powerful so that she would never have to see those she loved be hurt again. Now that she had all this power, was she not even to take a chance with it?
