Before them, in a neat row awaiting us, are Higher Ones. Their court attire stirs in the wind, and even from here, the air trembles from the magic that springs from their palms.
“How irksome,” Jing’xiù mutters under his breath. He grips his scepter tighter, but the flow of colors shielding us is beginning to dull. “Dòng’bin, brother,” he calls. “A little help here would be appreciated.”
Out of nowhere, lightning strikes, spearing through two of the hellbeasts pursuing us. Then Dòng’bin is at our side. With each slash of his blade, streaks of lightning burn through the hellbeasts before us, accompanied by deafening rumbles of thunder.
“Dark Spears!” Jing’xiù shouts, his voice magnified by his scepter. “First line of attack!”
The shadows coalesce, and suddenly, the Dark Spearsmaterialize before us, their weapons raised as they approach the demonic army. The remainder of the immortal forces let out battle cries.
With a blinding flash of lightning and another earth-shattering boom of thunder, the immortal and demonic armies collide.
Spirit energies and demonic energies tear through the air as the temple fills with the clash of steel and the screams of battle.
Jing’xiù’s crane swerves to a side of the courtyard at the back of the Hall of Radiant Sun. “Go, Àn’ying,” the immortal urges me, and then a touch of humor quirks his lips. “Ironic, isn’t it, that you once fought so hard to get through those doors into the Temple of Dawn…and now you must fight to get out?” He winks. “Though you of all immortals should know the way back to the mortal realm from here.” He raises his scepter, and the shield of flowing colors shifts around us to stretch into a protective tunnel leading into the Hall of Radiant Sun.
I leap off the crane, Fleet and Poison raised before me. Ahead, Jing’xiù’s path leads to the back doors of the hall—and is swallowed by the darkness within.
I glance back, about to thank Jing’xiù, when the Higher One comes out of nowhere.
One moment, the immortal is flashing his lopsided grin at me. The next, sharp-leafed purple flowers sprout from his chest and his mouth, now open wide in surprise.
A Higher One lifts her crimson gaze to mine from over Jing’xiù’s shoulder. She has one arm wrapped around his throat; the other is plunged straight through his chest.
Jing’xiù sighs, then his form scatters into iridescent dust, disintegrating before me.
“No!”The cry tears from my throat. I leap forward, fury pulsing through my veins—
Lightning blinds me, and I’m thrown back by a surge of spirit energies. When the flare dims, the Higher One is nowhere to be seen.
Dòng’bin straightens, lowering his sword. For a moment, he stares at the spot on the ground where Jing’xiù stood just seconds ago—when I’d been about to tell him thank you for saving my life, for proving me wrong about how immortals could be.
The leader of the Eight Immortals raises his gaze to me. His eyes could be made of stone. “Go, Àn’ying,” he says. “If you don’t succeed, more of us will be gone.”
He casts a final glance at the place where his friend and brother of thousands of years last stood.
Then he lifts his sword and leaps—toward the onslaught of mó.
I turn to the back of the Hall of Radiant Sun. At the other end of the hall are the gilded temple doors opening to the mortal realm. I remember first setting foot through them, a mortal girl a long way from home, searching for a pill of immortality for her mother.
I have come so far from that.
The inside of the hall has gone dark. There are mó within, awaiting me. But I am no longer prey.
I take off at a sprint, flaring my spirit energies. My senses heighten, and as my vision adapts to the darkness, I spot the line of mó guarding the temple doors at the end of thehall.
I’m on the first two before they even see me, my crescent blades flashing as I plunge them through their cores: Fleet fora quick kill, and Poison for a slow death. I take down four, five, six more; a final burst of speed, and I’m through.
I burst through the golden doors that once allowed me entry into the Kingdom of Sky; now they open toward home. The light of the mortal realm envelops me, warm and scented with an ocean breeze. The Immortals’ Steps rise from the sea before me, leading home.
Leading to Hào’yáng.
I glance back at the Hall of Radiant Sun one more time, recalling the drowning relief and desperation I felt the first time I set eyes upon it. I thought that the immortals and their kingdom were a place of unbreachable safety and power; that no matter what transpired across the realms, they would be constant, immutable.
I once stood below them, begging for a chance to save my mother’s life. Powerless and terrified.
Now, I am their only chance at winning this war.
I turn and make for Heavens’ Gates as swiftly as my feet will carry me.
