“I’ll do that.” He smiled and pulled her closer. “But first—”
Footsteps were coming closer.
Someone else was in the library.
“Rui? You in here? Zizi?”
Yiran didn’t look at all surprised to see them lying next to each other on the floor, faces inches away from each other.
Zizi groaned. “Excellent timing, Mochi.”
“What are you doing here?” Rui spluttered.
Yiran yanked them both up. From his expression, she knew something was amiss.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
“We need to leave right now.”
Zizi protested, “Hang on, you can’t just barge in here and ruin our moment and—”
Yiran silenced him with a glare. “I don’t care about your moment; reenact it later. There’s trouble in the city. We need to leave now.”
32
Rui
Rui hit redial on Yiran’s phone. She chewed on her nails, waiting. “Ash isn’t picking up.”
Yiran snapped, “Try again. Why are you giving up?”
“I’m not. This is the fifth time I’ve called. Maybe Ash is busy with the situation. I’m sure we’ll get more news once we get back to the Academy,” she said, peevish.
Yiran floored the accelerator in response.
Rui slumped against the seat and stared out the window. The roads were empty save for a few emergency vehicles that zoomed by with their sirens wailing. A pall had fallen, and the streets took on an eerie feel.
Zizi’s fingers grazed her wrist, and she turned to him. The light from outside bathed the car’s interior in shades of gray and grainy sepia like a vintage photograph, framing his face in alternating shadow and light. She’d thought he should have stayed at The Reverie, but he’d insisted on coming along. Truth be told, she was glad he did. They still didn’t know what had happened to the missing mages, and she wanted to keep him close.
Yiran smacked the steering wheel. “How could it even happen? How could those brainless monsters plan an ambush?”
“Ever heard of Hybrids?” Zizi said.
“Not that again. Hybrids don’t exist, even I know that.”
“How are you so loud and so wrong? You’re not exactly the best source of what’s fact or fiction when it comes to Revenants.”
“Didn’t all our troubles start with you and your stupid spell?” Yiran lashed out. “If you didn’t create it in the first place, if you didn’t give it to Rui—” He halted abruptly.
“Go on, tell me how this ambush on your brother is all my fault,” Zizishot back. “I’m impressed by the mental gymnastics you just did there.”
Yiran brought a fist down to the horn. The deafening sound dragged on.
When he finally lifted his hand from the horn, Rui said, “I told you, Hybrids do exist.”
“You’re jumping to conclusions without evidence,” Yiran muttered as he took the next turn. “The both of you.”
Rui seethed. “I was there; I know what I saw that night.”
