“That magic can’t hurt us,” Aloysius said, still backing away. “It draws from the darkness, just like ours.”
Was Aloysius telling the truth? Was the blue fire truly useless against him? He didn’t look as sure as he sounded. If the blue fire came from the darkness, it would harm Zizi. But if Aloysius was bluffing, then maybe it would passthroughZizi the same way yangqi had no effect on magic practitioners who used it.
But even if Rui wanted to use it on Aloysius, there was no opening she could detect; Aloysius was using Zizi’s body as a shield.
As if she’d said her thoughts aloud, Zizi opened his eyes.
He winked.
And nodded.
Rui gritted her teeth and plunged the flaming sword right into his chest.
36
Rui
They locked eyes as her blade ran through him.
In that moment, Rui realized Zizi hadn’t been completely sure if he would survive her attack. She wanted to weep at his daredevil stupidity, but she held her sword in place, willing him to stay alive.
Behind him, Aloysius convulsed. His flesh was smoking where the blue flames had touched him. But he wouldn’t let go of Zizi.
Somehow, Zizi found the strength to pull away, even as the Hybrid’s spinal blades pierced his arms. Even as Rui kept her sword firmly in his chest.
“Do it,” Zizi gasped.
Rui saw her angle just over his shoulder, a breath away from his cheek. She reached over with a hand.
Blue fire torched Aloysius’s face. With an anguished roar, he finally released Zizi and turned on his heel.
Rui pulled her sword out and leaped in pursuit. She didn’t have to go far. The flames proved too much for the Hybrid. He collapsed, making strangled, high-pitched sounds that shook Rui to the bone. The smell of burning flesh tainted the air, and soon, there was only silence.
Aloysius was wrong. Whatever magic Rui wielded wasn’t from the darkness. It had, after all, killed him.
The taste of victory salted her tongue. But the body on the ground didn’t look like a monster. He looked like a man. Slowly, he turned gray like a stone statue, features crumbling to fine ash.
Rui dropped her sword, the clang of metal dull against the tarmac. Her blue flames had extinguished as mysteriously as they had appeared. But the shock of what happened had not worn off.
She stumbled back to the boys, falling to her knees next to Zizi’s prone body.
“Is he...” She choked on her words, unable to continue.
Yiran grabbed her arm. “He’s alive. I checked his wounds—I think the bastard tried to heal himself.”
“Zizi?” Rui touched his face.
Zizi inhaled sharply and opened his eyes, like he’d just come back to life. Groaning, he rolled onto his side, spitting out a black substance.
“Didn’t heal... completely,” he wheezed. “But I’ll live.”
Rui wanted to hold him. But she didn’t move. “What were you thinking? How could you gamble your life like that? You didn’t know for sure if the blue fire was safe, did you? I could’ve killed you.”
“We both took a calculated risk.” Zizi ran the back of his hand over his bloody lips. “You knew it was possible I’d die, and you still did it.”
His words were a knife. Rui wondered if he’d meant to make the cut.
I did it because I trusted you, she almost said. But that wasn’t it, was it? Deep down she knew that no matter how she felt about him, she would do whatever it took to kill a Revenant. The moment they shared in the library of The Reverie felt like a lifetime ago. Maybe Madam Meng was right: Rui was bad news.
