“Anything else you’d like to add?” Surin asked.
Rui folded her arms. “No. Are we done here? Where are my friends?”
“We’ll be done once you tell me everything that happened tonight.”
“I told you everything.”
Whistling, Surin flipped her butterfly knife between her fingers, rotating the handles rapidly. The blade flashed in the light as it moved quickly, up and down and sideways. Rui stared, entranced.
Surin’s smile deepened, a hint of bite behind it. She flicked her wrist. Her knife closed with a snap. “Maybe you told me everything, maybe you didn’t. I’m going to go withdidn’t.I’m still stuck at the part where you said you killed the Revenant by yourself. The healer said your spirit core isn’t fully healed. No way you could’ve done that.”
Rui lifted her chin. “Hybrid.Go on, you can say it. I promise I won’t freak out.”
“Call it whatever you want. Doesn’t change what I’m saying.”
“I told you. I used magic and stabbed it with my sword.” It wasn’t technically a lie. Rui had merely left out what kind of magic she’d used. It wasn’t like she knew the source of her blue fire anyway. Aloysius’s face flashed in her mind. The triumph of the kill had long vanished. All she had left was a sick feeling that she might’ve killed something closer to a human than not.
Surin tutted. “That’s the story you’re sticking with?”
“That’s the truth. There’s nothing I can do if you refuse to believe me.” Rui slumped in her chair.
Abruptly, Surin turned her head, touching the earpiece in her left ear. “Now? I’m not done yet.” A pause. “He wants to talk to her aboutwhat? Are you sure?” Surin sounded surprised. Another pause. “Fine. I’ll wrap up.” She put on her sunglasses and said to Rui, “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“Kids these days, always asking questions.”
“I’m not a kid,” Rui said. “I’m eighteen, and you’re not much older than me.”
Surin looked at her sideways.
“I’meighteen,” Rui repeated, her cheeks warming.
“And I’m not interested,” Surin snickered. “Got a girlfriend already. Come along now.”
Rui got up and followed her out of the room. Everything outside was stark white. Just corridors and closed doors.
When they got into the elevator, Rui asked, “Is this the Guild’s secret facility?”
Surin slapped her thigh, laughing. “Is that rumor still going around at the Academy?”
Rui scowled at her. But it only made Surin laugh harder.
As the elevator car soared sharply, Rui’s stomach dropped. Her legswent soft, and she steadied herself against the wall. They were going up. A long way from the feel of it. Was the interrogation room underground? What would Rui find above?
The doors opened.
Craggy peaks and old pine trees greeted them. Warmth spilled from the rising sun, and the air was fresh and thin. In daylight, the events of last night felt suddenly far away.
There was something familiar about the place, but Rui wasn’t sure what. The edge of the cliff beckoned. Curious, she walked over and looked down.
Sprawling out in the distance was Xingshan Academy and its odd collection of buildings. Rui could see the green splotch of the field in the middle, a smaller splotch of the secondary field, the reddish-brown ring of the running track, the gleaming white building with the Simulator. Four years at the Academy, and she’d never paid much attention to the old mountain range that ran to the north, the one the Academy was named after.
Xingshan: the mountain of stars.
“The secret facility is next to campus?” she said.
Surin sighed. “There’s no secret facility. This is a sacred place.”
