Nikai was looking at her through the mirror, anxious and waiting. “What’s the question?” he asked.
“What’s going to happen to the person who houses Four’s soul?” she said. “What’s Ten going to do with them?”
Nikai frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, sure you’ll get your King back, but what happens to the human he used to contain his soul?” said Rui.
“I assume we would extract Four’s soul and bring him back to the underworld, where he belongs. I’m not familiar with how we would do it.”
“Will the human’s life be endangered in the process? Will they die?”
“I don’t know. There is no guarantee of anything,” Nikai said. “But you are weighing one human life against the entire underworld, against the lives of other mortals in your realm. You’re weighing it against whatyouwant, your revenge, your magic.”
Rui felt her jaw tensing. “That sounds like something Ten would say.”
Nikai looked away, shoulders sagging. “You have made a deal with a King, Rui. It is binding.”
Ten is a King, and all Kings are dangerous.“I’m aware of what I did,” she said.
“Do you feel a connection to someone, Rui?” Nikai asked quietly, avoiding her eyes. “Is that the reason for your questions?”
Rui wasn’t sure about her theory of Yiran yet, and Nikai didn’t have the answer she needed. There was no point in giving Nikai a name. She kept her voice steady. “No. It was just a thought I had.”
She couldn’t tell if he believed her, but he nodded.
“Can you find out what will happen to the human that houses Four’s soul?” she said.
Nikai nodded again. “Is that all?”
“Not quite. Something weird happened to me.” She told him how the blue fire had burst from her hands during the altercation with the Hybrids. Nikai’s expression grew grimmer and grimmer as she went on. “I haven’t been able to summon the blue fire since that night,” she finished.
Nikai opened his mouth. Closed it, seemingly rendered speechless by her revelation.
“I wanted to tell you earlier,” she said, “but it didn’t happen again, so I thought maybe it was a weird one-off thing.”I didn’t want to tell you because I was scared, she thought, as Aloysius’s face appeared in her mind. When Nikai stayed silent, she said, “One of the Hybrid Revenants said the blue fire draws from the darkness. I thought you might know what it means.”
“The darkness?” Nikai seemed paler than usual, but it was hard to tell from the small piece of glass.
“Does it mean anything?”
“I’m not sure, but I think—”
There was a loud knocking on her door.
“Rui? You in there?”
Ada.
“Rui? We have to assemble in the hall now—the Exorcists are here,” Ada said, sounding urgent.
The Exorcists?“I have to go,” Rui told Nikai, scrambling up. “If you discover anything, let me know.”
“Wait, Rui—” Nikai called out.
“Be right out, Ada!” Rui pushed the mirror under her pillow and went to the door.
41
Nikai
