He tried to speak, but his throat refused to work.
“Behold, the Fourth King of Hell has arrived,” said the man with the flaxen hair and red robes.
The man snapped his fingers.
Everything went silent and still. Everything except Zizi and the man.
Ten, Rui had called him. At first, Zizi thought he was a mage, but his aura was all wrong and no mage could stop time.
“What are you?” Zizi rasped, finally finding his voice.
Ten smiled. He reminded Zizi of a spider, or a snake. “Do you remember whoyouare?”
Zizi shook his head carefully. Based on the new memories in his head, he had a hunch. But it was so absurd he refused to accept it.
“My dear brother,” Ten sighed, “I see you are in denial.”
“Those are not my memories.” Zizi was sure of it. “I don’t know what you did, and I don’t give a shit about what you believe or say. I’m not your brother.”
“I suppose it will take some time for you to remember everything, and for you to revert to your actual self instead of”—Ten gestured at him, wrinkling his nose with distaste—“whateverthisis. I much prefer my brother’s original face, but at least your eyes have changed.”
What does he mean?Zizi didn’t want tochange; he didn’t want to be someone else.Thiswas him. Teeth gnashing, he scrubbed at his face in panic.No, no, no.He felt a weird push-pull sensation in his body, like hisinsides were having a tug-of-war.
Lines creased on Ten’s forehead. “Interesting,” he said, staring hard. “Your eyes... they are blue again.How?”
“I... I don’t know.”
“No matter.” Ten dismissed it with a swing of his sleeve. “All things will be restored when we return to the underworld.”
But Zizi had caught the confusion and displeasure in his expression. Ten wasn’t expecting this. He didn’t think Zizi could push back against the change.Can I stop it?Zizi wondered, his panic subsiding. If two souls existed in his body somehow, did it mean that one soul could dominate the other? Couldhissoul keep Four’s at bay like he had for the last eighteen years? Could he remain the human he’d been and wanted to be?
“I’m not going anywhere with you, asshole,” he said. “I’m staying right here.”With Rui, he thought.
“Ah, the name-calling. I forgot how fond you were of that,” Ten groused. “Though I must say, it was seldom directed at me.”
Ignoring him, Zizi went to Rui, his pulse racing the way it always did when he was near her. Her expression was stuck in a moment of despair, her body frozen in time. He touched her cheek gently, just to be sure. It was warm, and he breathed a little easier.
“If you are concerned about the girl, you should know that this is what she wanted.”
Zizi twisted around in disbelief.
Ten was examining his ruby-stained fingernails. “Rui made a deal with me to get her magic back and to save the life of the other boy. What was his name? Yiran?” Ten smiled coyly at Zizi. “I see you are surprised. I guess she kept it a secret from you. This is all part of the plan so she gets what she wants.”
You’re wrong, Zizi wanted to say. But he didn’t. While he was surethiswasn’t what Rui had in mind when she tried to get her magic back, he was just as certain she would always choose herself. It was one of the things he admired about her. But in this case, it seemed she had chosen Yiran too.
“I sense your doubt, dear brother—”
“Stop calling me that,” Zizi snapped.
Before he could get another word in, Ten drew a circle with his finger. A small black dot appeared in midair. It grew bigger and bigger, a dark hole forming out of nowhere. An abyss to somewhere Zizi would rather not know.
Something black flew out from the portal and wrapped itself around his neck.
It burned.
“Get it off me!” Zizi pulled at the fabric, but it only tightened. It felt like it was strangling him.
“Alas, I cannot remove that,” said Ten. “It binds us to the underworld. Each King has one.” Ten pointed to the leather harness around his waist, incongruous against his silk hanfu. “Don’t fight it,” he advised.
