The lamp on the side table lit up, casting shadows on Yiran’s face, slicing it into sharp angles.
Rui propped herself up. Her eyes felt puffy from crying and her head hurt, but she was glad to see him.
“Why are you creeping around like some stalker?”
She expected a smile at least, but Yiran remained stone-faced. Faint circles ringed his eyes. It’d only been days since she last saw him, but there was something different, like he’d grown older. Harder.
“Are you... okay?” she asked in a small voice.
“Why did you do it?” She couldn’t sense his feelings anymore, but his distress was obvious.
“Do what?”
“It’sgone.” Yiran was looking at his hands. They were shaking.
“Yiran, what’s wrong?” She started to get out of bed, but his vicious glare froze her in place. “Yiran?” she said, suddenly afraid.
“My spiritual energy is normal again. My magic’s gone. You got yours back, didn’t you?”
“I... I just woke up today...” Rui couldn’t go on. Her magicwasback, which meant his was gone. Which meant his spirit core was safe, thathewas safe. But she felt no elation, no relief. Only dread, the heavy sense of things ending.
Yiran’s eyes glittered feverishly. “You feel it inside you, don’t you?”
She hung her head.
“Do you know what he said to me?” Yiran was talking about his grandfather. “He said he was glad. He washappythat I lost my magic.”
Rui felt the pain in his voice.
“I played by the rules, did everything I could to please him, to show him I could achieve something, to prove that I could make him proud. Should’ve known... andyou”—Yiran turned sharply to Rui— “you didn’t ask the first time, so why would you ask the second? You used me. I tried to protect you, I lied for you, but youusedme.”
All the reasons, all the excuses, died in Rui’s throat. She couldn’tdefend herself. Couldn’t meet Yiran’s eyes. He was right. Her own actions were no different from Four’s. Four had used her as a convenient vessel, and it was what she had done to Yiran. She’d cast a spell on him without consent, giving him a taste of something he had wanted so desperately, only to snatch it back.
It was cruel.
The hurt on Yiran’s face was unmistakable. “Don’t call me. Don’t look for me. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
“Yiran...” She faltered. She had already lost one, she couldn’t lose the other. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Yiran—stay, please. Don’t go.”
But he was already at the door.
He opened it, and his body split in half. A boy in the light; a boy in shadow. He gave her one last, lingering look.
“I wish I’d never met you that night.”
Five Three, Five Four
One month later
The apartment smelled of ginger rice and steamed chicken. The floor was vacuumed, the shoe rack tidy, and a stack of laundered clothes rested neatly on an armchair.
Rui fought the urge to pinch herself awake. This was a normal she’d forgotten, but it was the new normal her father had promised. The sight of her in the hospital, beaten and bruised, had shaken him to his core. He’d said he couldn’t lose her too, and he’d vowed to clean up his act.
He was busying in the kitchen now, his eyes sober behind his new glasses. “Hmm... it’s been a long time since I cooked this. Think I forgot my secret ingredient.”
Rui said, “More garlic?”
Her father laughed. “Yup.”
