“You’re sleeping? Why aren’t you here for the patrol?”
“I was taking a nap. The patrol’s been called off—didn’t you know? I thought you’d come back to campus from your dad’s.” Ada sounded wide awake now. “They called a Night Hunt out of the blue, and the territory extends to Tangren Quarter, so they ordered our patrol group to stay back on campus. Some strange Revenant is running wild. Didn’t you get the message?”
Rui’s heart skipped a beat. “Strange Revenant? Is it a Hybrid?”
There was a slight pause on Ada’s side. “I think they meant it was a stronger Revenant or something. You’re not thinking of going after it yourself, are you?”
Rui didn’t reply.
“You have to come back,” Ada said. “All cadets must be inside the dorms. You can’t defy orders. What time is it—we’ve roll call in less than an hour.”
Rui cursed. “I’m on my way.”
She hung up and opened Apparition—the Academy’s app for communication. With everything that was happening at her father’s, she’d forgotten to check it. Sure enough, there was a message repeating what Ada had said.
There was also a text from Zizi.
Sushi was great but I ordered waaaay too much as usual. Wish you stayed to help.
The text ended with a GIF of a ghost bearing a resemblance to the earrings she’d gifted him. A tiny word bubble appeared at its mouth with one word:boo. Zizi must have meant it when he said he enjoyed her cantankerous company.
Or maybe he’s just weird, her brain pointed out.Both could be true, her heart argued.Stop thinking about him, she chided herself.This was no time to ponder what Zizi might or might not have meant. She had to get back to the Academy.
As she turned, a distinctive smell wafted in the air, like flowery perfume mixed with something rotting. Her hands went to her sword bag.
A Revenant was in the area.
Miasma pressed down, growing heavier by the second. Rui knew she had to leave, but her feet moved toward the scent. The Revenant was too near to the Night Market where the crowd was, and she didn’t know if they’d evacuated yet. There was no sign of the Exorcists. What if they were late?
Some strange Revenant is running wild....
What if it really was a Hybrid? What if it washim? She was near the scene of her mother’s murder exactly four years ago.... It felt like too much of a coincidence.
Rui made up her mind. She had her talismans and her weapons. She would get to the Revenant first, she would kill it before—
A scream ripped the night apart.
9
Rui
A woman was running toward Rui. “Help! A monster!”
“You can see the Revenant?” Rui said, incredulous. The woman looked like a normie; shecouldn’tsee Revenants. Unless— “Does it look human? Where is it?”
“Around the corner. The boy is trying to f-fight it.”
“What boy?”
The woman started to sob incoherently. Her fear seemed to seep into Rui as she clung on to her.
“Never mind,” said Rui. “Get away from here.”
She pried the woman off and sprinted ahead, but the sight that accosted her was so surprising she stopped in her tracks.
Song Yiran was holding up a baseball bat. In front of him, a Revenant backed up against the wall, its ghoul-like features twisted in confusion.
“What the hell are you doing?” Rui shouted at him.
