She leveraged off the side of the building and catapulted into the air. As she sailed over the Revenant, it reared, bottomless eyes following the arc of her trajectory. Before she began her descent, Rui rotated her body and thrusted both arms out, certain of her strike. She felt her blade slicing through flesh and twisted some more. But just as her other blade grazed another tentacle, her right shoulder popped.
Pain shot through her nerves. She had practiced this move a hundred times. Maybe it was a hundred times too little. Maybe it was the morning’s injury that affected her technique. Or maybe it was plain old fear. It didn’t matter.
She had missed.
A tentacle shot out from nowhere, slamming into her ribs. Air gusted from her lungs, and she felt something crack. She couldn’t breathe.Couldn’t scream. Her swords clattered onto the ground, metal ringing like a death chime.
The tentacle wrapped around her. The ground shrank as she went up, up, up, her legs dangling like a rag doll’s. She didn’t want to know how far the drop would be. Or if she would live to feel it.
The Revenant brought her close to its monstrous face. The stench of rot and sulfur was overpowering. Against her will, Rui whimpered.
Something pricked her neck. A fog clouded over her mind.
The Revenant started todrink.
It was a hundred times worse than what she had experienced in the training program. Her head lolled back toward the night sky.The stars are out tonight.It was a strange thought to have in this moment. But the bright spots in the sky were turning black. She was getting weaker, her mind drifting off to somewhere quiet... somewhere dark.
“Let go of her!”
I don’t run.
“I said, let go of her!”
The tentacle around her loosened.
Rui’s lungs filled with air. Her vision focused. She saw a figure jumping up and down on the ground below.
Something whizzed past her ear.
That foolish boy had traded his baseball bat for rocks, and he was throwing them at the Revenant. As if that would do anything at all. A misguided rock shot past her head. How good—or bad—was Yiran’s aim?
It didn’t matter what he did. Rui couldn’t move a muscle, couldn’t string together a coherent thought. It was over. The Revenant was going to suck her dry. She was going to die tonight, just like how she was supposed to die exactly four years ago. Fate merely held its cards close, letting her believe that she was safe, that death would not come for her.
Get a grip on yourself.This is not how it ends.Zizi’s voice—or maybe it was her father’s—spoke in her mind.
Baba.
If she died, what would become of her father? There would be no one to take care of him. No one to make sure he stayed alive. No one who would care if he died.
She couldn’t give up. Not like this.
Gasping, she reached into her coat, fingers inching for the flimsy piece of paper in her pocket.
Another rock bounced off the Revenant’s torso. It didn’t do any damage, but it did distract it. For a moment, the creature forgot about Rui. It lifted its head and growled at Yiran.
Rui twisted. Her shoulder screamed in pain. But Zizi’s talisman was in her hands. She started the incantation with a shaky whisper.
Nothing happened.
Hope faded.
Then—at the corner of the talisman—light flickered.
Rui’s chant grew louder as she thanked all the gods in this world and the next. A few more words and her spell would be complete—but her chant became a yell when the Revenant flung her into the air.
Free-falling, she crashed into the canopy of trees, unable to brace herself. Branches scratched her face and hands. Something pierced her side, tearing through fabric and flesh.
The ground struck her hard. Jolted her teeth, shook her bones. In a daze, she struggled up and felt her ribs. Her fingers met with something warm and wet.
