The creature shuddered for a few moments, but it didn’t vaporize the way Rui had expected it to. Its body hardened, turning gray. Then it crumbled like a sandcastle, bits of ash scattering everywhere. In moments, all that was left was smoke and dust and that acrid sulfur stench.
Rui fell back onto the grass, dizzy and nauseated. The annoying boy had done it. He killed the Revenant.Of course he did. He’s a Song, she thought as black spots filled her vision.
Footsteps drew close. Warm hands slipped under her and lifted her up.
“What are you doing?” she said, barely able to speak.
“We need to get you to a hospital.”
“No hospital.” She pushed her bloody palms against his chest, but Yiran held her tight.
“I’ll bring you to my grandfather. He’ll know what to do.”
“Not him, not the Guild.” Rui couldn’t show up at the Guild like this. She would have to explain what happened. The illegal spell she used, the transference of spiritual energy, going after a Revenant by herself—the evidence was damning. She would get kicked out of the Academy. She would lose everything. “No Guild. Put me down, I’m fine.”
“How are you fine? Look at yourself.”
“You don’t understand. Put me down right now. I don’t need your help.”
“Shut up and listen,” Yiran growled.
Rui blinked hard.
Yiran came into focus. He was licking his dry lips. “I don’t know what you did to me. I’m not even sure if I want to know, because it feels like there’s a fire inside me and I’m going mad. But I know you’re bleeding to death, and you need help. You’re an Exorcist. I’m bringing you to my grandfather.”
His hair was flattened to his forehead, neck slicked with sweat, eyes wild and frantic. Rui was pressed close enough to sense his heart beating too quickly. He was barely holding it together. She could not let him fall apart.
She swallowed and tasted blood. “Mort Street—bring me to Mort Street.”
10
Nikai
Nikai dangled his long legs from one of the swings in the Garden of Tongues. It had become a habit of his to come here to see the stars the way Four used to. But tonight was special.
It was the same night Four had vanished exactly eighteen years ago.
Ever since his King’s disappearance, Nikai’s life as a Reaper had been in disarray: soul collections went poorly, he was stuck in bureaucratic perdition writing reports about the increasing number of Blighted-souls-turned-Revenants,andhe had a new boss to report to.
The Tenth King had been tasked with overseeing the Fourth Court while the search for Four continued. Ten was a nasty piece of work. He had an uncouth appetite for torture and relished any challenge in which he had the upper hand. It pained Nikai to bow to his rule, but all of that was the least of Nikai’s worries.
Hell itself was falling apart.
It had started with the little things—errors in death cards, system glitches that sent souls to the wrong Courts—small annoyances that one could take in stride. But soon, the edges of the underworld began to fade. Bits of landscape turned gray and colorless, crumbling away. Buildings and other infrastructure followed, succumbing to the ravenous dark. Souls were not spared either: they, too, disappeared into the Nothing.
Except it wasn’tnothingthat they became.
Nikai would know. After all, he’d been trapped in the Nothing once.
Dread crawled up his spine, a familiar specter that appeared whenever he thought of it. The Nothing was a difficult thing to describe. You had to see it, beinsideit, feel the sheer terror of the place where all hope was sucked out of you.
Once confined to the limbo space between the human realm and theTenth Court, the Nothing was now growing, like a hungry, insatiable beast. No one could stop its steady creep. The cause was simple: the power of all ten Kings was needed to keep the balance between the spirit and human realms, and the Nothing in its original confines, but the underworld was short one King.
Four.
It’s not your fault.
Words Nikai had repeated to himself for eighteen years. Words he was repeating to himself now as he clutched the cold chains of the swing. Just like before, those words did nothing to assuage his guilt.
