“You got lucky. Don’t forget who holds the top score on—”
“Children, kindly stop shit-talking each other.” The strong baritone of Ash Song, their proctor, crackled over the speakers of the Simulator. “You’re supposed to be on the same team.”
Ada chirped, “Yes, sir.”
“Whatever,” Rui muttered at the same time.
“I heard you, Cadet Lin,” Ash said, sounding unamused. “Get rid of that crappy attitude or I’ll make sure your application to the Guild gets mysteriously lost.”
Rui rolled her eyes.
It was an empty threat. As her evaluator and mentor at Xingshan Academy, Ash might have some say in her final assessment when she graduated, but Rui was the best all-round cadet the Academy had produced in her cohort. Even Ash couldn’t deny that fact. More importantly, the Exorcist Guild couldn’t afford to lose any promising cadets. Not when the Blight had been running rampant in recent years.
As the supernatural virus attacked, more Revenants formed, and moreExorcists were needed to vanquish them. Problem was, not everyone was born with a strong spirit core and a high level of yangqi like Rui or Ada. Not everyone could train to be an Exorcist. As far as Rui was concerned, it meant she wasvaluable. In a year, she would graduate with top honors, join the esteemed Exorcist Guild, and rise in its ranks.
That was the plan. Unless she got killed first, of course.
“Roo-ee, tell him you’re sorry,” Ada whispered urgently under her breath. “You don’t have to mean it.”
Rui sighed. Ada was right. It was best to stay on Ash’s good side, considering he was a descendant of the illustrious Song family. His grandfather was Head of the Guild, and rumor had it that Ash was on track to follow in his footsteps. Ash’s lineage was peppered with famous names; his father was a hero who died battling Revenants... while Rui was descended from a family of nobodies: a deadbeat dad and a mother who was long gone from this world.
Rui kept her distaste down and coated her tongue with a layer of sugar. “My apologies, Captain.”Long live the Song Dynasty, she added in her head.
“Accepted,” Ash said. Rui could hear his obnoxious smirk. At twenty-two, Ash was already a Captain—the youngest Exorcist ever to be made one. No wonder his ego was the size of a small whale. “Carry on,” he instructed. “Cadet Senai, on your lead.”
Ada nodded. “Yes, Captain.”
“Make sure you watch the clock, kiddos.”
Rui glanced at the blinking LED numbers on her training watch.
4:09
4:08
4:07
Today’s simulation training program was set in a cargo terminal of a port. Huge metal containers were stacked like toy blocks, one on top of another, creating narrow zigzagging lanes to form a maze. In four minutes, the simulated moon would peak and the yin energy in the area would shoot up. Revenants siphoned yinqi to grow more powerful. If sheand Ada didn’t move quickly, the tables would turn, and they’d become the hunted.
“You ready?” Rui asked.
“Let’s do this,” Ada replied, pulling out a talisman. She was the superior protective spell caster between them.
Rui was the attack dog.
As Ada whispered the incantation, the yellow paper in her hand began to smoke, and the red ink on it disintegrated. The air seemed to split. A glowing dome rose above them, sealing off the perimeter—a barrier spell.
Ada signaled with her fingers.Your three o’clock.
Rui moved right. Ada split left, her bright magenta ponytail swaying as she went. Soon the shadows swallowed her up and Rui was alone.
A trickle of unease grazed Rui’s skin. She had woken up this morning with a strange buzz in her head. Something was different today. Maybe it was because it’d been exactly four years since—
She stopped in her tracks, ears pricking.
A soft mewling was coming from where Ada had pointed, disturbingly similar to a baby’s cry. Rui knew she was in a simulation program, but the hairs on the back of her neck still stood.
There.
