“Involved in something? Are you sure you don’t meansomeone?”
“What are you talking about?”
His wounded expression vanished as quickly as it came. “Guess I’ll have to text you about you-know-what,” he said blithely.
If he had information about Hybrids or reversing the spell, she wanted to know immediately.
She grabbed his wrist.
Zizi’s eyes widened, but he allowed himself to be led outside. They ducked into an alley, searching for shadows to hide them from the bright city lights. It was always like this with him: the clandestine meetings, the hiding, the moments that felt stolen. It felt forbidden. It feltspecial.
Rui pushed that thought away. “What do you have to tell me?”
“Remember the client who hired me to create the separation spell? I was going to ask him why he needed it. I thought if I found out thewhy, I might get closer to figuring out thehow. Maybe it’ll help me reverse engineer it in a way that wouldn’t affect your spirit core and Mochi’s.”
“Did you talk to him? What did he say?”
“He was supposed to contact me a couple of weeks ago to check if the spell was ready, but he didn’t. I tracked him down. Guess what? He’s dead. The man lived alone, no family. His neighbor said she heard he died of a heart attack. Seems a tad too convenient, doesn’t it?”
“Are you reading too much into this?” Rui wondered. “Maybe the timing’s coincidental.”
“That’s what I thought. But then I found out I wasn’t the only one hired to create a spell like this. At least three other mages had similar jobs.” Zizi paused, raking a hand through his hair. The slicked-back locks loosened, waves tumbling down to his cheekbones, shadowing his eyes.
He was hiding something. “What aren’t you saying?” Rui asked.
He glanced away at the street.
“Zee zee.”
“Gods.” His shoulders lifted and sagged as he stared at her in a way that made her head fuzzy. “I can’t keep anything from you when you look at me like that.”
Feeling smug, Rui crossed her arms. “So tell me.”
“All three of the mages the man hired have disappeared.”
“Is that a euphemism for—”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if they’re still alive ordead. No one has seen or heard from them in weeks.”
Was Master Kang one of them? But she couldn’t ask that; Zizi would want to know why she was snooping around the Night Market.
“Are there any more mages who were hired but haven’t gone missing?” she said instead.
“I’m not sure. I’m still looking into it.”
It couldn’t be a coincidence. Even if Master Kang wasn’t one of the three mages, it only meant there werefourmissing ones.
She looked up at Zizi. His face was as familiar as her own. She couldn’t imagine what she’d do if anything happened to him.
“You’ll stay safe, right?” she said, a little shaky.
“I will.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Nothing. Leave the sleuthing to me and focus on getting better.”
“But I can—”
