Focusing intently, Ash rewatched the silent footage of what happened after, slowing it down to catch every detail. Yiran dragging a collapsed Song Wei out the door... Yiran flailing as if he was calling for help... their grandfather reaching to touch his face, the gestureaffectionaterather than accusing... the moment their grandfather’s hand fell as the life left his body... the anguish in Yiran’s expression...
Ash had arrived in that moment. He’d only had a glimpse of Yiran before the enormous eruption of spiritual energy blew out the doors to the private rooms and the surrounding pillars. But regardless of what had caused that explosion and what Yiran’s reasons for being at the teahouse were, Ash’s conclusion was clear. There were no Hybrids around. Yiran was alone when he entered the teahouse. Hedid nothave a hand in Song Wei’s death.
His brother was innocent. The Guild Council had lied. But why? And who could’ve murdered his grandfather?
He went back to the earlier clips of the two waiters, cross referencing the time stamps, toggling between two specific clips: Yiran arriving at the Waterlily room and the second waiter entering with a tray.
Ash stilled. If he was reading the time stamps correctly, there was no way the second waiter had left the room. Which meant the man had beeninsidethe room at the time of Song Wei’s murder.
He searched through all the clips Kodie had gathered until he found the one that showed the back alley. Sure enough, a man had exited out the window of the Waterlily room, landing on the ground in the alley andthen slipping into an unmarked car idling by the side. Heart in throat, Ash rewatched it, slowly absorbing what he was seeing. The street camera wasn’t positioned at the right angle, and he couldn’t see the man’s face. But just before the man got into the getaway car, he made a peculiar gesture with his arm.
It was a gesture Ash had seen many times as a child, the result of an old injury sustained by a certain Exorcist during one of his missions.
It felt as though the air had turned to glass, thin and impossible to breathe. Ash braced a hand against the armrest. He had been wrong all this time. The mole wasn’tinsidethe Guild, and it wasn’t an Exorcist who’d retired either—in fact, there wasn’t a mole at all.
All this time, the true culprit had been a hero the world had already buried.
56
Rui
It was past midnight, but Rui was tossing and turning in bed. She’d returned to campus to meet Ada, who had filled her in on what had happened at The Green Needle earlier. It was top secret; only the Council and a few others knew about Master Song’s death. Ash had told Ada, trusting she would be discreet and disseminate the information only to the rest of the A-Team. But what Ash didn’t say was that Song Yiran was the prime suspect. It was Mai who’d sent out feelers and gotten that information.
Rui refused to believe it. Song Yiran was many things, but no matter how much he might have hated his grandfather, she knew in her bones he would never carry out such an atrocious act.
The media was reporting that the teahouse explosion was due to a gas leak. It was such an unimaginative explanation, yet it always seemed to work on normies. Teshin’s uncle had been called in to inspect the place, and Teshin heard it might have had something to do with an unexplained surge in spiritual energy during the assault on Song Wei. But a magic wielder’s death couldn’t cause something like that. Or at least, Rui had never heard of that happening.
There was a light drumming of fingers against her door.
“It’s me.”
Zizi? What washe doing here? They’d left the shophouse in different directions earlier, with him mumbling something about needing an axe.
Rui jumped out of bed, neatening her hair and checking herself quickly in the mirror. She was about to change into something nicer when she caught herself.It was perfectly fine to look disheveled in her crummy old sleeping shirt at this time of night. Why should she care about impressing a stranger?But is he really a stranger?She couldn’t remember every detailabout Madam Meng’s tea ritual, but Ada swore that whatRuihad told her before her journey into the underworld was that her most treasured memories would be taken when she crossed Naihe Bridge.
If her lost memories were all of Zizi—and Four—did it mean that he was oncepreciousto her?
“Rui? You in there?”
“Yeah!” She scrambled to open the door.
Zizi was walking in a semicircle, thumbs hooked in pockets, his long black coat twirling behind him in a decidedly wizardy way.The troubled look on his face vanished when he saw her, and his gaze softened.
“Did I wake you—oh, sorry, feel free to put on pants. I’ll wait.” He turned away from her bare legs.
For a full second, Rui gaped at the back of his head. Then she grabbed him by his sleeve and dragged him into her room, whisper-hissing as she shut the door. “We have so many problems, and you’re worried about whether I’m wearing pants?”
“I was protecting your modesty.”
She scowled. “You’re a very strange person.”
He smiled. “I believe the word you intended to say wasuniqueorspecial.”
Her scowl deepened. He was infuriating.But fortunately—orunfortunately—very pleasant to look at. Slightly damp from melting snow, his dark hair fell over his eyes, the silver streaks glinting softly in the light of her desk lamp. She felt herself staring at his lips as they parted, and—she gave herself a mental kick.
“What are you doing here? Did anyone see you?”
Zizi’s expression turned serious, and he sat down. “I was curious, so I ventured to the teahouse. Couldn’t get close because the cops—or rather, the Guild—cordoned off the area. But I’m quite certain Mochi was at the scene of the crime.”
