“If it doesn’t work out, it means you might be dead,” Zizi pointed out. “Or some kind of hideous monster.”
“It’s worth the risk.”
“You know that Rui would be sad if anything happened to you too, right?”
“She’ll get over it,” Yiran said confidently. “But if she ever regains her memories, she’ll be sadder if it’syou, and we both know she won’t ever get over that.”
“Maybe.” Zizi stared up at the night sky again, as if searching the heavens for answers. “Look at us, trying to save each other.”
“The most important thing is that we save our realms.” Yiran extended his hand. “So you with me?”
Emotion flickered in Zizi’s pale blue eyes. He grasped Yiran’s hand firmly.
“Great.” Yiran grinned. “All we need to do is to come up with something to convince Rui in the morning. She can’t know everything.”
Zizi groaned. “Good luck to us.”
60
Rui
“Absolutely not,” Rui said, glaring at the two boys sitting at the kitchen table.
To avoid arousing any suspicion, her father had left for his job at the convenience store as usual, and they were the only ones in the apartment. The morning had started off surprisingly well. Her sleep had been restful, and she’d woken up to the delicious aromas of a hot breakfast and coffee. It didn’t take her long to realize it was all a bribe.
The clowns had been conspiring in the night.
“You can’t go back to the Hybrids and your father,” she told Yiran. “It’s too risky. You ran away from them. What makes you think they’ll accept you again? They might hurt you.”
Yiran wasn’t bothered at all. “I ran because I panicked. Then I came to my senses and realized my dear father’s side is where I want to be.” He stood and spread his arms dramatically in a scarily good imitation of Zizi, who was watching him with amusement. “After all, I amthe heir.”
Rui couldn’t believe Yiran was laughing in a fraught situation like this.
“Think about it,” Zizi said as he buttered his toast. “Mochi’s cornered. He can’t return to the Guild after Master Song’s death and the spiritual energy blast at the teahouse. He has nowhere to go but back to Song Liming.”
“How will he convince his father to cast the spell on him, or even show it to him in the first place?” Rui countered.
“Simple. I’ll ask to see it,” Yiran said, sitting back down and shoving a forkful of scrambled eggs into his mouth. “Also, for better or worse, he considered testing the spell on magic wielders before. He just hasn’t had the opportunity. I can give it to him.”
“That’s why they kidnapped the Exorcists—to use them as guineapigs.” Shaking his head, Zizi picked up another piece of bread, buttering that too. “The man’s nuts.”
“But why would Song Liming experiment on hisown son?” Rui said, banging her mug on the table for emphasis. It felt as though neither of them were taking her concerns seriously.
“Because his son is anAmplifier,” Zizi answered patiently. He trailed his fingers lightly over the rim of a tall glass before pouring orange juice in it. “Don’t underestimate how interesting that is to someone like Song Liming. He befriended your father and took him under his wing because he thought Matthias was special, didn’t he? There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. Song Liming will want to know how a spell like that would work on someone with special abilities, and how the transformation will turn out.”
“You’re right—the touch of milk did improve the texture of the scrambled eggs,” Yiran said to Zizi, stuffing more egg into his mouth greedily, as if they weren’t talking about his possible transformation into a monster—or worse, his outright demise. “This is really good.”
Zizi grinned, pleased with the compliment. “Told you so.”
Rui looked on in bewilderment as Yiran took the glass of juice from Zizi. The two of them were eating their breakfast way too nonchalantly considering the topic at hand was the fate of the world. She couldn’t understand why sending Yiran back to the Hybrids as a double agent was the best plan the boys had come up with and why they were so convinced this was the only way. What had happened while she was asleep? What could be binding them together so strongly that they were in lockstep with each other?
“How are you going to find the Hybrids in the first place?” she said, grasping for straws. “They move around, remember?”
“I’ll go back to the dive bar, or I can contact Yuki.” Yiran sipped his juice and made a face briefly, flicking a glance at Zizi. Zizi seemed to give him the slightest of nods, and Yiran finished his drink.
What’s that about?Rui eyed them suspiciously. “Can you trust Yuki?”
“I don’t need to for the plan to work. If it makes you feel better, my father doesn’t even need to cast the spell on me. I just need him to thinkI’m on his side and that I want to”—Yiran made air quotes—“upgrademy abilities. Once I know where he keeps the talisman and where the kidnapped Exorcists are, I’ll steal the spell and get out of there. As foryou, dearest Darcy, your job will be to convince Ash of my innocence and have him bring a rescue team to the site. And somehow, along the way, we’ll clear my name and destroy the talisman.”
