Rui made a skeptical noise.
“I know you’re worried, but we’ve thought through the various possibilities of how it could play out,” Zizi said.
“I thought you had atool,” she said to him. “Why are we taking the more difficult and complicated route?”
Yiran answered instead. “The wizard needs more time to finesse things. The longer we wait to get to the kidnapped Exorcists and cadets, the more time we’re giving my father to experiment on them.”
His last point hit home. Rui didn’t like the plan at all. But time was a luxury for Surin and Jonathan and the other Exorcists. It was equally dangerous for Yiran to go to the Guild for help, which meant she and Zizi were his only hope.
“I don’t know if it’ll help,” she said, “but I’ll tell you what I know from Lei Ying’s memories about her Amplifier abilities. Maybe it’ll stabilize your magic and keep you safe.”
“We got her.” Yiran reached over to high-five Zizi.
Rui scowled, threatening to throw the butter at them. Still, their rowdy laughter eased her heart.
A loud knock came from the front door, and everyone tensed.
“I’m assuming none of us told anyone that we’re here,” Zizi said.
“I’ll get it—maybe it’s just Auntie Chen from next door.” But Rui grabbed one of her swords from the living room before she went to the front door. Just in case.
Heart thumping, she stood on her toes and stared out of peephole.
She blinked.
What washedoing here?
61
Ash
Ash leaned on the balls of his feet as he waited. He had tried calling Rui, but the line went straight to voice mail. He managed to get a hold of Ada instead. After checking Rui’s dorm room, she reported swiftly that Rui was gone. No one knew where she was.
Ash had visited The Reverie first, but no one came to the door. He stopped by Zizi’s shophouse next, but it was shut. Finally, he found Matthias Lin’s current address, and he’d come here on the assumption that Rui would want to see the only family she had after her arduous journey from the underworld.
The front door opened. Just a crack. He could see a sliver of Rui’s face. “Oh good, you’re here.”
She made no move to open the door farther.
Ash frowned. “It’sme. Open up.”
“Why are you here?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were back? Did you manage to talk to Zizi—the Fourth King, whatever—about the talisman?”
“Are you alone? Does anyone know you’re here?”
“Yes. No. What’s going on?”
Rui stared hard at him. “I want to trust you.”
Something about her expression reminded him of how she had looked when he last questioned her about Yiran. “Is my brother in there with you?”
She didn’t answer. Which could only mean one thing. “Is he okay? Let me in. I know he didn’t do it—I want to protect him. Let me see him.”
After a beat, she nodded. “Give me a sec.” She shut the door.
The next few minutes were agony. Ash could shoot the locks with his spiritual weapon, but it would do nothing to earn the trust of those inside.He was thankful to have found Yiran, but he didn’t know how he was going to explain what their supposedly-dead-but-actually-alive father had been up to.
