Yiranhadseen Matthias before.
There’d been a man sleeping in the hospital’s visitor lounge the night Yiran snuck in to see Rui. Yiran had paid scant attention then, but he was certain now that the man was Matthias.Thatwas why he’d looked so familiar—Yiran could see traces of Rui in him. And he recalled that the news had said her father was a former medical researcher.
Song Liming and Matthias Lin had met at the Academy. Liming had saved Matthias’s life during a Simulation prank gone wrong.Ruihad saved Yiran’s spirit core from burning out that day when the program glitched. If the past were a game, it was repeating itself with the players reversed.
Yiran brushed aside the unsettling parallel as he wiped down the sink. It didn’t matter. Coincidence or not, he was never going to see Rui again.
9
Zizi
Spring arrives and life returns to the snowy forest. Birdsong fills their ears, and the air is fragrant and fresh as Four and Lei Ying stroll along their usual path. Grazing on the newly sprouted grass, a doe and her fawn observe the maiden and her death god curiously.
“I leave for the capital tomorrow. The Revenants are flourishing, and Shifu needs us there,” Lei Ying says, picking a bunch of wisteria from a vine and weaving the flowers through her hair. She pauses to sip nectar from another flower before continuing, “You will forget me once I leave.”
It sounds like a statement of fact, as ifFourhas no choice in the matter.
“Then the solution is for us to find a new meeting spot in the capital. Preferably somewhere with a run-down teahouse,” he teases, hoping to lift her spirits.
But Lei Ying remains solemn. “It’s all right. I understand. Even if you do not forget me now, you shall eventually. I am mortal. My life is but a breath in time, and your existence is eternal. Memories and feelings—even yours—will fade.”
“I’ll never forget you.” Four raises his arm and draws down his sleeve. “Look carefully.”
Something rises to the surface of his flesh, threadlike, with a crimson glow that shimmers through his pale skin.
Lei Ying gasps in awe. “I saw it the first day we met. I thought I imagined it. What is it?”
“A love thread. You do not see yours because you are mortal. Immortals do not possess them—they cannot.”
She traces the glowing thread embedded in his arm. “Then why do you have one?”
“I do not know,” Four admits with a smile, “but it formed when I firstmet you.” He reaches a hand around her waist, drawing her closer to him. “Sotell me, my love, how can I ever forget you when your soul binds me to you?”
Lei Ying laughs. It is the most beautiful sound in the world. “And am I bound to yours?”
Four cups her cheek gently. “In all the worlds and all lifetimes, our souls are bound together. Wherever you go, to the ends of this world or the next, I will follow.”
“Always?” she whispers, almost shyly, as they stand beneath the cascading wisteria.
He tips her chin up. “Always.”
He holds her close, closer, breathing in the starburst scent of the wildflowers in her hair, and thinks,Let this be forever.
And when their lips meet, sweet nectar fills his tongue.
The capital is a riot of color, and there is so much to explore. Four pushes his limits, spending as much time in the mortal realm as possible. He becomes so good at passing for a human that when they run into a young cultivator Lei Ying has been mentoring, the boy is none the wiser.
At fourteen years old, Nikai has a kind of youthful hubris that comes with his age. He flings back the sleeves of his peacock-blue robes, fixing his suspicious gaze on Four.
“Does Shifu know abouthim?”
Lei Ying gives Nikai a chiding look. “Shifu does not need to know everything.”
Even though the immortal towers over him, the boy is not intimidated. Nikai puffs out his chest like a rooster and pokes Four with a threatening finger. “Shijieis my only family. If you hurt her or bully her or make her sad, I won’t ever forgive you. Know that I will come after you and tear your limbs from—” Lei Ying shushes him quickly.
But Four smiles. “Rest assured, Young Master Nikai,” he says, bowinglow to the boy. “She is my light, and I will do all in my power to guard her precious flame.”
At first, Nikai seems disarmed by Four’s declaration of devotion, but then he exclaims, “Those are merely flowery words. I have pledged to protect her with mylife. What do you say to that? Will you do the same—a life for a life?”
