She couldn’t spot the ledge where she’d had her confrontation with Song Wei. It’d been less than two months ago, but she felt like a different person.
This is the sacred place.
Song Wei had claimed the mountain was the birthplace of Exorcism, where the original cultivators came together to form a society to protect the vulnerable. What was it about the mountain that made it special? Rui didn’t know, but she recalled an old legend about how the mountain itself had gotten its name. Her mother had told the tale as a bedtime story, and for some reason, it’d stuck with her.
Legend had it that there was once a constellation of ten stars overlooking the entire mountain range. They were Celestials who kept watch over the realm of the living. But mortals were terrible and terrifying creatures, waging endless wars against each other and the land. To punish them for their atrocities, the gods vowed to shroud them in darkness. As the Celestials’ light grew dimmer and dimmer, the mortals suffered. But one star in the constellation could not bear to hear their sad cries. He was brighter than the other nine, and when he cast himself down from the skies, light returned to the mortal realm.
On nights when the sky was cloudless and sleep proved elusive, Rui had seen the constellation of nine herself, flickering light-years away. Because of the fairy tale, she’d sometimes wondered about the tenth star, the brave Celestial who took pity on mankind and sacrificed his light.
“What are you looking at?” Ada asked.
“Just the mountain,” Rui replied, taking the mug of malted hot chocolate her friend offered.
“You look awful.”
Rui crawled onto the sofa. “Ifeelawful. I need sleep.”
Hugging a throw cushion, Ada half yawned as she said, “Don’t we all?” Her hair was up in a messy topknot, and she was still in her nightgown. A large bruise was forming on her arm, undoubtedly a result of last night’s mission.
Did Ada know about the mutilated corpse lying in Kodie’s lab? Ash had only mentioned Teshin and Mai. Rui sipped her hot chocolate, deciding to broach that later. She was here for something just as important. Confessing wasn’t easy, not after she had held on to her secrets for so long. But she owed it to her best friend.
“Remember that guy outside the karaoke club?” she said as casually as she could. “The healer Ash brought to the Academy?”
Ada sat up at once, suddenly wide awake. “The one with the strange blue eyes? The one you wanted to punch with your lips?” Rui made an exasperated noise, and Ada laughed. “I assumed he was Ash’s new protégé, but I haven’t seen him around lately. I guess he didn’t meet the recruitment criteria.”
“About that.”
“What about that?”
Rui exhaled a string of words quickly. “He’s kind of an immortal being, like a death god–possessed person, a lord of the underworld, a—a King of Hell.”
Ada’s mouth opened and closed and opened again like a goldfish. “I don’t get the joke,” she finally said, looking confused.
Rui winced. “I’m not joking.”
Screeching like an owl, Ada threw her pillow right at Rui who, fully prepared for such a reaction, blocked it with an arm.
Still screeching, Ada scrambled over, sticking her face right up in Rui’s. “You can’t say something like that and not explain. Tell me everything!”
Rui obliged, condensing as much information as she could into the next two hours, pausing only to answer Ada’s questions, of which there were many.
“I’m sorry for hiding everything from you,” she said at the end.
“It’s okay. I mean, it’s not—but it is with me.” Ada hugged her tightly. “We’re good.”
“I don’t deserve you.”
“That’s not for you to decide,” Ada promptly said. “Ooh, I justknewthe two of you had a thing going.”
“How?” Ada had only seen them together twice, each time for barely a few minutes.
“Sometimes you see two people and you think,Oh, they fit together.” Ada shrugged.“Like soup dumplings and ginger in your dipping sauce.”
“Some people don’t like ginger with their soup dumplings.”
“Somepeople have an unsophisticated palate,” Ada said, shaking her head as if she pitied those people.
“That sounds like something Zizi would say.” Rui’s laughter died in her throat. She took a gulp. Hot chocolate scalded her tongue. She wished it would burn away her memories.
