The young man reaches out a trembling arm. Four grasps his hand firmly and pulls him up.
“I am Four. Do you remember your name?”
The young man’s lips move as if searching for his identity, but his confusion only grows. “No,” he finally replies.
Four smiles. “Then I shall call you Nikai.”
And you shall be my family.
18
Rui
If Rui’s gut was right, Madam Meng would have a way of contacting Zizi. It didn’t take much to convince Ash to give her a ride to the hotel. As he pulled the car to the curb, he lowered his sunglasses and peered dubiously out the window at the grand mansion on top of the hill. The Reverie looked the same as before: old, magnificent, and mildly haunted even in daylight.
“Are you absolutely sure about this?” he said.
“No, but I have to try.”
“But are you sure you want to do this alone? My presence offers the authority of the Exorcist Guild. We could use it to pressure Madam Meng into spilling everything she knows.”
He’d been on board with this earlier. Why did he sound like he had cold feet now? “That’s very sweet of you, Ash,” she said acerbically. “But if Madam Meng is who I think she is, then I highly doubt she’ll cave to anymortalauthority.”
He grimaced. “Right. The underworld immortal thing.”
“Yes, that.”
“You’re sure you feel okay? The blue flames aren’t bothering you anymore?”
He was being such a nag that it got on her nerves. “Disappointed you can’t use me as a weapon in your Hybrid war?”
“Is it so difficult to accept that I care about the cadets I’m in charge of?” he snapped back.
Rui flinched. Not from his yelling, but from his expression. Her words had done something she’d never thought possible. They had hurt him.
We know Ash trusts you with his life.
She couldn’t imagine the amount of stress he was under now. Ashdidn’t ask to be born to a dynastic family like the Songs and burdened with responsibility from the first breath he took. He was probably one of the strongest living Exorcists, and it had to be lonely, watching his peers and subordinates and friends perish one by one. Knowing that he could try his hardest, but he couldn’t save them all.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m being a brat again.”
Ash sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Forget it. We’re all stressed out. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
“I deserved it. And I can’t explain how, but I know Madam Meng will only talk to me. I’ll make my own way back to the Academy when I’m done.”
“Or you could give me a call and I’ll come pick you up.” Ash restarted the engine. “Off you go, Cadet Lin. Shoo.”
“Yes,Captain.”
Rui caught his faint smile as she got out of the car. Steeling herself, she jogged up the stairs and through the moon gate into The Reverie’s garden. It was starting to snow again. She paused at the front doors of the hotel, tipping her head up at the sky.
Winter had always been her favorite season, but its icy kisses on her cheeks seemed to prickle with a sense of foreboding. What was it about the snow that troubled her? She couldn’t shake the feeling that it had something to do with her dreams.
As she stared at the snowflakes, a woozy feeling of being in between wakefulness and sleep struck her, and the garden seemed to sway. She heard a soft voice whispering in her ear.
Wherever you go, to the ends of this world or the next, I will follow.
That phrase... She’d heard it before, but she couldn’t remember when or where. It dredged up an inexplicable feeling in her that came from her very being. Words flowed from her lips like she was reciting a promise from memory.
