Voices trailed in the stale air.
“...Who cares?”
“Watch your mouth...”
“...need some fresh air...”
Footsteps drew close.
Rui floated into the shadows, hoping the owners of the voices would not come her way. But she didn’t have to worry. When the two guards appeared, they walked right by her to the elevator.
They can’t see me.Reassured, she turned back to the corridor.
“Do you really think the mortal boy will die?”
Rui spun around so quickly she became dizzy. Were the guards talking about Zizi?
The taller guard shrugged. “They brought him here to break him. I say he doesn’t stand a chance.”
“Why doesn’t he submit to the Fourth King and get it over with? Why suffer like this?”
“Feeling sorry for our prisoner, eh?”
“He’s just a kid.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Don’t you find the whole thing weird? Any mortal would’ve crumbled the moment they entered the Obsidian Cavern, but he’s hanging on. There’s something strange about him.” The doors to the elevator opened, and the guards went in. “He doesn’t feel right to me, maybe he’s actually—” The doors closed, cutting off whatever else the guard was saying.
Rui couldn’t move.
Ziziwashere and the guards had called him amortal boy. Had there been a mistake? Was he not a King?
They brought him here to break him. I say he doesn’t stand a chance.
This was her fault. If she hadn’t made that treacherous deal with Ten in the first place, if she—
Get a grip.She couldn’t waste the precious memory she’d given up for this, and everyone in the mortal realm was counting on her to find out more about the Hybrids’ spell.
The path turned sharply, ending in a large cavern shrouded in black rock. Stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and uneven ground, and a single enormous pillar stood in the middle. Rock splintered from it like the roots of an ancient tree, forming a thorny prison. A young man dressed in ragged black robes was inside. Strung high up against the pillar, his limbs were shackled to the column. His body was limp, his head hanging down as if the muscles in his neck were no longer working.
Her soul whispered to her heart,I’ve found him.
They had a true connection after all. The pull that had guided her here had been coming fromhim.
Rui grabbed the barricade of rock, but her hands passed through. How was she going to get to him?You’re having a vision. Anything is possible.Maybe it was like dreaming, the kind where you could manipulate your surroundings. Abandoning her normal sense of perception, she blinked hard and found herself inside the cage.
Zizi’s eyes were closed, but he was breathing. Shallowly, painfully. He looked fearful, as if trapped in an eternal nightmare. Up close, she could see the silvery-white strands streaking his dark hair. The same color as the Fourth King’s in her dreams.
Gently, she brushed her hand against his head, and then his cheek. Her translucent fingers passed through him, yet she couldn’t help but think he had to know she was next to him.
Zizi, she whispered.
He seemed to stir.
Was she imagining it out of hope or despair? She was just a wisp of air with no strength or weapons, nothing to blast through the obsidian prison. She couldn’t free him. Not now, at least. But she would save him, no matter what. Could her spiritual weapon break his shackles? Madam Meng might know.
I’ll come back foryou, Rui told the sleeping boy.
Again, she caught an imperceptible shift in Zizi’s expression, almost as if he’d heard her. Something red caught her eye. The threads he used to wear around his wrist were still there, and it made her look at her own.
