Was the Hybrid leader telling him tokillNoah while the boy lay helpless on the ground?
“I said, it’s finished,” Yiran repeated, his voice firmer this time. “I’ve won. He’s incapacitated.”
The simulated environment vanished.
Rough hands grabbed him. He didn’t have the energy to fight them off, and they dragged him unceremoniously back to the assembly hall stage. A light shone in his face. He was blinded, seeing nothing but the glare.
The fire inside him had been doused, and he was entirely spent. His body throbbed with pain like never before. He couldn’t channel magic now, but he was equally certain hehadmanaged to use it earlier. It made no sense. Had it been an illusion that the Simulator conjured, or was something else going on?
Yiran knew he should feel hopeful. Maybe the door wasn’t shut for him, and there was a way he could possess magic. But he felt completely numb. He’d come close to murdering someone. Noah was a Hybrid, but he was also just a child.
And Yiran had done enough that it felt like he’d killed a part ofhimselfinstead. Was thispower? When the high was gone, was the emptiness all that remained?
The slinky metal on his glove seemed to shine more brightly than before, as if violence had given it a new lease on life. Yiran wasn’t sure why he had wanted to use it so badly. Sickened, he struggled to remove it, but his broken fingers refused to cooperate. He pulled at the glove with his teeth, tugging at it uselessly. His pain only multiplied. He heard shuffling footsteps behind him. Were they taking Noah away?
“Leave us,” the Hybrid leader commanded.
More shuffling and murmurs of discontent. The assembly hall fell quiet.
“I know what you’re thinking,” the Hybrid leader said when they were alone. He was a mysterious shadow behind the light’s glare. “You thinkyou’re a monster. But let me assure you, Noah would have done the same to you—and more—if he were in your position. Survival is nothing to be ashamed of.”
“He’s just a kid,” Yiran said, his head hung low. This wasn’t the same as when he’d defended Eddy and Ada against the attacking Hybrids. This was different. Noah and Yiran were two people manipulated into fighting. Into killing each other for no good reason.
Power did not lie in their hands.
“Why didn’t you finish the fight?” the leader asked curiously. “Why didn’t you kill your enemy? Your spell might have failed, but Noah was in no shape to defend himself. You could have had the final blow.”
“I told you. There was no need. I’d already won.”
“I’d already won?”The leader sounded offended. “This is the spawn the old man raised? I thought Song Wei’s progeny would be less... soft.”
Yiran seethed. “Take my grandfather’s name out of your filthy mouth. You don’t deserve to speak of him.”
The leader laughed. “I don’t deserve to speak of him? If there’s anyone alive who deserves to speak ill of Song Wei, it’s me.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“Let me help you, Yiran. Let me show you who you truly are.”
“You don’t know me.” Yiran’s nausea intensified, and he hunched over, retching. He felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Oh, but I do.”
“Fuck off.” Pushing the leader’s hand away, Yiran stepped back, coughing hard. Blood splattered on the ground, and he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He felt a hand grabbing his chin, pulling his head up. Heard the leader’s voice speaking with more emotion than expected.
“You know, you have your mother’s eyes.”
The man stepped away from the light’s glare, his silhouette filling out. And as Yiran’s vision adjusted, he found himself staring into the face of a revered hero he had seen a thousand times, but never in person.
The father he never knew.
24
Zizi
Fuck.
Fuckfuckfuck...Fuck.
