They took Zizi’s arm. The love thread rose once again. It lingered this time, forming a shimmering circle around his wrist like the red string he used to wear as a mage.
“Even after Lei Ying’s death, your love thread remained. That nighton the rooftop in the mortal realm, you said something that troubled me. You said you made a promise to her.” One stared at him steadily. “What is a promise, Brother?”
Zizi’s lips parted to answer, but no words came out.
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?
Always.
What was a promise between a King of Hell and a mortal?
Zizi’s chest seized violently. Light flashed as his fist connected with the metal scaffold of the swing, the force of his strike reverberating through the Garden, rustling the leaves and grass and shaking the ground.
Stupid, stupid,stupid. What had he done?
“I made a dealwith her, didn’t I?” he whispered hoarsely, utterly distraught. Their love threads might have forged their bond in the beginning, but he’d tied Lei Ying—tiedRuiand himself to something worse than fate.
“It seems the most likely explanation as to why your love thread remained after Lei Ying died,” One said. “You were still tied to her somehow, which meant the condition of the deal was not fulfilled—”
“And all deals are binding across lifetimes,” Zizi finished. One placed a soothing hand on his arm, but he jerked away as if he’d been burned.
“Words do matter, especially for Kings,” One said, “and we are not normally careless with them. But your feelings might have swayed you. Even if you did not mean to make a deal, it is not inconceivable that, unconsciously, your power took your desire and distorted it. Do not be so hard on yourself.”
But One’s words did nothing to calm him. Zizi was furious, and he didn’t think he could ever forgive himself for what he’d done. “The cycle repeated,” he said bitterly. “I ran away, but our paths still crossed in this lifetime, and the condition remains unfulfilled.” He crushed the moonflower in his hand. “But Ican’tfollow her; I can’t be in her world.”
His prolonged presence would destabilize everything again.Alwaysdid not exist for them.
“There is the other way,” One said. “If her soul isherewith you—”
“No! Rui’s death cannot be the solution.” One’s suggestion was so vile it cleared Zizi’s head immediately.
One reasoned, “That is probably why she died the first time—to fulfill the condition.”
“But shenevermade it to the underworld!” Zizi shouted. He wasn’t sure before, but it was plain as daylight to him now. “Lei Ying’s soul never made it to the underworld. I searched for her in the Nothing because the mortal Emperor forced her to take her own life. I even used my relic, butNikaiappeared instead. Where was her soul all those years before she was reborn? Why would—”
He cried out, clutching his head. That indescribable pain was back. Agony pulsed between his eyes, blurring the edges of his vision. The sound of tiles crashing together grated against his ears and he reeled backward. He could feel a cold floor at his knees, the silken touch of robes over his body. Hear his own voice speaking.
I must save her from the Nothing. I do not care about the consequences—I want to make a deal.
“What is wrong?” Zizi heard One say.
The pain left as suddenly as it came. Zizi pressed his fingers to his temple, confused by what had just happened. It didn’t feel like a migraine.
It felt like he had dipped into his past.
“Tell me who sits at the table with the Elder Gods,” he demanded, gripping One’s arm. “Who are the other two players?”
One seemed taken aback. “Why do you ask?” they said in hushed tones.
Zizi eyed them shrewdly. “So youdoknow.”
For all his time in the underworld, he had always felt that the other Kings were privy to informationhedid not have. He’d chalked it up to the fact that he was the youngest, the last of them to gain consciousness. But maybe there was more to it.
“One of the two players spoke just before I passed out at the palace,” he said. “They seemed to be aware of some condition I had to fulfill, and they said something else about me—that Idescendedfromtheirrealm. What does that mean?”
One hesitated, looking conflicted.
