Teshin frowned. “I have to go to the briefing. Just think about it, okay? Maybe he’ll pick up if the call comes from you.”
After they left, Rui pulled out her phone. Yiran had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her, that there was no turning back, no mending the connection that had been severed. Why would he care about her well-being now? Had he changed his mind?
Fingers trembling, she took a deep breath and scrolled to his number.
4
Zizi
There were voices in his head.
Some were strident and annoying. Others soft, whispering like ghosts in the darkness, their creeping caresses cold against his clammy skin.
But there was one voice that sounded likehers.
Don’t be afraid....I’m here.
It felt as though she was right next to him. But she was in the human realm. Safe. He had made sure of it—a sacrifice he was willing to make again and again. Whether she wanted it or not, his life was hers.
After the silvery-white strands began appearing in his dark hair and the black collar around his neck started to burn, the two Guardians had shown up in the Fourth Court. First, they brought him to the dungeons of Youdu. The Kings had hoped that would be enough to break him. It took them only a few days to realize it wasn’t going to happen. He was too stubborn, they said, too unmalleable. He needed to be controlled, needed to change back to who he was supposed to be.
Hell could do that.
So the Guardians returned and dragged him to this dark Obsidian Cavern.
The dreams began, and the voice—hervoice—came to him, piercing through the fog in his mind. It had to be a trick, he decided. Some scheme that Ten or one of the other underworld immortals had come up with to compel him to surrender himself to the Fourth King. That was why they were keeping him here.
I won’t succumb. I won’t.
But in the end, the darkness came for him.
Winter passes.
In that snowy forest, time is a precious thing. Lei Ying does not question who Four is, or how he appears at that same spot each day when the snow-packed ground behind him bears no trace of footprints.
Gradually, Four learns how to limit his spiritual energy and presence when he is in the mortal realm, chipping away at the underworld’s stranglehold on him. In time, he finds himself able to stay longer, but eventually he is always forced to leave. Stolen moments, fleeting glances, the barest of touches—they fill his days with meaning. Unwilling to deceive Lei Ying, Four finally confesses his identity.
To his surprise, she simply smiles. “I never once thought you would be someone ordinary, not since I first laid eyes on you. Cultivators deal with spiritual matters of life and death daily. I do not fear death or your realm.” She grazes his cheek with her fingers. “I am not afraid of you, Four.”
Do not hope for something impossible, he tells himself, even as he leans into her touch.
Hope... is dangerous.
Back in the underworld, there are questions about the Fourth King’s whereabouts, curiosity over his intermittent absences.
“You have not been as present in your Court,”Onesays to him as they take a walk in the Garden of Tongues. WhenFourmakes up an excuse about his relic explorations,Onelowers their voice. “I am not the only one who has noticed.”
A warning? One has always looked out for him, and for that,Fouris grateful.
“Oh, and another thing,”Onesays, almost offhandedly. “Mortals’ lives are short, each barely a speck in the grand timeline. Each life so fragile, like the thinnest glass. Do not get too attached to them, Brother, for they break easily, and the shards they leave might cut you.”
5
Yiran
Yiran stared at the screen on his phone for a few long moments, a scratchy feeling in his chest.
There was no alert. No notification. Nothing.
