Frantically, Rui pulled aside the roots by the entrance. The sinister mouth of the ruined temple gaped at her, and she rushed in.
“Mom! Where are you?”
The altar in the empty prayer hall was cracked, and the eerie red hue peeked through cobwebs hanging from rotting wooden beams on theceiling. Paint was peeling off the old murals of gods and beasts that lined the walls. There were also drawings of terrified mortals sawed in half, their entrails dripping out of their stomachs and their tongues cut out; grotesque creatures, half man and half beast, doing unspeakable acts of violence to humans; naked bodies skewered by sharp blades splayed across a mountain of knives.
The images looked so realistic that it felt as if the violence was being carried out right at this moment in front of her eyes. Rui jerked away, suddenly afraid that if she stared for too long, the murals would come to life.
... you are finally here... I miss you...
There was that voice again, the one that sounded like her mother’s. Rui ran toward it. Incense smoke trailed in the air, leading down the corridor. She followed the gray wisp to another prayer hall that was smaller than the first. There were murals here too, but the paint was fresh, and the altar shone with gold and red lacquered wood, and there were even offerings of fruit on the table.
A woman was kneeling on a red cushion in front of the incense pot. Her back was facing Rui, but her dark wavy hair fell over her shoulders in a familiar way, and she was dressed in the same clothes that Rui had last seen her in.
Rui started to tremble. She wasn’t sure if she wanted the woman to turn around. A single word croaked from her parched throat.
“Mom?”
42
Yiran
Yiran grabbed the tray off the counter and skulked to the back of the dingy fast-food restaurant where Yuki was seated. Electronic dance music blasted from the speakers, making his head pound. The eatery was in one of the older neighborhoods. It hadn’t been outfitted with the Guild’s new qi sensors yet, which made it safer for Yuki. But the real reason for their pit stop was Yiran’s growling stomach.
Patrons were moving in and out of the place as usual, but cops were crawling everywhere outside, and the Exorcists were patrolling the streets more frequently too. There was talk of a permanent daily curfew from sunset to sunrise. But more personnel was needed to enforce it, and the bureaucratic red tape in the city government was hampering things and working to the Hybrids’ advantage.
“How can you eat that crap?” Yuki said, wrinkling his nose at the burger Yiran was unwrapping.
Yiran ignored him, wolfing down his food as he checked the news headlines on the television propped up against the wall. More mutilated bodies had been left in the open, and the Exorcist Guild was being blamed for the lapse in safety. A clip from a press conference flashed across the screen, and Ash Song’s exhausted face appeared. Dark circles rimmed his eyes, and he had a fresh cut on his cheekbone.
Yiran looked away. He felt some guilt, but it was enclosed in a hard casing of anger that felt impenetrable. It would be responsible to report everything he knew about the Hybrids and Song Liming, regardless of what his grandfather had done to him. Giving upYukito the Exorcists would be the icing on the cake. But Yiran wanted to walk away from the world that had cast him out and betrayed him. A world that had hurt him. And maybe, just maybe, he wanted to watch that world burn.
The worst thing was that he couldn’t shake the feeling that Ash might’ve known all along that Yiran had been born capable of magic. Had Ash felt threatened by his little brother? He’d seemed pleased when Yiran had revealed he could do magic at Zizi’s shophouse. Was it an act? Yiran didn’t want it to be. But he wasn’t sure if he could trust anyone in his family anymore.
“Think I got all of them,” Yuki said.
“All of what?” Yiran hadn’t been paying attention to what the Hybrid was doing.
Yuki pushed a small pile of fries laid out neatly on a napkin toward him. “You hate soggy fries, right? I picked out all the crunchy ones for you.”
He said it so casually, as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do for someone. Yiran didn’t want this to be something Yuki did for just anyone, but he was almost as mad that it might be something Yuki did just forhim. He didn’t know why Yuki was the first one he’d called after he left Song Mansion. Or why he’d even memorized the Hybrid’s number in the first place. Yuki might have betrayed him, but he’d also saved him. It was all too confusing.
“Stop weaseling your way into my heart,” he snapped. “I know you’re here with me because my father sent you.”
Yuki’s eyebrows rose. “Yourheart?”
“Figure of speech. Don’t read into it.”
“Whatever you say.”
Begrudgingly, Yiran picked up a crunchy fry. It tasted better than the greasy burger, and he finished the lot quickly. He was thinking of ordering a second meal when he noticed Yuki had gone pale. The Hybrid was fidgety too, tearing a napkin into tiny pieces as though he was trying to distract himself. There was a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead.
Was the restaurant too crowded? Was there too much yangqi in the atmosphere tempting Yuki? Was he... hungry?
“When was the last time you ate?” Yiran said in a low voice.
“Ate? Oh, you mean... I haven’t in a while, but it’s okay. Like I said,I’ve been able to hold out for longer periods of time.” Averting his eyes, Yuki squished the napkin pieces into a ball. “And I don’t want to do it when you’re around.”
Yiran stared out the window at the busy street outside, his throat tight. The mere thought of Yuki’s sustenance was a concrete reminder of the stark difference between Hybrid and boy. Their reflections against the glass distorted as the traffic lights changed and cars zoomed by.
