“Did Yuyan do that?” Ren asked, gazing in awe at the blaze. It was beautiful in a wild, dangerous way.
“I did, actually.”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You, Mistress Kang, set a long-standing and priceless estate on fire?”
“It was a matter of life or death.”
“Heavens, I do believe you have a secret rebel inside you.”
I shrugged, which prompted another laugh. Hiding my own smile, I gestured at the gates leading to the outer courtyard. “Are we leaving or not?”
“We should probably inform the townspeople they’re now safe from a murderous jiangshi,” he said as he followed me out of the mansion grounds. “And perhaps rally them to help put out the flames. We wouldn’t want them to survive an evil spirit only to be devastated by fire.”
I nodded in agreement and stepped through the front gate. My feet paused as I beheld the dozens of men and women marching toward the mansion, bearing buckets of water in their hands. Children ran alongside the line, holding candles that flickered like fireflies.
“You’re alive!” shouted a male voice. “Thank heavens.”
My attention cut to the man at the front of the group. I recognized the fidgety resident who’d given us directions to themansion. He still looked uneasy, his eyes flitting nervously to the burning residence behind us, but there was a new determination in the set of his shoulders.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, staring at the crowd.
“Isn’t it obvious?” the man said, holding up his own overflowing bucket. “We’ve come to help.”
CHAPTER 13
We spent most of the night assisting the townsfolk with putting out the fire at Jing Mansion. After the town doctor iced my wrist and bound it with a splint, I led a group in dousing the flames of the main hall and enlisted the bravest of the volunteers to remove the bodies for a proper burial behind the residence.
Though burned beyond recognition, Yuyan’s lifeless corpse still made me shiver. The villagers were terrified of touching it, yet wary of her magic, so I offered to reanimate the body to move it. That terrified them more. But seeing as I wasn’t about to drag the corpse by myself to the burial site, I sent everyone from the room and pulled out a reanimation talisman.
When I placed it on Yuyan’s head, I almost expected her to open her charred eyes and speak to me. But her spirit was long gone. Even so, it was strange to reanimate a body I’d once talked to, a body whose story I’d known a little part of.
While I resented the shamaness for all the suffering she’d inflicted, a shard of pity remained in my heart. Yuyan’s familyhad indeed been wronged, and she was right to want justice. I couldn’t condone her methods, but I understood the pain that had driven them.
I considered the other corpses in the room and thought I might save some work for the villagers by reanimating a few more of the dead. Reanimating multiple bodies wasn’t something I did often, or that I was comfortable with, but I could try.
Three talismans later, I felt my energy straining between the bodies. But I wasn’t as tired as I’d expected. I used another two talismans before I decided not to push my luck. Besides, I didn’t want to startle the villagers outside with a herd of walking burned corpses. It was strange enough for me to see six bodies standing there, awaiting my command.
I guided the dead behind the residence and rested them in the pits that the others had dug. Yuyan was laid in a plot of earth where flowers could grow. I prayed she would find peace in the next life.
Eventually, the orange sky dimmed as the fires were placated with water and sand. I didn’t see the last of the flames die out, too occupied with organizing graves for the remaining dead. By the time I completed a condensed version of the burial rites—having no surviving family to cater to—I felt ready to collapse on the ground and sleep for a hundred years.
But I couldn’t rest yet.
Shaking the exhaustion from my head, I returned to the front of the mansion to find Ren. I’d last seen him dumping water into the western wing while making jokes to boost his companions’ morale.
Notwithstanding the suffering we’d faced since the beginning of our journey, he’d only seemed to grow happier, a sun rising despite the rain. How he could laugh and smile in the faceof such horror, I didn’t know. But I had the odd thought that my father would get along well with Ren; they were much alike.
Imagining Ren and Baba meeting stirred an unexpected tingle in my chest. I bit my lip, cheeks warming as if I’d been caught doing something ridiculous. But of course no one nearby gave me any strange looks.
I expected to find Ren sitting among a circle of residents, telling stories or otherwise fraternizing with strangers when he should’ve been avoiding them. Instead, he was resting against a maple tree, alone, with his long legs spread out before him. He nursed a cup of water, likely given to him by a kind townsperson. A light breeze tugged loose the hair framing his face, giving him a poetic look as he stared at the last of the smoke floating above the roofs of Jing Mansion.
What a beautiful boy, my mind murmured before I could stop it. Tendrils of heat licked up the back of my neck. I pressed my lips together, annoyed at myself for having such a distracting, irrelevant thought. He’d sacrificed his life for mine, and my brain was just idealizing him. Romanticizing every stupidly handsome detail of his face.
Ren’s gaze lifted at my approach. He grinned, the mole by his eye disappearing into the crinkles. Warmth pooled in my stomach. I ignored it.These feelings will fade, I assured myself.
“There you are,” he said, patting the ground beside him. “I was hoping you’d come looking for me, so I wouldn’t have to waste my own energy.”
“How very sly of you,” I said, lowering myself to the dirt. My muscles sighed at the chance to sit down.
