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Springing to my feet, I searched for a cloak, doubts raging through my mind: Was this some mortal ailment? Could the emperor have planted a decoy in place of the elixir? Yet the fragrance of those peaches was unmistakable.

Tossing open the cupboard doors, I grabbed a heavy cloak from within. I spun to my father—finding a stranger before me. The lines on his face had vanished like sand smoothed by the tide. His eyes were clear, their whites brilliant, the mark in his chin more prominent than before. Yet his jet-black hair was winged with white at his temples, marks of mortality that even the elixir could not erase.

“It worked. My aches, my pains are gone.” He clenched and unclenched his fingers, raising them to his face in wonder. “Daughter, only those who have lived a mortal life till its tail know never to take this for granted.”

Relief flooded me, thawing the stiffness in my limbs. “Father, immortals fear death too. We can be weak, we can die,” I reminded him.

“You are right. Danger lurks in both realms, but time is a faceless and merciless foe. It is no fair battle when the enemy is inexorable, and your defeat inevitable.”

I searched him for any sign of injury. “Did the elixir hurt?”

He crouched down to pick up the empty bottle. “Like a hundred thorns were scraped across my skin. Your mother must have suffered, too, yet she is strong.” His tone softened.

I thought back to when my mother had taken the elixir, the fear that must have shadowed her heart. Though some claimed she had been selfish, there had been bravery in trying to save us—in reaching for a new life and plunging into the unknown, leaving behind all that she loved. For I knew better than anyone, despite becoming immortal, a part of my mother had died that day.

Pain is no stranger to me, she had said. That did not mean it hurt any less.

Soon, I would bring my father back to her. Such lightness swept through me that, for a moment, all my sorrows receded. They would return, but for now, it was a relief to be freed.

“Daughter, I thank you.”

I bowed, searching for the words that would not come, my chest swollen with emotion. It struck me then who he was: Houyi, Slayer of the Suns. The Dragon Lord. My mother’s husband. My father. We were little more than strangers, bound by name and an intrinsic connection. But then he reached out and wrapped his arms around me … my father, holding me just how I had dreamed all those years.

Sunlight streamed through the window in shafts of pale gold. Morning had crept up; this was no dream that would vanish with the night. I dared not linger any longer. What if someone had sensed our presence? The elixir’s power?

A guttural sound broke the quiet, throbbing with anguish. My head snapped up to my father, who was shaking, the veins protruding from his neck.

“Are you ill?” I took his arm to help him to a chair, but he stiffened, his palm pushing me aside.

“Stay back!” He staggered forward, almost falling over the table. His hands tightened around its sides, knuckles whitening as he struggled against some unseen foe. The door rattled as though assailed by a storm, yet the skies beyond were calm. Ignoring his warning, I gripped his arm—his body lurching into the air like an invisible fist had snatched him up by the ankle. As his hand slipped from mine, I squeezed harder, holding fast.

“It’s the elixir,” he rasped. “All mortals who ascend to the skies must attend the Celestial Emperor.”

I dared not imagine what would happen if my father were to appear in the Hall of Eastern Light. “It’s too dangerous. The emperor attacked our home. He’s hunting Mother and me.”

His jaw clenched, his throat working. “I can’t hold on. It’s too strong.”

“Your magic!” I cried, even as I grasped my own.

He shook his head. “There’s nothing.” Shock flushed his tone.

Was the elixir not complete? Had the emperor left it unfinished, missing some vital step only he could perform upon its gifting? My power surged forth, seeking the force that had ensnared my father. I was careless of discovery, of the Celestial soldiers who might be on their way to us, of everything except halting my father’s ascent. What did the laws of heaven matter at a time like this? As my energy flowed, fatigue locked my limbs, my power already tapped by the events of today.

“Don’t let go.” Each word was uttered in a disjointed rhythm.

Silver light streamed from my fingers, enveloping him in a gleaming shield. It was not enough, the enchantment that dragged him away strengthening. His eyes rounded like marbles, his hair streaming wildly across his face. I clasped his hand harder, numbed from the strain.

“This pull … it’s coming from inside me,” he said breathlessly.

Of course. This was not some force that had swooped in from the heavens but flowing through his veins, from the elixir consumed. I chided myself for thinking it would be a simple matter of my father drinking it and us returning to the skies to reunite with my mother. I should have learned by now that things were never that easy.

Closing my eyes, I reached for my magic again, casting it down his throat this time, after the trail of the elixir that glistened like a shimmering serpent. A thudding filled my ears—his heart, beating much too fast, pumping the elixir through his blood. Gold threaded through the crimson, brighter than any mortal’s blood—suffused with that honeyed fragrance, grown sickly sweet like fruit on the cusp of spoil. My power rushed through his veins, prying him free of the elixir’s hold. A painstaking effort, like trying to untangle a folded cobweb. Choked sounds wrung from my father’s throat, still I pushed on. Was I hurting him? Undoubtedly, in the way he flinched, yet I dared not stop. A moment’s pause and he would be ripped from my grasp, hurtling toward the Celestial Kingdom and into utmost peril. Fatigue sank into my bones, an ache crawling from the base of my spine to my neck, until I could barely stand.

Clamping my jaws, I quelled the instinctive urge to halt my power, streaming forth untamed, burning the taint of the elixir away—until at last, the pull on my father eased. The blazing gold that ran through his veins dissolved into pinpricks of light, his blood now shining as that of any other immortal’s. The scent of peaches faded, leaving only that of wood and earth.

My father’s body shuddered as it descended, his feet sinking to the ground. Still, I would not let go.

“Do you want to bring anything?” I asked.