The Last Dragon of the East

Chapter 35

35

I t isn’t true,” Jyn says. “They say red threads of fate can stretch and tangle, but never break—but that’s not true.”

I hold my breath. “What do you mean?”

“There’s a way to sever the connection.”

My heart lodges in my throat. I think back, remembering the emperor’s severed gray thread. I didn’t understand back then, but now I fear the worst.

“Tell me,” I whisper, my voice raspy and foreign to my own ears.

“It’s a deliberate choice,” she explains, impossibly soft. “A permanent one.”

I grasp Jyn by the shoulders, pressing my forehead to hers. “Please, just tell me.”

She takes a deep breath, a long pause. “It happens when one half of a soul chooses to reject the other by their own hands. The level of malice it takes to carry out the task… It’s enough to destroy any divine bond.”

The words fall from my lips. “You mean murder .”

“Yes. That monster murdered our son. His love of power was far more intoxicating than his love for his Fated One. A-Qian gave and gave and gave himself away to that beast, and it still wasn’t enough to keep him satisfied.”

I take a step back, aghast. “Then the emperor and the stranger…”

Tears stream down her reddened cheeks. “The soul resides in the heart. That demon carved it out from our son while he was still alive and swallowed every last bite. Even if A-Qian wished to return, his soul was fragmented, the pieces trapped within he who consumed him.”

My stomach roils—I worry that I might be sick. “No.”

Jyn runs her fingers through her hair, distress radiating off her in racking sobs. “His thirst for power couldn’t be quenched. He could no longer use our son for his own gain, so he came for us. He arrived with an army of a thousand men near six millennia ago. They tore off your tail, ripped your tongue from your mouth. They pummeled us with cannon fire and speared you through the chest.”

It feels as though I have swallowed a million tiny shards of glass. “What happened next? How did we escape?” I cup her face in my hands, everything in the current moment falling away. “I must know,” I murmur. “Please, tell me.”

The guilt that shadows her expression nearly rips me in two.

“I don’t know how we managed it,” she blurts out. “We fled to the mountains, but your injuries… You bled to death in my arms, Sai. I watched our connection turn black and crumble away as your body turned cold. And when I had to leave you behind, humans swarmed your body like ants. I had to watch as they took pieces of you, bit by bit, all for themselves.”

My soul aches. I can’t imagine living with this tragedy for as long as she has.

“But I came back, did I not?” I ask gently. “At the Steps of Heaven, I chose to come back. Every time.”

Jyn nods, but she refuses to meet my eyes. “You did. The first time you were reborn, I discovered a new red thread wrapped around my finger. I knew it was you in an instant, so I set out to find you—but that was a mistake.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re cursed to relive an eternal tragedy.”

“Wait a moment.” I hold my hand up, showing her our gray, fraying thread. “How did this happen, then?”

Jyn is unable to look me in the eye.

“Jyn.”

She shakes her head. “We should… we should keep going. The village is near.”

“No,” I say firmly, holding on to her hand as tight as I dare. “Why is our thread gray, Jyn? You’ve avoided my questions for weeks. Tell me now .”

Her silence tells me everything, but I say it aloud anyway.

“You tried to kill me?”

The words come out tight and broken; I’m blinded by the tears welling in my eyes. This cannot be. None of it makes sense. The bitterness of betrayal weighs heavily on my tongue.

Our thread slowly begins to drain of its color, its crimson hue seeping away like blood in a stream. It unravels between us, the progress we’ve made eroding before our very eyes.

“Why?” I whisper, so quiet and pathetic that my own ears almost miss the question.

“Please, just—” She tries to push past me. I don’t budge.

“Say something!” I roar, grasping her by the shoulders. “Tell me, Jyn. Why would you do it?”

“I lost my mind!” she yells, regret in her eyes. “You don’t understand, Sai. You have known the pain of death, but I have known the pain of losing you hundreds of times over. How many times could you lose your lover without going mad?”

I pause. I don’t know how I could’ve handled it even once. “How many times have I been reborn?”

“This is the seven hundredth time ,” she whispers. “I have counted every single time I’ve felt our connection rekindle. It finally broke me. Twenty years ago, I set out to find you. I was overcome with grief. You were a boy, no older than five. I found you playing by the river.”

I rack my brain, trying and failing to recall our encounter. Perhaps I was too young to remember. I always thought my tumble into the water that day was an accident, but her confession shines a horrible new light on the reality.

Jyn’s whole body shakes with her sobs. “I just wanted it to end. I knew you were going to meet another tragic demise anyway, so I thought—”

“You thought to murder me,” I say in disbelief.

“It was mercy ,” she insists. “It was meant to be a mercy. I… I pushed you. Held you under the water.”

I take a step away, disgusted and frightened. I remember what she told me when we were both trapped underground, the conversation we had mere moments after I killed that cannibal.

It was a mercy.

Do you really think his Fated One would want to see him like that?

“How could you?” I breathe heavily.

“I regretted it in an instant,” she says, desperately grasping at my robes to keep me close. “I couldn’t bear to watch you struggle. I pulled you out before it was too late, but the damage to our bond was done. It turned gray and the thread started to fall apart, but it didn’t break because I… couldn’t go through with it.”

“You couldn’t go through with murdering me ?”

I take another step back, staring at her, aghast. I’m not sure how I’m even supposed to react to this. Lash out in anger? Break down in tears?

Instead, I am completely numb.

“Please, say something, Sai,” Jyn whimpers.

“What is there to say?”

“I’m so sorry, my love. I am so sorry.”

“I think… I think need some time alone.”

Jyn tugs at the sleeve of my robes. “No, please—”

“Just stay here.” I don’t recognize my own voice. It’s devoid of emotion, flat and cold. “I’ll return to the village and grab supplies for our travels. Remain out of sight.”

And with that, I stalk off. Shattered.

I march back to the village, stomping on twigs and whipping branches out of my way. A part of me wants to rip my own heart out to be free of this misery. I want to kick and scream and cry. How could my Fated One have even attempted such a terrible thing? Jyn says it would have been a mercy, but to whom?

And yet the more I think about it, the more I place myself in her shoes, the less I can bring myself to blame her. If our positions were reversed, could I stand to watch her die again and again over the course of millennia? My answer is quick and sure—absolutely not.

My love for this dragon transcends lifetimes, transcends our corporeal forms. I would choose her for all eternity over a seat in Heaven. If I had been in her shoes, I, too, would have lost my mind.

By the time evening falls, the first few tents of the village come into view. I’ve finally made it back. Taking a deep breath, I advance. There will be no time for conversation. I’m here to gather food and water for the road, no more.

But I make it no farther than five paces before I realize something is wrong. The village, usually alive with a cacophony of sound and activity, is eerily still. There are no children playing, no villagers out and about. It’s as though the whole place has been abandoned. Alarmed, I make my way to the center in search of a fellow soul.

When I round the corner, my body seizes in shock. Huddled together in the village square are its residents, bound and gagged. They are surrounded by Imperial soldiers, swords to their throats. Even the children have been taken hostage, unable to cling to their mothers now that their hands are tied behind their backs.

The sharp caw of a crow above sends a chill down my spine. I don’t have to look to know it has red eyes and three legs. I know that he is here, as well. I can smell him on the wind’s breath—the bastard whose greed led to so much tragedy.

“A pleasure to see you again,” the emperor says, stepping out of a nearby tent. It’s the biggest in the village, belonging to the village elder. The tent’s flap pulls back far enough for me to glimpse the village elder’s bloodied body just inside. His eyes are open, but they are lifeless.

“Let these people go,” I demand.

“And why should I do such a thing?”

“They’re innocent.”

“And who are you to tell me what to do?” the emperor scoffs. “I should cut your tongue out for such insolence.”

“Will you do it yourself this time, I wonder?”

I don’t appreciate the smile and glint in his dark eyes as he asks, “You remember?”

“I do.” I blink to clear the flashback of a soldier taking a blade to my mouth, to stop hearing my own screams. “You’ll pay for everything you’ve done.”

“Last I checked, I’m the one with the army.”

Before I can get another word out, someone grabs me from behind and presses the sharp edge of a knife to my throat. It’s no soldier, but a woman I know.

“Sorry ’bout this, Leaf Water,” the huntress says against my ear. “Don’t move, ye idiot. You’ll bleed out faster than ye can blink.”

“What are you doing?” I gasp, struggling to find my balance. Warm blood trickles down my throat, her blade breaking skin.

“Earnin’ my keep, of course. I’m gonna be paid an emperor’s ransom. Now, tell me where that bitch is hiding.”

I can barely hear anything over the rush of blood past my ears. “You’re making a mistake, Feng. Your hatred is misplaced. She wasn’t the one who killed your parents.”

“Shut up,” Feng snaps.

“It’s the truth. It was a pack of fei that did your parents in. She was trying to save them.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Panic grips me. I can explain things to the huntress until my face turns blue, but it doesn’t matter if she’s unwilling to listen.

The emperor chuckles. “My dear boy, have you already forgotten? One word from me, and I will have this entire village executed. Surely that isn’t what you want?”

It’s hard to breathe, to think. I know by now how cruel the emperor is; this is no bluff. I can’t watch these people die. There has to be a way out of this, but for the seven hundredth life of me, I cannot figure it out.

If I lie or say nothing, he will kill them. If I betray Jyn, I would rather kill myself. I’m petrified with indecision.

My answer is made for me, however, when the mighty roar of a dragon sounds overhead. I don’t know whether to be relieved or frightened for Jyn. My dragon is here, and I’m not ready for the carnage that is sure to follow.

“From above!” one of the Imperial soldiers screams. “Draw your bows!”

“No!” I shout, swinging my elbow back to ram the huntress in the ribs. I grab her wrist and twist, forcefully snatching her blade to use as my own.

And then, all at once, havoc breaks out.