Chapter 59 Yiran
Yiran
All the lights in the apartment were out. Rui and her father were asleep, but Zizi wasn’t back yet. Tired of waiting, Yiran
grabbed the set of keys by the front door.
It didn’t take long to find the mage. He’d squished himself onto a child-sized swing in the playground at the next block of
apartments, nursing a bottle of soda like it was a bottle of beer.
Yiran squeezed onto the other swing. “Getting high on sugar?”
“Is that possible?” Zizi said, his words slightly slurred. He didn’t seem surprised to see Yiran.
“The science says no, but I’m sure parents with small children will tell you otherwise. The crash of the sugar rush ride is
real, though. None of this applies to you, I guess, with your immortalness and all.” Yiran was surprisingly unfazed by who
or what Zizi was. He supposed the mage had struck him as otherworldly from the first time they’d met.
Zizi patted his own chest with a wry smile. “Alas, I’m as good as human while I’m in this realm.”
It was news to Yiran. “Can you do mage stuff at least?”
“Mortal magic? Sure.” Zizi took another swig of soda and stared up at the night sky. A few stars shone faintly through the
clouds. “Rui doesn’t remember anything about me. About us. It’s better that way.” He sounded as if he was trying to convince
himself. “Still hurts, you know?”
Yiran hadn’t expected Zizi to talk to him about his feelings. But what the heck. “Well, the person I’m into feeds on people’s spiritual energy to stay alive,” he confessed.
“The princeling from the highway?”
Yiran nodded, surprised that he wasn’t embarrassed or uncomfortable at all to admit it out loud. Not to Zizi, anyway.
“Ah, enemies-to-lovers with a serving of forbidden love.” Zizi nodded sagely. “It’s evergreen, one of the best tropes in literature, in my humble opinion.”
“What?”
“Like in romance or fantasy novels when two characters—” Zizi caught Yiran’s blank expression. “Forget it. You don’t look
like you read much.” Yiran punched him in the arm, and Zizi flicked his ear in retaliation. “Anyway, sucks for the both of
us,” he said, offering his soda.
“Can’t believe I confided in you,” Yiran said, grabbing the bottle.
“If you were trying to cheer me up, you did a good job. It’s nice knowing I’m not the only pathetic loser when it comes to
love.”
“It’s impossible for me and him, but at least you can do something about your situation.” Yiran nudged Zizi with an encouraging
elbow. “Go win her heart again.”
Zizi took the soda back. “I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?” It didn’t make sense that Zizi was surrendering so easily when it came to Rui.
“I need you to do something for me,” Zizi said, ignoring the question. “Watch over her.”
There were requests that required a short-term effort. This sounded like a forever favor.
She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?
She means everything.
“I failed the first time you asked for a similar favor,” Yiran reminded him. “I’m not sure you should be asking me to do this.”
“Like I said the first time, deep inside that soul of yours, you know what’s right. That’s why you’re sitting here with me
now instead of at that dive bar with your villainous daddy.”
Yiran kicked at the sand. “Past-me murdered past-her.”
Zizi sighed loudly. “I choose to believe you’re a good person in this timeline, and I’d like to think you’re braver now.”
“It still doesn’t explain why you need me to look out for Rui when you’re right here.”
Shrugging, Zizi downed the rest of the soda in one gulp. “There is, unfortunately, historical evidence that shows I have been
known to do stupid things.”
“Be serious.”
“I am serious.” There was something fatalistic in Zizi’s tone.
“Rui doesn’t know you can’t cast underworld magic while you’re here, does she?” Yiran realized. “Are you planning something?”
Zizi didn’t reply.
“If you’re going to do something stupid, at least tell me what it is. It’ll be between us. I won’t say anything to her.” Yiran
shot a threatening glare. “And I won’t agree to any favors until I know what’s going on.”
Grumbling, Zizi pulled his sleeve back. There was an unusual watch around his wrist. It appeared ancient, its gold gears glinting
against a pitch-black face. “Apparently, I buried this underworld relic under my tree. I’ve no recollection of doing that,
but I have this now and I can use it to destroy the spell. I was planning to ask some white lanterns for help in tracking
it after I met Rui at her dorm earlier tonight, but you showed up and complicated things.”
“But you said you’re as good as human here. How can you use this watch if it’s from Hell?”
“I can technically draw power from the underworld, but there are two issues with that. Each time power from the realm of the dead
is used in the realm of the living, it screws things up. The talisman the Hybrids have was made with an underworld relic too,
and every time they use it, something in the realms breaks. It can’t remain here, and it’s my job to get rid of it.” He paused,
looking as if he was trying to decide whether to go on.
“What’s the other issue?” Yiran prodded.
Zizi stared at his hands, clenching and unclenching them.
“This mortal body has spent too much time in the underworld, and the strain of housing my soul for so long makes it worse. I can feel its spirit core slowly weakening. There’s a chance it’ll be destroyed in the process of using the relic—regardless of whether I do it here or the underworld. ”
Yiran couldn’t believe his ears. “Did you just casually drop the fact that you might die if you use that watch to save my
realm?”
Zizi frowned. “I’m not sure if Kings of Hell actually die.” He didn’t sound entirely certain. “We’re told that we’re eternal, whatever that means. But my, uh, situation, is slightly different.”
“How different?”
“I drank the Lady’s tea to cross over to the realm of the living eighteen years ago. Now my soul is tied to this body and
only this body.” Zizi chuckled at himself. “I guess I messed around and found out.”
It took Yiran a few moments to absorb everything he’d just said. “Rui is going to be devastated if anything happens to you.”
“She’ll be okay. She doesn’t remember what we shared in either lifetime.”
Zizi looked like he didn’t care, but Yiran knew it was an act. “There has to be another way,” Yiran insisted.
“The sooner the talisman is destroyed, the sooner the Nothing will stop invading my world and my siblings won’t be in danger
anymore. The faster we can stop your father from transforming more people into Hybrids, the less overwhelmed the Exorcists
will be. It’s a game of time. And even if someone else finds the talisman, they can’t destroy it. Only I can.”
Yiran shook his head stubbornly. “We’ll think of something else.”
Zizi held up his watch. “This is the simplest, most efficient way.”
“Is it safer for you to destroy the talisman if you’re in the underworld?”
“Possibly. It takes more effort to draw power from my realm while I’m here.”
“Then we’ll find a way to make that happen. Decrease the chances of anything awful happening to you.”
Zizi narrowed his eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, I would swear that it’s you who’s going to be devastated if anything
happens to me.”
Yiran rolled his eyes. “I will be upset if you cease to exist, Zizi.”
The mage’s lips formed a silent oh.
“Only because I’d have to be a pathetic loser by myself,” Yiran added quickly.
Eyes twinkling with glee, Zizi ruffled his hair. “Aww, you mean a lot to me too.”
Yiran smacked his hand away. “Whatever. All right, hear me out.” The more he spoke, the more viable his idea seemed. But some
luck would be involved in pulling the whole thing off.
Zizi still looked doubtful after he was done explaining. “We’re leaving too many things to chance.”
“With our brains, we can come up with options for the different situations that could arise and find a solution for each scenario.
If we do it my way, you won’t have to use your relic or any underworld magic while you’re here. You can take the spell back
to your realm and destroy it there. Maybe the other Kings can do something to protect your body. As long as you extract me
safely or I can slip away myself, it’s all good. If it doesn’t work out, you can go ahead and execute your own plan.”
“If it doesn’t work out, it means you might be dead,” Zizi pointed out. “Or some kind of hideous monster.”
“It’s worth the risk.”
“You know that Rui would be sad if anything happened to you too, right?”
“She’ll get over it,” Yiran said confidently. “But if she ever regains her memories, she’ll be sadder if it’s you, and we both know she won’t ever get over that.”
“Maybe.” Zizi stared up at the night sky again, as if searching the heavens for answers. “Look at us, trying to save each
other.”
“The most important thing is that we save our realms.” Yiran extended his hand. “So you with me?”
Emotion flickered in Zizi’s pale blue eyes. He grasped Yiran’s hand firmly.
“Great.” Yiran grinned. “All we need to do is to come up with something to convince Rui in the morning. She can’t know everything.”
Zizi groaned. “Good luck to us.”