Chapter 54 #2
“I suppose it will take some time for you to remember everything, and for you to revert to your actual self instead of”—Ten
gestured at him, wrinkling his nose with distaste—“whatever this is. I much prefer my brother’s original face, but at least your eyes have changed.”
What does he mean? Zizi didn’t want to change; he didn’t want to be someone else. This was him. Teeth gnashing, he scrubbed at his face in panic. No, no, no. He felt a weird push-pull sensation in his body, like his insides were having a tug-of-war.
Lines creased on Ten’s forehead. “Interesting,” he said, staring hard. “Your eyes . . . they are blue again. How?”
“I . . . I don’t know.”
“No matter.” Ten dismissed it with a swing of his sleeve. “All things will be restored when we return to the underworld.”
But Zizi had caught the confusion and displeasure in his expression. Ten wasn’t expecting this. He didn’t think Zizi could
push back against the change. Can I stop it? Zizi wondered, his panic subsiding. If two souls existed in his body somehow, did it mean that one soul could dominate the
other? Could his soul keep Four’s at bay like he had for the last eighteen years? Could he remain the human he’d been and wanted to be?
“I’m not going anywhere with you, asshole,” he said. “I’m staying right here.” With Rui, he thought.
“Ah, the name-calling. I forgot how fond you were of that,” Ten groused. “Though I must say, it was seldom directed at me.”
Ignoring him, Zizi went to Rui, his pulse racing the way it always did when he was near her. Her expression was stuck in a
moment of despair, her body frozen in time. He touched her cheek gently, just to be sure. It was warm, and he breathed a little
easier.
“If you are concerned about the girl, you should know that this is what she wanted.”
Zizi twisted around in disbelief.
Ten was examining his ruby-stained fingernails. “Rui made a deal with me to get her magic back and to save the life of the
other boy. What was his name? Yiran?” Ten smiled coyly at Zizi. “I see you are surprised. I guess she kept it a secret from
you. This is all part of the plan so she gets what she wants.”
You’re wrong, Zizi wanted to say. But he didn’t. While he was sure this wasn’t what Rui had in mind when she tried to get her magic back, he was just as certain she would always choose herself.
It was one of the things he admired about her. But in this case, it seemed she had chosen Yiran too.
“I sense your doubt, dear brother—”
“Stop calling me that,” Zizi snapped.
Before he could get another word in, Ten drew a circle with his finger. A small black dot appeared in midair. It grew bigger
and bigger, a dark hole forming out of nowhere. An abyss to somewhere Zizi would rather not know.
Something black flew out from the portal and wrapped itself around his neck.
It burned.
“Get it off me!” Zizi pulled at the fabric, but it only tightened. It felt like it was strangling him.
“Alas, I cannot remove that,” said Ten. “It binds us to the underworld. Each King has one.” Ten pointed to the leather harness
around his waist, incongruous against his silk hanfu. “Don’t fight it,” he advised.
Loosening his grip, Zizi tried his best to breathe normally. The burning sensation tapered off, and he let go of the collar.
But that tug inside him shifted instantly. For a moment, he felt like he was losing his balance and falling, but the descent
was happening in his mind, like something was dragging his consciousness down into the dark.
Breath ragged, Zizi floundered.
Ten quirked his head. “Black again? I see. There is a fight going on inside you, and it explains why your eyes keep changing.
But understand that you have no choice but to return with me to the underworld. Know that your presence will mend the rift
between the realms and restore balance. The Nothing will retreat to its confines, and the underworld will be safe. When that
happens, our realm will stabilize, and the Blight will stop mutating and infecting humans in this world. And the girl will not be in danger.”
His grandmother’s words came to Zizi suddenly, spoken four years ago on a cold winter’s morning after he had found Rui that
fateful night.
Your story will not end well. The girl must be left alone, Madam Meng had said, in a voice that sounded barely human.
She wasn’t a kindly relative who had taken him in after all, but someone he had bound to himself.
Someone who made sure he drank his tea so he would forget. So he would keep forgetting.
When Rui lost her own spiritual energy, the power of the underworld must have surfaced, yearning to return to its master.
The strange episodes of Zizi losing pockets of time, appearing in different places without knowing how he got there—it was
all linked to the awakening of that power. But now, equilibrium was restored. The black lines on his hands and arms had vanished,
and he could feel that power coursing through his veins.
Zizi clenched his fists. In the end, Madam Meng’s words did ring true. She had warned him to stay away from Rui. He had refused.
And now, Rui was paying the price.
Ten was right. There was no other choice.
“I won’t go without saying goodbye,” he said. “Unfreeze everything.”
“There is no time for silly farewells,” Ten mocked. “You will soon forget your life here and you will be forgotten, too.”
Zizi shot him a deathly glare. “You’re wrong. I will never, ever forget her.”
“You think you are in love with her, but it is false, merely something you feel because she held the power that belonged to
you.” Ten scoffed. “You do not love her. You cannot—you are a King.”
Anger throbbed in Zizi’s veins at that thought. He felt a rush of something big and unknown surging through his body. He flung
out a hand by instinct.
Time flowed again.
Water dripped from the cracks in the ceiling, and musty air filled his nostrils.
Rui was staring at him in horror.
Ten cackled. “Oh my, getting reacquainted with your power so soon, brother?”