Jade Fire Gold(82)

Everything that can be used as a missile flies through the air: blades, bamboo, rocks, dirt. Grunts, punches, and the clanging of metal on metal ring in my ears.

Run, run, run.

My feet finally react, bursting into a sprint back to where we left the horses. But a ripple of flames explodes in my path, cutting my way off, forcing me back into the frenzy.

Tang Wei slices the air with her daggers. The priests discard them with a casual flick of their hands. One of them gets close. She dodges his blows, whips a hand to her hair, and strikes.

Clutching his neck, the priest staggers backward, blood dripping down to his orange robes. To my horror, he pulls the chopstick out as he falls to his knees. More blood spurts out. He slumps over and I retch, turning away from his body.

A silver chain spirals out and wraps around the other priest, pinning his arms to his torso. Tang Wei hangs on to her metal whip, lips curling as she hauls him in. Just when I think things are going our way, a jet of fire shoots up into the bamboo thicket where Altan and the female priest are.

I run ahead, screaming his name. Someone rams me to the ground.

Metal enters flesh.

A knife sticks out of Tang Wei’s rib cage—a knife meant for me.

“No . . . the gods . . . no! Why did you—” The blade is embedded deep. I can’t pull it out, so I press my hands on the wound to stem the flow of blood.

Tang Wei cries out in pain. “Gods, Ahn—why you still here? Leave!”

I keep my hands on her. “I’m not leaving you—you’re hurt.”

She grabs me, smearing my sleeve red. “I shall die for a worthy cause. Now go!”

A throttled sound between a laugh and a sob escapes my throat. “Don’t be dramatic. You’re not going to die.”

Not if I can help it.

I place her hands over her wound. Then I stand and face the two priests. They hesitate, sensing something different about me. Pleading, searching, I call out to the aberrant magic in me and say a silent prayer to deaf gods. I accept you, I tell whatever beast is inside me.

I release you.

The cicada hum starts. My senses heighten.

Power erupts in me.

I fix my gaze on the female priest battling Altan in a vortex of blades and leaves. She jerks in my direction. Her sword falls. Her eyes roll back, whites showing. Pale green light leaks from her as she plummets to the ground. Her life force seeps into me, a thrilling deluge of energy.

Altan lands on the ground in a crouch. The look on his face—I can’t tell if it’s horror or wonder. Or both. Our eyes lock, and everything fades into the background. That strange halo surrounds him again. Bright and white.

Pure, my mind whispers.

Take it, commands another, stronger voice.

He approaches, his glow dazzling. I reach out with my dark magic. Feeling for his thread. His life force. I tug. But Altan doesn’t gasp or choke like he did in the canyon. His light remains white with no hint of green. It’s repelling my magic. Pushing me back. It—

“It’s the Life Stealer!”

I snap out of my reverie. A priest is pointing at me. The reverence in his tone pleases and repulses me.

He interrupted you, whispers that voice. He must pay for his insolence.

The man’s neck snaps back. His hands go to his throat. With a whimper he crumples to the ground, pale green light leaking out of him. In a blink of an eye, all that’s left is a husk of a man.

The last priest remains where he is. Whether it’s panic or awe that stops him from fleeing, I don’t know. And I don’t care. He knows who I am—I can’t let him go. There’s a brief struggle on the man’s face before he succumbs.

Enough, I cry out to the monster inside me. Stop.

I fall to my knees, shivering, head in my hands.

Stop.

But something dark and terrible snakes it hands around my mind.

More. You want more, whispers that other voice from the depths of my soul. Take it. Take everything.

My eyes find Tang Wei. Her blood has soaked the soil black. Her qì is so weak, her breaths so shallow. It would be easy to drain her life force.

Easy as breathing.

I reach out a hand.

“Ahn!”

I freeze. What was I doing? What was I about to do? I hear myself crying out as a sharp wedge of pain drives through my heart.

And everything goes dark.





34


Altan


Ahn collapses with a cry. When I get to her, she’s unconscious but breathing. Next to her, Tang Wei is white as a ghost, barely breathing. The blade missed her heart by inches, but it’s lodged deep. I can’t pull it out without the risk of her bleeding to death.

Her eyes flicker open and find mine. In that moment, we have an understanding. She knows I’m thinking of leaving her behind. That her wound is bad enough for me to consider it.

“Go. Take Ahn and leave. They’ll send more priests. I’ll only slow you down.”

“And lose the chance of rubbing this in your face for the rest of your life? I think not,” I grin like a maniac, trying not to panic. She has lost too much blood. “If you survive this, you owe me big-time.”

“O Immortals, let me die now.” Her smile is more of a grimace.

“Shut up.”

The flames are still spreading, so I dump some earth on the fires before they reach us. I shake Ahn.