Chapter 39

XIAN

Xian jolted awake.

Silence echoed around his bedchamber. Outside the window, the sky had lightened. His head felt like it had been stuffed with

cotton, and his lips were parched, his cheeks sticky with dried tears. His heart pounded, and his bones seemed heavy with

a sense of foreboding.

He stretched out a hand—the space next to him was empty. Zhen was gone.

Something was clenched in Xian's other palm. He unfurled his fingers. It was the broken jade amulet on its chain.

He jumped out of bed, still dressed in his apricot-yellow robe from the day before, and burst out of his chamber, startling

the guards.

"Where's Zhen?" he demanded. "When did he leave?"

"At dawn, Your Highness," one of the guards replied. "Royal Bodyguard Feng escorted him out of the residence."

"Where did they go?"

"I do not know, Your Highness. They did not say."

Xian frowned. Where could the two of them possibly have gone together?

A terrible thought came into his mind.

No. It couldn't be.

Instinctively, he broke into a run, ignoring the gawks he drew as he raced barefoot across the palace terraces. His chest

felt like an overwound spring, tightly twisted with dread.

Even at that early hour, a small crowd had gathered in the courtyard outside the coffin home. Qing was yelling Zhen's name

at the top of her voice, pounding her fists on the closed front doors of the coffin home as Feng tried to calm her. Guards

hung back, unsure what to do.

Xian skidded to a halt. "He's inside?"

Qing grabbed Xian's arm. "Oh, good, you're here—he'll listen to you. Talk some sense into him!"

"Zhen?" Xian rattled on the locked doors. He turned to the guards. "Break the doors down. Now."

Feng spoke. "Zhen barricaded himself and sealed the doors and windows with his powers. There's no use trying to force our

way in."

Xian rounded on him. "You—you knew he was going to do this? And you didn't tell me?"

Feng's expression faltered. "Xian, I—"

"Don't make things difficult for him," came Zhen's voice from inside. "It was my choice. He respected that."

Xian spun around as Zhen's face appeared on the other side of a latticed window next to the door. He and Qing rushed over.

"I don't want either of you blaming Feng," Zhen continued. "He's the only person I know who has both your best interests at

heart yet can be objective enough to see why this needs to be done."

"Don't do what I think you're going to do," Qing pleaded. "I swore I would never leave you. Don't you dare make me break my

promise again—I won't forgive you this time!"

Zhen managed a chuckle.

"Silly little snake," he told her. "I'm the one who broke my promise. I said I would always protect you. I'm sorry I won't

be able to do that anymore."

"What's the matter with you?" Qing cried. "I told you, you can't save everyone—"

"And I told you I have to try," Zhen replied. "Listen to me, Qing, this is important. I want you to continue the journey to

Mount Emei while the healing milfoil is blossoming. Remember to pick the ones in bud. They're more effective than those in

full bloom." He gave her a wan smile. "They say the clouds near the peak of the mountain take the shape of snake spirits that

have gone ahead of us. Wave at the sky if you see me."

Qing broke down sobbing. Xian's heart clenched. Zhen gestured to Feng, who came over and put a comforting arm around her.

He led her away, giving Xian a moment alone with Zhen.

"Zhen, please." Xian gripped the window lattice with his fingers. "You don't have to do this."

Zhen shook his head. "Watching your pain and not being able to take it from you... the feeling is worse than death. I don't

want you to grow to hate me."

"Hate you?" Xian stared at him, aghast. "I told you that I don't blame you for what happened—"

"But you still blame yourself." Zhen's tone was quiet. "For helping me rescue Qing instead of insisting that I heal your mother

first. For not being around to say goodbye to her. For letting Fahai torture me in that underground chamber. For losing the

pearl in the first place. For everything, and for far too long. I can see the guilt tearing you apart. It needs to stop, Xian."

"Don't make me choose between your life and my mother's," Xian whispered. "What if it doesn't work? What if I lose both of

you?"

Zhen's eyes glistened. "I would give up anything to stay with you. To spend the rest of my life by your side. I'm grateful

for these past seven years of borrowed time... most of all because it led me to you. But I have to give back what was never

mine to begin with."

"Were you just going to leave without saying goodbye?" Xian tried to muster anger, but he couldn't. He knew why Zhen had slipped

out of his room without a word. He hadn't wanted their parting to come to this.

"Yesterday, back in the pagoda, when you said you loved me... I didn't say it back." A pensive look flitted across Zhen's face. "I didn't want to make saying goodbye harder for both of us than it had to be. That's why I left without waking you. Now I know the reason snake spirits cultivated alone on Mount Emei for a thousand years—so they could leave their mortal lives behind without any sorrow." He paused. "But you showed me how to be brave. And I would regret forever if I didn't take this last chance to say it: I love you, Xian."

Xian pressed his forehead against the lattice separating them. "There has to be something else we can do." He felt sick with

denial, with desperation. "We can still find a way to save you..."

Zhen smiled. "You already have."

A smooth gray pebble lay on the window frame between them. Zhen took the pebble and closed his fingers around it—when he opened

his hand again, in the pebble's place was a white jade charm.

"You once told me that white jade is a symbol of love." Zhen's fingers brushed Xian's as he slipped the charm through the

latticework. "Take this as a token of my promise: In my next life, I'll do everything I can to find my way back to you."

Xian stared at the transmuted charm in the shape of an S—a snake. Before he could respond, Zhen moved away from the window

and pulled down the shade, blocking the interior from view.

"Zhen, stop! Come back!" Xian slammed his palms on the window frame—but he knew it was useless. Back on that bridge, as Xian had dangled over a thousand feet of nothingness, Qing had shouted for Zhen to escape with them. But the other boy had refused to go. Once Zhen's mind was made up to do what he believed was right, there was no changing it. Not even for the ones he loved.

Xian spun toward the guards. "Find somebody who can break the magical charm on these doors!"

Before the guards could carry out Xian's order, an intense, luminous light flashed through the latticed windows, and a sharp

gust of wind sent everyone stumbling a few steps back. Then the barricaded doors let out a loud click. They had unlocked on

their own, which could mean only one thing—

Xian pushed the doors open and rushed inside.

Zhen was slumped on the floor in front of Xian's mother's open casket. Xian raced toward him. Zhen's eyes were closed, and

his skin was unnaturally cold and dry, like a snake's, as if all the warmth and life had been abruptly drained from his body.

"Zhen?" Xian whispered. "Can you hear me?"

"Zhen!" Qing was the next to reach him. She grabbed Zhen's shoulders and shook him violently. "Zhen, wake up!"

Zhen's head lolled to one side, and a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Before Xian could try to revive

him, Qing pushed him aside.

"I can use my powers to save him like he saved me!" She pressed her palms to Zhen's chest and squeezed her eyes shut, tears

leaking from them as she concentrated hard.

A weak cough made Xian's head snap up. He leaped to his feet in time to see his mother's eyelids flutter open.

"Niang Qin?" He exhaled in disbelief.

His mother's unfocused eyes darted around in confusion before settling on his face. "Xian'er?"

He put his arms around her and helped her into a sitting position.

She looked horrified when she realized she was in a casket. "What happened? How did I—"

Qing's shrill, frustrated cry interrupted her.

"What am I doing wrong?" Qing threw herself over Zhen's body, pummeling his chest so hard that Xian was sure she would crack

a few ribs. "Why won't you wake up, damn you!"

Feng came forward and caught her wrists. She snarled and struggled against him before finally dissolving into loud, uncontrollable

wails.

"Son?" Xian's mother put her hand on his. "Who is this boy?"

Xian knelt and gathered Zhen's lifeless form in his arms, hugging him tightly against his chest as tears streamed down his

face.

"His name was Zhen," he choked out.