“So?” said Erlang Shen. “Maybe you deserve a vacation. A semester abroad. What people never tell you is that a day in Heaven is worth more than a hundred years on Earth. Earth sucks.”
It was awfully tempting, I had to admit. Earth did often suck. Walking away from everything might have been just what I needed.
I sighed. But still.
“Not happening,” I said. “My mother would—”
“To hell with your mother,” Erlang Shen snapped.
It was an uncharacteristic flash of temper. When I looked at him, he withdrew immediately and shrugged.
“Thanks for the offer,” I said. “But I think I’ll pass.”
I got up to leave. It was a long train ride back, and I was already late. Mom would be furious. “I’m gonna do a quick yaoguai check here before going home.”
“Wait, wait,” he said, suddenly alarmed. “You’re just using true sight randomly now? Without Guanyin’s warning?”
“It’s my new paranoia in action,” I said as I pressed my temple.
The park was all clear. Maybe demons preferred to sunbathe in less-trendy spots. I glanced at Erlang Shen, who seemed a little embarrassed at being laid out in all his godly glory.
He needn’t have been. The pulsing waves of energy radiating off him would have knocked me to the ground, but I was used to the effect from Quentin. I gave him a reassuring smile.
“That reminds me,” I said. “Quentin told me it’d be dangerous if I went to Heaven. Did you have a spell or something that would protect me?”
Erlang Shen said nothing.
“Or was he lying about it being dangerous? He said my humanity would be burned away, but he could have been making up an excuse to get out of taking me there.”
Erlang Shen still said nothing. Not even a mumble.
I frowned.
I had only been speaking in a by-the-way manner, but something wasn’t right. I gave Erlang Shen a closer look. There was an odd cold spot on his flank where the spiritual heat was completely missing, like he’d donated a kidney to someone. Given part of his godliness away.
“Hey,” I said, ignoring the blistering sensation on my eyeballs. “I asked a question. How were you planning to bring me to Heaven without killing me? I’m talking about me as in Genie Lo, not the Ruyi Jingu Bang.”
Erlang Shen puttered his lips in frustration. “You know it’s really rude to ask someone a question with true sight on. Don’t you want to turn it off before I answer? For the sake of good manners?”
“I don’t.”
“Then I suppose I have no choice but to tell the truth,” said Erlang Shen. “I was planning on you dying.”
No.
It couldn’t have been.
I didn’t want it to be.
“You really should have come with me when I offered,” Erlang Shen said, his voice suddenly laced with venom. “Instead of being such an unpleasant girl. Humans can only be taken to Heaven if they’re willing to go. There was no need for a fuss.”
I tried to put the pieces together in my head as fast as possible. Why. How. Where. As if solving the greater mystery would make the immediate danger in front of me stand still.
But of course it wouldn’t.
I slowly clenched my hands into fists. “Sorry to disappoint,” I said. “Apparently I’m a well-known fuss-maker.”
“You really think you’re going to fight me?”