The Iron Will of Genie Lo (The Epic Crush of Genie Lo 2)

I stroked the Goddess of Mercy’s hair. “My parents are doing fine,” I said. “Despite the stress I put them through, they’ve weirdly never been better. Life after college was crazy eventful. I don’t know if the story’s as interesting as the spirit stuff, but it felt about as difficult. It turned out okay, though.”

“I want to hear about it,” Guanyin said, her voice muffled against my collarbone. “I want to hear about every little detail.”

I sighed. “If that’s the case, then I’ve also got to tell you about our plans for the mandate.”

Guanyin jerked away. I’d ruined the moment. “How could you bring that up?” she said, still holding on to me. “That doesn’t matter anymore!”

“I think it matters,” I said. “Let’s do some math here.”

I glanced around at my surroundings. “I’m the Shouhushen of the Blessed and Erroneously Named Kingdom of California on Earth, and I’m stronger than I’ve ever been before,” I said. “I have Sun Wukong the Monkey King—who’s also leveled up quite a bit, mind you—at my beck and call.”

I reached over and slapped Quentin’s ass. He raised an eyebrow, silently promising to pay me back later when we were alone and in private.

“I’ve earned the respect and trust of two fanatically loyal armies of the supernatural, one demonic and one draconic,” I said. I gestured at Tiny and Ao Guang. The powerful ant yaoguai saluted, and the Guardian of the Eastern Sea did the horse-whinny equivalent of promising me his liver.

“And I’m literally the only force holding back the end of the world,” I said, pointing at the shifting, tumbling, Genie-shaped horizon. Even though I was sixty-six percent occupied with preventing the apocalypse, I’d never felt so full of energy before. It was a total rush.

“Also you have me,” Yunie said.

“I also have Yunie.” An addition of no small consequence. “Taking all of those things together means that if I want to talk about the fact that the goddess who truly won the Mandate Challenge has returned to the living and needs to be fitted for her crown post-haste, and Heaven refuses to listen . . .”

I cracked the knuckles of one hand by itself, another trick I’d learned. “Well, maybe then we have a little problem that needs addressing.”

Guanyin was startled by what and whom I was threatening. “Genie,” she begged. “Please don’t overthrow the entire order of the gods just to put me on the Throne of Heaven.”

I would make no such promise. I simply grinned and let her fret.

Besides, it wasn’t like I was ready for an undertaking of that size immediately. Or any sort of adventure at all right now.

After everything we’d been through, we needed a break. We needed to rest, train, prepare, grow. Figure out what parts of ourselves needed to change, and which parts needed to stay the same.

We had time. Tomorrow was a new day.

“Let’s go home,” I said to my friends.