My friend sounded so confident and authoritative that I doubted she needed the protection of the scroll. The demons’ momentum had been broken. They were confused as hell.
“I know my friend and what she’s capable of,” Yunie said. “Ask yourselves if you want to make her angry. Ask yourselves if you want to make me angry.”
If there were two things yaoguai respected, it was fearlessness and the threat of force. Both of which Yunie had provided in spades. They gave up. The yaoguai turned around and shuffled back into the gym. Yunie watched them and nodded in satisfaction, scratching Ao Guang’s horse ears as she maintained her vigil.
“Wow,” the person recording muttered.
The noise caught Yunie’s attention. She wheeled Ao Guang around. “You!” she yelled, pointing straight at the camera. She spurred her mount into a furious charge across the street.
“Oh shi—” was the last sound the person made before they dropped their phone and the video cut out.
? ? ?
“So yeah,” Yunie said. She sounded a little apologetic.
“What in Heaven’s name did I just watch?” Quentin said. He didn’t have the benefit of sound. Or being there when the video was taken.
“While you guys were on your voyage to Mordor or whatever, Guanyin came to me and asked if I could act as your last line of defense,” Yunie explained. “She told me exactly what to do and when to do it in case you didn’t come back right away. Wrote me out a checklist of trouble signs and emergency contacts and everything. I just followed her instructions to the letter.”
I said nothing.
Yunie glanced at Quentin and back at me, nervous. “Ao Guang and his crew helped out a lot. They managed to sneak most of the new arrivals into your forest preserve. He was really glad to be lending a hand, too. He kept screaming ‘For the Shouhushen!’ and ‘As the Shouhushen wills it!’ Guy’s a little intense for someone his age.”
It was like she was speaking a third language. A tongue that was unfamiliar, coming from her.
“The rest I checked up on, gave them human food, that sort of thing,” she said. “There were a few mishaps, but nothing a ton of forget and conceal spells couldn’t fix. And I stole that guy’s phone, I guess. I look a lot better in that video because it was the third time that night I gave that speech. The first time I did it I was so scared I nearly crapped myself.”
When I still remained silent, she got truly worried.
“Genie, I’m sorry I went behind your back,” she said. “Guanyin told me you’d flip if you found out I was helping with magic stuff. She said it was like your biggest fear, so we kept it secret. You’re not mad at me, are you? Say something. Please.”
“I didn’t know you could ride a horse,” I murmured.
She squinted at me and then looked away in embarrassment. “I learned at summer camp. I never told you because I was afraid you’d think I was a snob.”
That was what set me over the edge. I burst into fresh, heaving sobs and hugged Yunie to my chest. My tears ran down my face and into her hair.
They would always look out for me to the very end. Guanyin and Yunie. My two sisters. My Heaven and Earth.
Yun
ie squeezed me back, not caring about the scene I was making. “Apparently the magic wouldn’t have worked if you weren’t a really good Shouhushen,” she said. “And the reason I was able to channel your authority was because I’m the reincarnation of some powerful soul. At least that’s what Guanyin told me.”
She patted my head. “Where is Guanyin, anyway?”
29
We trod up the stairs to Ji-Hyun’s apartment in silence, a mourning procession. Yunie had taken the news about Guanyin much worse than I thought she would. I remembered reading a psychology article saying that you tended to like someone more after doing them a favor, and my friend had done the goddess and me the mother of all solids.
Ji-Hyun met us at the door. “Your grandpa from the country is here,” she said to me. “He mentioned something about losing a family member. I’m sorry.”
The older girl slipped into the hallway. “I’ll give you guys some privacy.”
“Ji-Hyun, wait.” Tossing aside any worries about whether we were close enough yet, I leaned in and wrapped up Yunie’s older cousin in a hug. “Thank you,” I said. “For everything.”
Ji-Hyun grunted in the affirmative. “Any time, Stretch.”
After she left, the three of us filed in. An amazing sight waited for us. The apartment was clean. Clean-er. Ish. The booze refuse had been scraped off a dining table. Around it, a perimeter of mopped floor. The space that wasn’t completely vile looked like a castle holding out in a siege.