“I was going to say, ‘annoying,’ ” I lied.
Moli narrowed her eyes at me.
I added, “I—I didn’t think we’d ever see each other again.”
“Neither did I,” Moli said. “To my relief.” She smirked.
There was the Moli I remembered. I rolled my eyes, but I wasn’t really upset. She was just teasing. We’d been through so much together during the Lunar New Year, after all, and Moli had even sacrificed her life to save me. I owed her my life.
Moli looked behind me. “Where’s that annoying brother of yours?” She said the words casually, but the flush on her cheeks revealed her true feelings.
There was no doubt in my mind that no matter what Alex was up to in Heaven these days, he hadn’t gotten over his first and longtime crush on Moli.
Or maybe he had. My brother had changed so much in the past year, I felt like I hardly knew him anymore. Maybe the new Alex had already forgotten Moli, just as easily as he’d forgotten Ba. Forgotten me.
“Alex is busy these days,” I said shortly. “He’s the Jade Emperor’s new—”
“Heaven Breaker. I know.”
I stared at Moli in disbelief. “You know?”
“I’ve heard all about what he’s been doing up in Heaven.” Moli didn’t seem to want to talk about it any longer, because she turned to the demons gawking at her. She placed her hands on her hips and scowled at them. “Are you still here?”
“But, Moli,” protested Ox-Head.
“That’s Moli jiě jie to you,” she snapped.
Ox-Head flinched and mumbled, “Yes … Moli jiě jie.” It threw us a suspicious look. “Those ugly-looking children are mortal warriors.”
“U-ugly-looking?” Jordan spluttered, looking affronted.
“They’re not dead yet. King Yama wouldn’t want—”
“These warriors are on a quest for some of the gods.” Moli interrupted Ox-Head in a loud, authoritative voice that caused the demons to wince. “I wouldn’t get in their way, lest you incur the gods’ wrath.”
Ox-Head and Horse-Face exchanged looks of terror. I guess the idea of angering Sun Wukong, Erlang Shen, Nezha, and Guanyin outweighed the guards’ fear of King Yama, because they bowed their heads and stepped aside.
Moli tossed her hair over one shoulder and commanded, “Follow me.”
She strutted away from the bridge. Hurrying after her, I tried to ignore the stares of Ox-Head, Horse-Face, and the other demons guarding the bridge. When I looked back, they followed after us, like our own personal, unwanted posse of demon guards.
“So, Jade Society warrior,” Ashley hissed, grabbing my shoulder. “Who is that girl?”
I shrugged her off. “That’s Moli. She accompanied me on my first quest during the Lunar New Year.”
Jordan popped up on my other side. “Is Moli …?” He gesticulated wildly through the air with his hands. “You know …”
“Dead?” I supplied flatly. “Yeah.”
“I can hear everything you’re saying,” Moli shouted back. “And yes, I am dead.” She said “dead” the way hipsters might say “vegan,” like it was a lifestyle she’d proudly chosen. “All right. Stop here.”
We halted in front of a huge black gate. The two doorknobs were shaped in the faces of demons. In the flickering orange-red light of the torches against the wall, the faces appeared to leer at us.
Moli banged the knocker against the door. One, two, three, four times. The gates slowly creaked open.
When no one moved, Moli threw us an exasperated look. “Well? We don’t have all day.”
I squared my shoulders. Then I stepped forward and followed her through the entrance deeper into the Underworld.
CHAPTER
15
The gates slammed down behind us with an echoing finality. There was no turning back now. We’d either make it out of Diyu with Sun Wukong’s legendary weapon … or we’d stay here forever, fail the quest, and then the world would go kaput.
No pressure or anything.
We’d entered a huge room with a ceiling that seemed to open straight up into the sky, which was dark and full of stars. The chatter of ghosts filled the space. A line of recently dead people stretched on for as far as I could see.
“Where are we?” I murmured. “Where’s King Yama?”
“He’s at the front of the line, of course,” Moli explained patiently.
“You mean we have to wait in this line to see him?” Ashley said. “What’ll that take, a couple of centuries? We’ll be really dead by the time we get up there!” She paused and squinted at Moli. “Why aren’t you in line?”
“I already went through this line.” Moli puffed out her chest. “King Yama offered to turn me into a deity for my selfless and heroic actions in life. I turned him down.”
“You what?” Jordan and Ashley said at once.
“I turned him down.”
“But why?” I asked. That didn’t seem very Moli-like at all. The Moli I knew always acted like everyone should be falling at her feet in worship anyway. I had a hard time picturing her not jumping at the chance to be deified.
A shadow crossed Moli’s face. In the dim light of the torch flames, her expression was fiercer than ever. “You’ve seen the state of Heaven these days. People are forgetting the lesser deities, and even the popular ones are less powerful than before. I didn’t want to become a deity just to be forgotten.”
I guess Moli had a point. When we’d gone to Peng Lai Island for the Jade Emperor’s Lunar New Year celebration, the minor deities had held a concert, a chūn jié wǎn huì, because they hadn’t been invited to his grand feast. I’d witnessed firsthand how easily so many of the deities had been forgotten and trampled beneath the feet of the nián, the monstrous demon that had nearly brought down the whole island.
“Now I’m one of King Yama’s assistants. I don’t mind,” Moli said with a shrug. She flashed a smile, a wicked gleam in her eye. “I boss around ghosts all day, and I even get paid vacations, sick leave, and health care.”
“What the heck?” Jordan muttered. “Where do I sign up for this gig?”
A bearded man tried to cut in front of us. Without missing a beat, Moli
