“I’m sorry. They’re making me …” The image of my mother began shimmering. Disappearing. “Look for me, Faryn! I’m still in the Underworld. We can still …”
“Who’s making you go? Why? Where can I find you in the Underworld? Mom!”
I banged my fists against the mirror, but it was no use. My mother’s form turned back into shadow and smoke and then vanished altogether. I was so stunned and shattered by what had happened that I didn’t even manage to react before another shape took hers.
This figure was even more familiar. I recognized it instantly, and my heart lurched in my throat. All thoughts of my mother vanished from my head, at least for the moment.
“Alex?”
My brother looked like he’d aged a couple of years in the months we’d been apart. Sure, I’d seen him in dreams, but not up close. Only now could I appreciate how different Alex looked. He’d gotten his messy brown hair cut shorter than I’d ever seen it. His forehead was creased with the wrinkle lines of his no-nonsense frown. He seemed taller and more mature than before—but also more tired, with dark circles under his eyes. The big sister in me couldn’t help but worry. Had Alex not been sleeping well?
In his right hand, he held the glowing golden spear that had helped me slay countless demons on our first quest. Fenghuang.
I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes. I wouldn’t cry in front of Alex. I wouldn’t show him any weakness. I wanted him to realize that in the time that we’d gone our separate ways, I, his older sister, Faryn, had been thriving without him, thank you.
You haven’t been, though, a voice whispered in the back of my head. You’ve been absolutely miserable.
Alex broke the silence. “You should stop this senseless quest and go home right now,” he sneered. “Diyu is a maze of endless levels, filled with torture and doom at every turn. Mortal warriors like you couldn’t possibly navigate it, much less track down and retrieve a mythical weapon like the Ruyi Jingu Bang.”
“Oh yeah?” I countered, puffing out my chest. “Watch me.”
“You will fail,” Alex continued as if I hadn’t spoken. The deadly certainty in his voice sent chills down my spine. “You will fail, and when you do, you won’t just bring down yourself. You’ll bring down everyone who came on the quest with you—Ashley, Jordan, Moli, and Ren.” When he said Moli’s name, my brother’s eyes dimmed with sadness.
There were a million things I wanted to say to Alex. I blurted out, “You don’t look good.” And then I added, “Come back to our side, Alex. Heaven hasn’t been treating you well. You belong here with us.” With me, I thought but didn’t say. “I … I had dreams. Visions, really. The Jade Emperor, he—he threatened you.”
Alex’s eyes widened with shock, but then the surprise faded away so quickly that I wasn’t sure I hadn’t just imagined it. Alex pointed the glowing white tip of Fenghuang at me. The glare in his eyes was accusatory. “Heaven has treated me better than the Jade Society ever did. The Jade Emperor has been nothing short of fantastic to me. You’re speaking nonsense, Faryn.”
“Are … are you sure?” Had I been wrong? Had those visions been just dreams after all? Or was Alex bluffing? Why had those dreams felt so real to me?
“Of course I’m sure. If anything, you should come over to our side, sister.” Something like vulnerability flashed on Alex’s face but was replaced with steely coldness. “You should worry about yourself, not me. This time, when you fail the quest, you’ll bring down the whole world with you.”
“I’m not going to fail!” Hurt and fury spiked inside me. Even though I knew there was no point in getting riled up at an image of Alex in a mirror, I couldn’t help it. He looked so real. And the words he was saying were so hurtful.
You succeeded in your first quest, I reminded myself. You can succeed again.
I turned away from the mirror. But there Alex was again, reflected in a different mirror. I whirled around in a circle, my mind humming with panic. There was an Alex in every mirror. Everywhere I looked.
This was a nightmare I couldn’t escape.
Alex’s sneer returned, twisting his face until it didn’t look like my brother’s face anymore but rather a stranger’s. A demon’s. “Ask yourself why you’re on this quest, Faryn.” His voice echoed throughout the room. “Why do you care for the warriors of the New Order, or the Jade Society, or anyone else?”
“I care because I’m not heartless and selfish like you!”
“Heartless? Selfish?” Alex spat out each word like it had left a foul taste in his mouth. “I’m giving back to the world what it’s given to me—nothing. Face it, Faryn. We were abandoned from birth, first by our mother, then by our father. We’ve never fit in anywhere, and nobody has ever really wanted us to. We don’t even fit in with each other.”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“Have you forgotten? I’m not related to you by blood. We’re practically strangers. And I don’t need you to look out for me, ever.”
I pressed my hands over my ears, as if that would drown out Alex’s voice. “Take that back!”
“Nobody has ever wanted either of us,” Alex continued. “You want proof? I’ll show you.”
The images of Alex had vanished on the mirrors. Standing there instead was Ba’s doppelgänger in the New Order, Zhuang. He stared back at me with a harsh look on his face.
“B-Ba?”
“Faryn,” he said in a voice devoid of any warmth.
He remembered. My father remembered me. Did that mean I no longer had to restore his memory? “Ba—”
“Call me Liu Bo,” my father interrupted. “Don’t call me Ba. You don’t have a father. He abandoned you many years ago.”
“No,” I whispered, falling to my knees against the cold stone floor. “You—my father—never abandoned me. You … you left to find
