“Nothing,” I said in a tight voice. “Nobody.”
“Whatever you saw in those mirrors, it isn’t real. So I wouldn’t put too much stake in what happened back there.”
“But the mirrors show our true selves, right?” Ren piped up. “Aren’t they supposed to show the truth?”
“The mirrors show a version of the truth,” Moli corrected. “Don’t forget, the Chamber of Mirrors is designed to torture sinners for eternity with their greatest regrets and fears. The mirrors aren’t meant to reflect the happiest version of the truth.”
“How can there be versions of the truth, though?” I asked. “The truth is the truth, plain and simple.”
“Maybe on Earth. But here in Diyu, the rules are very different.”
I shook my head. “You mean in Diyu, the rules make no sense.”
Moli’s ominous warning echoed in my head. It struck me that she had experienced much more than I had in the brief time since she’d saved me at Peng Lai Island. It was like she’d aged several years.
“What did you see in the mirror, Moli?” I whispered.
She didn’t answer for a long moment. Finally, she said in a short, abrupt voice, “Just me with Bà ba.”
Whatever had happened to Moli the first time she’d come to the Chamber of Mirrors clearly still weighed on her. If she wasn’t asking me for details about what I’d seen, I wouldn’t press her.
Jordan’s voice rang throughout the tunnel. “There’s a light ahead. I think we’re almost out!”
“Thank the gods.” Ren sighed.
I quickened my pace to a jog, putting as much distance between the Chamber of Mirrors and me as possible.
When we finally spilled onto the moonlit grounds of Diyu, relief washed over me.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” cried Jordan.
A tall, burly man built like a football player towered over Ashley and Jordan. He wore a red cape paired with a brown jacket, black pants, and black boots. He might have looked like a normal, albeit giant, man if it weren’t for the horns sticking out of his head.
“The Bull Demon King,” Moli gasped.
Before I could process that one of the most powerful non-god figures of Chinese mythology stood there, right before us, the Bull Demon King slammed his black spear into the ground. Something told me he hadn’t showed up to thank us for beating up his annoying son, the Red Prince, during the Lunar New Year.
“Ashley,” he rumbled in a low, deep voice. “Jordan.”
“Hoo …,” Jordan wheezed. “Ha …”
Ashley seemed a little more collected than her brother, at least on the outside.
“You kids shouldn’t be here in the Underworld,” the Bull Demon King growled. He whipped his cape over his shoulder. Only then did I realize he’d brought along his ride with him—a huge qí lín with tough, leathery skin the color of jade green and horns almost as wicked and curved as the Bull Demon King’s.
“Yes, you’re right, um, s-sir,” Jordan squeaked. “That’s why we’ll be—uh—leaving—now.”
“Give up this quest and come home with me to the Flaming Mountain on Earth. You have no business fighting for the gods,” the Bull Demon King continued.
“You aren’t real,” Ashley shouted at her alleged father. Instead of being happy to see him, now she seemed to only be angry—possibly frightened.
“Ashley, what’re you saying?” Jordan yelped, all the color draining out of his face.
“That man—that demon—isn’t real!” Ashley closed her eyes, as though that would make the Bull Demon King disappear. “You aren’t real. You aren’t real!”
I could understand where Ashley’s denial stemmed from, since we’d just emerged from the Chamber of Mirrors. But I was pretty sure that the Bull Demon King standing before us was very, very real.
“Has being in the Underworld addled your brain, brat? Of course I’m real,” roared the Bull Demon King. His glare could have seared through metal. He raised his hand, flexing his fingers. In a gentler voice, he continued. “I held you in my palm when you were just a baby.”
This seemed to horrify rather than soothe the siblings. Before, Ashley and Jordan had been at least interested in finding their father. Now they seemed much more interested in running to the opposite end of Diyu.
“G-get away from my sister and me,” Jordan said, raising his sword. It trembled violently in his hand. “You … Even if you are our father—which I won’t believe until we see an official birth certificate—”
“Official what?” The Bull Demon King furrowed his brow. I guess Demon Kings didn’t usually frame their kids’ birth certificates.
“You can’t storm in here after abandoning us for years and try to be our father again. It doesn’t work that way,” Jordan finished with a brandish of his sword.
Ashley muttered something unintelligible to herself, shaking her head and covering her ears with her hands.
I was far from Ashley’s biggest fan, but pity rose within me at the sight of her so small and shriveled before her demon father.
That did it. I didn’t care if the Bull Demon King was powerful and a former sworn brother to Sun Wukong. I wouldn’t let him whisk away Ashley and Jordan to some place called the Flaming Mountain.
Also, I really hated his fire-throwing brat of a son, the Red Prince.
“We’re going to finish this quest—all of us, including Ashley and Jordan,” I said. The Bull Demon King’s enormous black eyes swiveled to me. I held my sword with steady hands so that the point of the steel was aimed at the demon’s head. “And you aren’t going to stop us.”
The Bull Demon King snorted. “You think you, a lowly, pitiful warrior cast out by the most powerful of gods, can stop me, the great Bull Demon King?”
“When he puts it that way, you do look kinda dumb, Faryn,” Moli whispered.
“Who are you, my own personal un-cheerleader?” But as much as I tried to keep up the bravado, my confidence was slipping.
My mind wandered back to the Chamber of Mirrors. The image of Alex—older, twisted Alex—circled in my vision. His poisonous words echoed in my head.
“Faryn, you all right?” Ren asked.
“You see? You warriors are so pitifully fragile, you don’t even need me to do anything to you before you fall apart.” The Bull Demon King cackled.
He was wrong. Even if I wasn’t the Heaven Breaker any longer, even if none of the gods would help me here in the Underworld, I still had my own strength. I had all the training that Ye Ye had given me. And I had my friends to guard my back.
I shook my head violently to force Alex out of my thoughts.
“If you want to take Ashley and Jordan, you’ll have to go through all of us,” I threatened.
The scraping sounds of swords being unsheathed filled the air. I stood beside Moli, Ren, Ashley, and Jordan, our weapons pointed toward the Bull Demon King. The demon narrowed his eyes, as if assessing us warriors, all definitely much tinier and less impressive next to him. He chuckled, shaking his great head, and drew his hands out from behind his back, revealing two thick weapons covered with spikes.