When I held his hand after, I had channeled my energy into him. As much as I could muster without arousing suspicion. I was no healer and all I could do then was pray it would suffice. I could not have risked his life just to save my own. But I had done it, to save us both.
I had hoped, under the guise of death, Lady Hualing would have let me take him away. And it had almost worked. But I gloated too soon; we were not out of danger yet. Too late did I sense her gathering power. In one strike, Lady Hualing dispelled her binds as vines shot out, coiling around Liwei and me—squeezing the breath from my chest, strangling my limbs to numbness. Before I could despair, Liwei’s magic rippled across us, burning away the plants.
Lady Hualing raised her hands again. The damp scent of earth thickened as the air gleamed with her magic. I flung up a barrier as Liwei threw his might behind mine. I could not fight her alone, yet together, we stood a chance. Her energy crackled when it struck, transforming into endless vines which shone with a sinister light as they writhed against our shield. Sweat dripped from my brow as I tried not to imagine what they sought with such ravenous hunger.
My struggles were not lost on her. Lady Hualing’s red lips curved upward as the crushing pressure on our shield intensified. The tendrils curled with renewed vigor. Time was not on our side; I was close to exhaustion, and Liwei’s strength must be ebbing, too. Soon, we would fall—either from fatigue or her malevolent spell, or the soldiers closing around us, their faces alight with anticipation.
No, I would not relinquish our hard-won lives so easily. A plan formed—mad and reckless—yet the faintest glimmer of hope was preferable to certain death. My eyes met Liwei’s, as I mouthed a silent instruction for him to hold the shield steady. He nodded, straining as he bore the full weight of our barrier now. I scraped the shreds of my energy into a glowing orb no larger than a marble, flinging it out to strike Liwei’s shield from within. It cracked, though the web of vines held it fast. I clenched my teeth, a hiss of breath escaping my lips. Teacher Daoming’s stern warning about not draining my power pounded in my mind, but I could not stop. My head throbbed as I wrung the final flecks of light from my core and hurled them out in a gust of wind.
Our shield shattered, the force flinging Lady Hualing’s vines away—right onto her body, the fleeing soldiers, the ceiling and walls, where they clung as though rooted. Cracks streaked through the cavern, the stone groaning and trembling.
I crumpled onto the ground, as hollow as a paper lantern trampled by a careless foot. I was shivering, not from the chill in the cave, but from the ice spreading through my limbs. My eyelids were heavy, yearning to shut, to surrender to the darkness spreading through my body. Everything took on a hazy sheen, until I no longer knew whether I was still alive or trapped in an endless dream.
Lights swirled, golden bright—Liwei’s magic flowing into my broken body. They sank into the black yet did not vanish, like sunlight glinting over the night sea. The lights streamed into the core of my lifeforce, buried deep within my head—wringing forth a single fleck of silver, the last of my energy. The cold within me thawed, my strength returning as I awoke to find Liwei’s fingers entwined with mine as we lay upon the ground.
Lady Hualing’s eyes were glassy, her mouth opened in a soundless scream. Her body convulsed as the vines coiled around her in a strangling hold. Tighter and tighter they wound, tearing the silk of her dress, squeezing her bulging flesh until it turned crimson and purple. I choked down my bile as I watched her struggles weaken, the camellias at her waist wilt and droop their once proud heads, the silk peonies on her gown brown and fray. The light faded from her pupils, the bitterness receding from her face . . . until just her cold beauty remained.
I could have lain there until the moon waxed and waned, unable to summon the strength to rise. But the cavern shuddered with more force than before. Rocks tumbled from above as Liwei dragged me to my feet, my muscles straining as we raced toward the entrance. A chunk of stone struck my back, knocking me to the ground. Clouds of dust descended as the ceiling fractured, crashing down—just as Liwei summoned a gale that flung us through the opening, the cave collapsing behind us with a deafening roar.
The hard ground offered scant relief to my battered body. I could not move, lying in the dirt as though pinned down. One ragged breath, and then another slipped from my lungs. Liwei’s eyes were open, gazing into mine. As the color returned to his face, my fear receded. He reached out to me then, his palm cupping my cheek, wet with tears that had fallen unnoticed.