Page 12 of Between Ghosts and Gods

Ruo shrugged and flicked an ear.

While they had been inside the Sage’s house, the streets had changed again. It took a moment for Kasu to get her bearings and begin the trudge back to Camellia House. She held the mask against her chest the entire way, her fingers digging into the edges. Oh gods, what had she done? She had set fire to a demon’s home. Worse, she had stolen the aura mask.

No, it was not theft if she planned to give it back. She was just … borrowing it for a bit. It was for the greater good. Surely the gods would understand that.

Soon, she and Ruo reached the shadow forest. Kasu hoped that Arun would be grateful for everything she had done to get the damned mask.

She was busy imagining the look on his face when she heard a scream.

Arun’s scream.

Chapter Eight Kasu

The moment she heard him, Kasu launched into a run, heading straight for the source of the sound. She found Arun in the middle of the forest, hanging from a large branch by his ankles. He gripped his sword in one hand and was waving it about in an attempt to cut himself down, but all he’d managed to do was look a bit like a flailing chicken about to be butchered.

Kasu glanced at the vine binding Arun’s ankle to the branch. On closer inspection, she noticed the tip squirm and poke at the toe of Arun’s boot as if searching for a way in.

A vine snake. The mindless monsters dwelled exclusively in the shadow forest, laying traps for unsuspecting passers-by. Using their long, rope-like bodies, they would create snares that, if stepped on, would tighten around the victim’s ankles and yank them off the ground into a nearby tree.

Once swinging in the air, the razor-tipped branches of the forest would skewer the victim, leaving a fresh corpse for the vine snake to devour at leisure. Arun had only managed to avoid such a grisly fate by severing the branches near him as he swung about.

“Are you just going to stare or are you planning on helping me?” he shrieked as he tried, and once again failed, to cut himself free.

At the sight of his struggle, Ruo burst into fits of hooting laughter. Arun’s face burned a bright red. He swung his sword with renewed vigour, though he still could not reach the vine snake at his ankle.

“Terrible aim, teeeerrible aim,” the faces on the trees murmured sleepily.

“How sad, how sad, how sad.”

“Pathetic.”

“Which one of you said that? Speak up so I can turn you into firewood!” Arun roared.

Kasu stared at him, unimpressed.

“Well?” He turned his outrage on her. “Are you going to help or not?”

Holding back a sigh, Kasu marched towards the trunk. “Hold still and stop picking fights with the trees.”

Using the faces that protruded from the bark as footholds, she ignored their indignant protests and climbed until she was level with the right branch and shimmied along. Vine snakes were weak things that had to trap and trick their prey. As Kasu expected, as soon as she approached, this one fled, darting down the tree trunk and disappearing behind some roots. She lunged forward to catch Arun before he could fall, but even as her hand wrapped around his ankle, she lost her grip on the branch and slipped off.

She landed with a grunt right on top of the human.

Her hand was trapped between her body and the hard planes of muscle that made up Arun’s chest. The drumbeat of his heart pounded against her fingertips.

Before she had a chance to collect herself, he pushed her off.

“You’re awfully heavy for a ghost.” He glared at the ground, his cheeks the faintest red.

Kasu’s nostrils flared as she stumbled to her feet. Her hand tingled where she had accidentally touched him, but she shoved it into the pocket of her dress and refused to think of it. This was the second time she had saved him, now. A little thanks wouldn’t have gone amiss. Perhaps he didn’t because he was a prince, and princes never thought about thanking anyone, the ungrateful leeches.

“I thought ghosts would be more, you know … floaty,” Arun remarked.

“Well, you must not know much about the ghosts of the under-realm.” Kasu sniffed, her indignation straining against the bars of politeness. “I thought I told you to wait for me.”

At least Arun had the decency to appear remorseful. “I didn’t think you were telling the truth,” he said quietly.

Kasu shoved the aura mask against his chest. “Here. With this, you’ll be able to walk among the ghosts and demons of the under-realm without anyone discovering your true identity.”