and he doesn’t want to become that person because he knows something—something you won’t tell me. We can’t do this to him.” Rin’s voice trembled. “We have to turn back.”
“No.” Daji violently shook her head. Her eyes glinted in the moonlight; with her disheveled hair and her hungry, desperate expression, she looked nearly as mad as Jiang. “There is no turning back. I’ve waited too long for this.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you want.”
“You don’t understand. I’ve had to watch him all these years, had to keep him confined to Sinegard knowing full well that I’d reduced him to a dithering idiot.” Daji’s voice trembled. “I took his mind from him. Now he has a chance to get it back. And I can’t take that from him. Not even if he’s happier like this.”
“But you can’t,” Rin said. “He’s so scared.”
“It doesn’t matter what this Jiang thinks. This Jiang isn’t real. The real Jiang needs to come back.” Daji looked like she was on the verge of tears. “I need him back.”
Then Rin saw the tears glistening on Daji’s cheeks. Daji, the Vipress, the former Empress of Nikan, was crying. The Vipress was fucking crying.
Rin was too upset for sympathy. No. No, Daji didn’t get to do this, didn’t get to stand here and whimper like she was innocent in the horrifying mental collapse they were witnessing, when Daji was the entire reason why Jiang was broken.
“Then you shouldn’t have Sealed him,” Rin said.
“You think I couldn’t feel what I’d done?” Daji’s eyes were red around the rims. “We are linked. You know what that’s like. I felt his confusion. I felt how lost he was, I felt him probing at the corners of his mind for something he didn’t know he’d lost, acutely so because I knew what he didn’t have access to.”
“Then why did you have to do it?” Rin asked miserably.
What was so terrible, so earth-wrenchingly terrible, that Daji would risk her own life and fracture Jiang’s soul to stop it?
They quarreled, Daji had once told her.
Over what?
Daji just shook her head. Her pale neck bobbed. “Never ask me this.”
“I have a right to know.”
“You have a right to nothing,” Daji said coldly. “They fought. I stopped them. That’s all there is—”
“Bullshit.” Rin’s voice rose as the flame grew, stretching dangerously, threateningly close to Daji’s skin. “There’s more, there’s something you’re not telling me, I deserve to know—”
“Runin.”
Daji’s eyes glinted a snakelike yellow. Rin’s limbs locked suddenly into place. She couldn’t wrench her gaze from Daji’s face. She understood immediately that this was a challenge—a battle of divine wills.
Do you dare?
Once Rin might have fought. She could have forced Daji into submission; she’d done it before. But she was so exhausted, stretched thin from day after day of pulling the Phoenix through Kitay’s aching mind. She couldn’t summon rage after what she’d just seen. She felt like a thin shard of frost, one touch from shattering apart.
Rin pulled her flame back into her hand.
Daji’s pupils turned back to their normal, lovely black. Rin sagged, released from their grip.
“If I were you, I would stop worrying.” Daji had stopped crying; the red around her eyes had faded away. Gone, too, was the fragile hitch in her voice, replaced by a cool, detached confidence. “Jiang’s episodes will get worse. But he will not die. He cannot die—you can trust me on that. But the more you try to prod into his mind, try to retrieve whatever you think you’ve lost, the more you’ll torture yourself. Let go of the man you remember. You’re never going to get him back.”
They returned together to Jiang’s tent. Rin sat down next to where Jiang lay and watched him, her heart twisting with pity. He looked so miserable, even in dreamless, morphine-induced sleep. His features were pressed into a worried frown, his fingers clenching his blankets as if he were hanging on to the edge of a cliff.
This wasn’t the last time she’d see him suffer like this, she realized. He was going to get worse and worse the closer they got to the mountain. He’d deteriorate until he finally snapped, and a victor emerged between the personalities battling in his mind.
Could she do this to him?
It would be easier if the Jiang who had been Sealed were truly derivative, if he were truly a pale shade of the other, genuine personality. But the Jiang she’d known at Sinegard was a full person in his own right, a person with wants and
<<Previous page The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 1 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 2 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 3 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 4 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 5 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 6 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 7 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 8 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 9 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 10 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 11 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 12 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 13 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 14 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 15 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 16 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 17 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 18 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 19 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 20 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 21 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 22 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 23 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 24 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 25 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 26 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 27 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 28 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 29 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 30 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 31 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 32 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 33 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 34 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 35 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 36 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 37 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 38 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 39 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 40 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 41 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 42 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 43 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 44 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 45 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 46 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 47 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 48 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 49 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 50 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 51 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 52 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 53 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 54 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 55 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 56 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 57 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 58 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 59 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 60 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 61 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 62 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 63 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 64 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 65 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 66 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 67 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 68 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 69 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 70 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 71 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 72 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 73 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 74 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 75 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 76 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 77 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 78 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 79 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 80 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 81 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 82 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 83 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 84 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 85 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 86 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 87 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 88 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 89 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 90 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 91 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 92 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 93 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 94 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 95 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 96 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 97 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 98 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 99 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 100 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 101 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 102 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 103 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 104 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 105 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 106 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 107 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 108 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 109 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 110 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 111 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 112 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 113 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 114 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 115 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 116 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 117 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 118 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 119 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 120 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 121 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 122 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 123 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 124 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 125 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 126 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 127 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 128 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 129 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 130 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 131 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 132 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 133 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 134 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 135 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 136 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 137 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 138 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 139 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 140 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 141 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 142 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 143 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 144 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 145 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 146 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 147 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 148 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 149 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 150 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 151 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 152 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 153 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 154 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 155 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 156 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 157 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 158 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 159 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 160 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 161 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 162 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 163 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 164 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 165 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 166 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 167 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 168 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 169 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 170 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 171 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 172 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 173 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 174 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 175 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 176 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 177 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 178 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 179 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 180 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 181 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 182 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 183 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 184 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 185 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 186 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 187 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 188 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 189 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 190 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 191 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 192 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 193 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 194 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 195 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 196 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 197 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 198 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 199 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 200 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 201 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 202 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 203 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 204 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 205 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 206 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 207 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 208 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 209 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 210 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 211 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 212 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 213 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 214 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 215 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 216 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 217 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 218 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 219 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 220 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 221 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 222 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 223 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 224 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 225 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 226 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 227 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 228 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 229 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 230 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 231 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 232 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 233 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 234 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 235 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 236 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 237 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 238 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 239 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 240 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 241 The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) - R.F. Kuang - Page 242
Next page>>