Chapter 7: Leap of Faith

Five hundred years ago, Aubrey was a fox demon with her core ripped out.

And I, Lillian, was a powerless human, wandering the wilds.

But after popping healing pills for five centuries and soaking up the Celestial Court’s energy for another five,

Aubrey’s core hadn’t regrown, but her powers had skyrocketed.

And when I was Caleb’s blood donor, I discovered something weird: as he drank my blood, I was quietly absorbing his energy.

Now, I’m not the same human I was.

We already have the strength to cross the nine heavens and head back to the mortal world.

It’s just that the crown prince and Caleb always looked down on us, so they never noticed.

Before leaving, we decided to take one last look at our so-called “boyfriends.”

We searched all over the Celestial Court and, sure enough, ended up together again.

Because the crown prince and the General were together too.

They were drinking tea and laughing with Rachel Quinn.

In five hundred years, I’d never seen Caleb smile.

So he just never smiled at me, that’s all.

Crown prince Derek was smiling too, even hinting that his mom, the Empress, liked Rachel Quinn.

An immortal girl came to pour tea. When she handed over a cup, all three reached for it at once.

The two guys touched Rachel Quinn’s hand and jerked back like they’d been zapped.

The awkward tension was off the charts.

Wow, this is like a daytime soap.

Both have side girlfriends and mistresses, but act like innocent boys.

Aubrey shot me a look: "Enough, this is gross. Let’s go."

I stopped her, "Wait."

Then stepped out, voice trembling with tears: "Caleb… what are you doing?"

Aubrey instantly caught on and ran over, crying too:

"Your Highness, I know you don’t love me. If you want to marry someone else, I’ll leave and never bother you again."

The crown prince snapped, "Aubrey, have I spoiled you too much?!"

Caleb frowned, "Lillian, you’re a mistress. Why can’t you remember your place?!"

We tottered like fragile flowers in a hurricane, back and forth.

"Fine, if that’s how it is, we’ll just go die!"

We each ran off, sobbing.

Behind us, Rachel Quinn sneered:

"Aren’t you two going to chase after them? Must be tough pretending to be so delicate."

Aubrey and I barely kept straight faces as we scurried off. We’d watched enough reality TV to know the importance of a dramatic exit.

Of course, the two guys didn’t chase after us. We calmly walked toward the Gate of No Return under the watchful eyes of all the immortal girls.

The Gate leads straight to the mortal world.

Five hundred years ago, if we’d jumped, we’d have been splattered, not even our bones left.

One immortal girl sneered:

"Look at those two, playing the victim. They must be jealous of how well the crown prince and General treat Rachel Quinn, so they’re faking a suicide."

The laughter of the immortal girls turned to shrieks the moment we jumped hand in hand.

Hand in hand, we leapt—no takebacks, no second thoughts. The wind howled around us like the world itself was trying to hold us back.

......

What happened in the Celestial Court after that, we have no idea. No one came looking for us, anyway.

Maybe they really thought we were dead, or maybe they just didn’t care.

Before we landed here, Aubrey and I were both overachievers.

We studied up to eighth grade before the foster home director said there was no more money, so we went out to work.

Each of us worked three jobs at once.

We scrubbed dishes at the local diner, stocked shelves at the 24-hour drugstore, and did yard work for the neighbors—whatever kept the lights on and our stomachs full.

By the time we crossed over at age 21, we’d saved up about a hundred thousand dollars between us.

In our small Ohio town, fifty grand could buy a decent two-bedroom apartment.

But the day we went apartment hunting with our debit cards, we landed here.

Luckily, we’re adaptable. Not only did we fake our way through five centuries in the Celestial Court, we even managed to escape alive.

But this world is still crawling with monsters and demons, and we weren’t sure we could survive in the mortal world on our own.

So the moment we arrived, we found a hidden spot deep in the mountains and went off the grid.

We built ourselves a little cabin out of scavenged wood, learned to fish, trap, and fight off anything that wandered too close. It was like a twisted summer camp for two, but we made it work. Sometimes we’d roast marshmallows over the campfire, pretending we were back at a Girl Scout retreat instead of hiding from immortals.

Just like that, two thousand years flew by in a flash.

Sometimes we’d go out for a year or two to travel, but most of the time, we trained like crazy.

Maybe it was our method, maybe our luck, but our progress was off the charts.

On the exact two-thousandth year, I suddenly shivered, like a dozen streams of pure energy poured into my bones.

The cold made me tremble, frost forming on my lashes and brows.

At the same time, I heard Aubrey cry out in pain in the next cave.

But my whole body was frozen, unable to move.

I started to panic, worried I’d go nuts, but the extreme cold gradually faded, replaced by a gentle warmth.

Soon I could move again. Not wasting a second, I rushed to the next cave.

Aubrey was lying on the ground. When she heard me, she looked up.

Her deep purple eyes were full of disbelief:

"Lillian… I think my core just came back."

She squinted at me from head to toe.

"Lillian, you… you’ve got immortal bones?"

Immortal bones are usually something you’re born with—almost impossible to get later.

I was born with plain old human bones, which is why Caleb always called me useless.

But now…

I looked down. My immortal bones glowed with a natural, icy blue light.

Before I could process this, thunder and lightning suddenly struck outside the cave. A thick bolt of deep purple fire nearly split the whole mountain in two.

I was stunned. "What the—?"

"It’s the ascension trial!" Aubrey was shocked too.

We’d read about it in every fantasy book we could get our hands on at the local library—but living it was another story.