Rowan → Ethan Nakamura ✔

Belong

"Shut it, lady," Ethan hissed, taking a step forward. "It's none of your business."

The statue glared. "Be glad you are Greek, boy, for you would not have received such lenient treatment had you come to Diyu."

Nico raised his sword, his eyes narrowed. "You animated the statues."

"Seeing as I'm in one myself, hardly much of a logical leap." She sneered. As she talked, the statue's mouth followed the movements her lips would have made a second late, disorienting and uncanny. "Put your stupid little stick down, boy, or I'll leave this body and return to my duties in the Tenth Court."

"You're not going to attack us?" Billie asked skeptically.

"Please," The old woman scoffed. "Even if I won, Ma Wu Yue is relentless. She would just come to Diyu to face me herself, and nobody wants that kind of trouble down here."

It was a backhanded compliment, but it was still the last thing Rowan had expected the old woman to say. So, she held her Guandao over Nico's sword. Although he got the message and reluctantly lowered it, Nico kept it drawn. Good. Rowan had no intentions of retracting her own weapon either. She turned to the statue.

"Lady Meng, do you know what we're here for?"

She snorted – an ugly, throaty sound. "Hard not to when you've been parading your intentions to anyone who will listen."

"You made the statues attack us," Rowan said coolly. "You don't want to help me?"

"Nobody likes undoing their hard work, and I did a fine job." Lady Meng sniffed. "Your kind aren't easy to deal with, you know."

Rowan gripped her Guandao, her knuckles whitening. "So you did steal my memories."

"It's what I do best," Lady Meng said proudly. Then the statue looked about itself and saw the remains of its army. Its mouth formed a scowl. "Good paper burnt for nobody – what a waste."

"Funeral tradition," Billie muttered to Will. She had stepped up to the task of being an encyclopedia for as far as her knowledge went. "We burn paper in the shape of money, houses and clothes so the dead can use them in the afterlife."

"Why did you take them?" Rowan asked, voice deathly calm. "What happened when I fought the Monkey King's mogwai?"

"Find out for yourself."

Glowing blue dust gathered in the statue's hands. Then the palm-sized whirlpools dispersed, revealing a thin wooden walking stick in the statue's left hand and a brown bowl in its right. Blue steam swirled, dancing above the surface of the bowl's contents.

"Memory soup," Ethan said sarcastically. "Great. Go chug it, Ro."

"Would it kill you to not be a jerk for one whole minute?" Rowan snapped.

"I'll save you the trouble of bringing me back a second time."

"Good, because I'm starting to think doing it the first place was a mistake."

"Ma Wu Yue!"

Lady Meng's shrill bark made them all jump. Rowan saw that cracks had appeared on the statue's face, spreading across its cheeks like spiderwebs.

"Unless you would like to remain an amnesia patient, I suggest you hurry." Lady Meng said, tone sharp enough to cut the paper she was hosting. "This statue can only hold my presence for so long. Once I am gone, I will not return."

Rowan didn't need further prompting – she retracted her Guandao and took the bowl from the statue's hand. It was heavy, and she had to lift it with both hands, sloshing the phantom blue liquid around as she did so. Rowan peered into the bottom of the bowl; it seemed deeper than should be possible.