The Emperor's Riddle by Kat Zhang

Author:Kat Zhang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

14

THEY DIDN’T STAY MUCH LONGER at Sanfang Qixiang after that. Between the rain and the new, crackly, thunderclap tension between Mia and Jake, there wasn’t much fun left in it. Their mom wasn’t in the best of moods either. She’d been left alone at the table for twenty minutes with plates of rapidly cooling dumplings.

“I don’t know what got into you two.” She sighed as they waited for the bus to take them home.

Neither Mia nor Jake replied.

The rain got harder as the afternoon wore on, crashing onto the city in waves of water. Mia holed up in Aunt Lin’s room, trying to read one of the books she’d brought, and wishing that the rain would stop so she could go outside. That Jake would come and apologize for being an idiot and not believing her.

That her aunt had never disappeared.

Just before sunset, one of three of her wishes came true: The rain slowed to a sprinkle, then dwindled away entirely. Mia looked up hopefully when Jake knocked at her door, but he didn’t look her in the eye, and only said, “Come on, Mom wants us to pick up some stuff for dinner before it gets dark.”

The two of them were quiet as they headed down the stairs. Outside, the sunlight had turned golden, the air cooled by the afternoon showers. Mia was lost in her thoughts, sidestepping puddles, and didn’t notice Jake wandering away from her until he was on the other side of the parking lot.

He edged up to the fence surrounding the basketball court. On the other side, a group of boys—high school age, maybe a little older than him—ran a big, spongy roller across the court, trying to soak up the rainwater.

Mia came up behind him, was about to tell him they needed to go, when one of the other boys caught sight of them.

“Hey,” he said. “Do you play?”

Jake gave him an easy grin. The one that made him everyone’s friend in two seconds flat. “Sure,” he said. “Are you looking for someone to join you guys?”

The older boy called back to his friends, and before Mia knew it, Jake had jogged onto the damp court—was laughing and chatting with the other boys. She herself might as well have been a ghost on the other side of the fence. Or perhaps just part of the scenery.

When Jake finally remembered that she existed, he only said, “Can you go on without me? You know where the store is, right?”

Mia nodded. She tried to say something—what, she wasn’t sure. Something. But it didn’t matter what it was, because Jake never gave her the chance. He turned back to the other boys, and they closed themselves off to her, lit by the tall lights of the basketball court.

She waited a few seconds longer, as if Jake might change his mind. Then she slunk off alone down the street.

* * *

By the time she returned from the store, swinging a bag of groceries, the basketball game was underway.

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