Page 17 of Jade Lion and the Witch Boy (Haunted Hearts: Season of the Witch #5)

LUTHER AND I power-walk to keep up with Kai. It’s like he’s entranced by the potential to go back to Hong Kong. I get the need, since that’s where he grew up, but it’s like he’s being pulled.

“If you’d like to use the portal, I suppose I could let you,” Luther says.

Kai doesn’t respond as he makes his way toward the huge arch. It’s black stone, like the portal to Cosmo, but the lights of magic running through it are green.

Well, they were green, and now that the wizard who was using it is gone, the guard has powered it down.

Kai stops when the portal disappears, and he gazes at the archway. When he looks back at me, he seems shaken. “Sebastian, will you…come with me?”

I gulp. The vulnerability in his dark eyes is undeniable. I’d go to the ends of the Earth for you, Kai. “Yes, if that’s what you want. I can take an impromptu trip to Hong Kong.”

“Well, let me just…” Luther is completely ignored as Kai reaches the left base of the arch. His palm shines with emerald arcana, and, in seconds, the portal is back open. “Oh, okay, you’re just, um…turning it on yourself…alright.”

I exchange a surprised look with Luther before Kai tugs my hand forward. In a few short steps, the Union building is gone, and I’m outside in a thicket of trees.

The archway appears to be housed in an abandoned temple of sorts.

Green hills surround us on all sides, and this forest clearing is so quiet.

The sun is rising in the distance, confirming that yes, we’re back in Hong Kong.

“This is so much easier than going through customs. International travel, no security checks, I love it!” I remark.

“Um, do you want me to accompany you?” Luther asks. The portal powers down behind us, and I wait for Kai to reply. Instead, he gazes upward at the azure sky.

“If I pull up a map, I can take you to where I found your statue,” I say.

“Statue?” Luther murmurs.

Kai turns back to Luther and says, “Give us privacy, please.” Then, he begins marching forward, taking my hand. “This way.”

I give Luther one last apologetic look before being tugged away. I might not like wizards, but Luther must be as confused as I am. What is going on with Kai? I’m concerned for the man, though admittedly, I enjoy having his hand in mine.

The two of us walk ten minutes through the forested hills on dirt trails.

Even if it were midday, I doubt many people would come here.

The urban center of Hong Kong is nowhere near us, so none of this landscape is familiar.

But judging by Kai’s look of fear and hope, he’s latching onto familiarity.

I only pray the memories he unlocks won’t break his heart.

He pauses when we get to a cliff and looks upward. It must be at least twenty feet high. “I think I saw a stone staircase back there,” I mention.

Kai shakes his head and raises his hands out. When they glow, I know what he’s about to do. Arcana gently flows out of his wrists and down to the ground.

“Woah!” I say as my clothes start to move upward.

Green wisps surround me, and the gravity below feels weaker.

My whole body is being gently propelled upward.

Kai’s magic is moving me up, and he isn’t even looking down at me.

While I knew the Jade Lion could do a levitation spell, I didn’t expect him to take me along for the ride.

After a few seconds of feeling like a helium balloon, I gently land on the ledge above. My feet touch the ground, and I’m grateful to be back to my regular weight.

“Warn a guy next time,” I say with a grin. Kai doesn’t respond; he’s frozen a few feet in front of me. I move next to him and gaze out at the thicket of trees, casting shadows all around us.

“This…is where it happened,” Kai says in almost a whisper.

“What?”

Kai takes in a sharp breath and closes his eyes. “This…is where I was bound.”

My eyebrows jump. I look around; nothing about this area screams magical torture chamber. The ground appears to have once had stone tiling, but many old forests have remnants of former structures. There could have been a building here.

Kai waves his hand, and green arcana floats about.

“This area once looked like this.” With his words, Kai makes a circle with his hands.

In moments, the emerald energy shapes into an illusion of columns and pillars towering above us.

The ground resembles a round platform with runes etched into a magical circle.

My pulse races when I realize the gravity of it all.

“This is where…?”

“Yes.” Kai turns to me with moisture in his eyes. “This is where my coven of wizards cast the spell that forced me into my lion form. At the same time, I was bound into that statue, my imprisonment.”

My breath stops at his confession. He was tortured and trapped by his own coven?

I don’t have time to process any of it before Kai drops to his knees. He heaves, like he’s holding back a century’s worth of heartbreak. “I remember everything now,” he says in a voice laced with pain. “They…betrayed me.”

“Kai…”

“Everyone I cared about…” His shoulders slump, and his sob rings out amongst the trees. “They tore my life from me.”

“Hey, hey.” I quickly get on my knees in front of him.

It’s an instinct, as always, to protect Kai, even from himself.

There’s nothing to think about. Like a magnet left too far from its pairing, I grasp him as he cries.

I rub his back, needing him to feel my presence, my heart, and how much I care for him.

“Hey, you’re safe, Kai. I swear, you’re safe. ”

When he sobs again, he leans his head on my shoulder, and I rub his scalp. In that moment, all of the arcana dissipates, and we’re back to the darkness of the forest

“Please…please don’t let that happen to me again, Sebastian,” he says through sobs.

I bring his face to mine and place my forehead on his.

“Never,” I say in a broken voice. “You won’t ever go through that ever again.

” A tear rolls down my face as I continue to run my fingers all over the back of his head and neck.

“You’re here, I’m here. You have me, I swear.

I won’t let anything bad happen to you, Kai. I promise you, I will protect you.”

He nods, and I lean his head onto my shoulder. I rub his scalp while I let him cry, my own tears burning my cheeks.

I got Kai his memories back, and damn, do I regret it.

But in that moment, on my knees, in the dirt of Hong Kong, I swear that I will spend the rest of my days doing right by Kai Zhou. He’ll never hurt again. I’ll be his guardian angel. Because he deserves so much, and I would give him the world.

Fifteen minutes later, Kai says nothing as we walk back to the portal. Upon arrival, Luther looks bored as he fiddles on his phone. The wizard perks up when he sees us.

“You good?” he asks with a smile.

I don’t even know how to answer that, but I don’t get a chance. With more force than necessary, Kai casts magic to the base of the archway, turning on the portal. Taking my hand, he once again pulls me through.

Everything looks the same as when we left the Union an hour ago.

It’s a busy hub of wizards in the queue to get their geo arcanum, with many folks walking to other portals.

Kai drags me along toward the archway several meters to our right.

It’s not open, and a guard stands sentinel, but it’s definitely the way back to Cosmo, Virginia.

“So, did you find what you were looking for?” Luther asks as he huffs. He’s almost running to keep up with me and a very determined Kai. The dude is blissfully unaware of the pain in Kai’s soul right now.

Kai ignores him and the guard as he once again turns the portal on with a flick of his wrist. I feel like he shouldn’t be using his powers so openly in front of all these strangers, but I’m not about to chastise the Jade Lion right now.

Most importantly, my friend is in pain. And I want us to be alone to help him unpack all his traumatic memories.

I barely have time to make eye contact with Luther before Kai is guiding me through the portal. We walk through and arrive at the furnished basement where we started our journey. Kai doesn’t wait when Luther walks through behind us, shutting the portal down.

“Um, so we’d love to have you visit again. Maybe you can meet our High Council.” Luther tries to keep up, but Kai is nearly vibrating with anxiety. He’s dashing to get out of the house, and I know I need to drive him home, or anywhere else, ASAP.

He’s not in a good headspace.

We reach the front doors on the main floor with Luther hot on our heels. “I hope your visit to Hong Kong was nice,” he says. Really, he can’t read the magical room? “And if you join the Union, you have full—”

“Your Union of wizards, you mean?” Kai says with disdain.

Luther and I are stunned as Kai abruptly stops and spins around. His fists are flexing, and he’s scowling at Luther. Even I’m afraid, and I’m not the target of his ire.

“Um, well, yes.” Luther gulps.

“Do you want to know what happened the last time I was in Hong Kong, my home?” Kai asks, his voice laced with barely-contained rage.

Luther exchanges a fearful look with me, then turns back to Kai. He nods and says, “Okay?”

“I was bound into imprisonment. In 1925, my very own coven of wizards stripped me of my freedom and made me disappear.” He steps toward Luther and continues, “Would you like to know why a group of wizards took away my life?”

Luther steps back, and I can’t even breathe. I’m shocked, hanging on his every word.

“It is because I dared to speak out.” Kai points a finger at Luther.

“I wanted to unite all mages, including witches, into one benevolent coven worldwide. I sought to share my powers as the Jade Lion in an equitable manner. I did not want exclusion, I wanted progress, a fair and just coven of wizards and witches. But your people did not want me sharing my power and knowledge.”

My eyebrows rise, and I don’t think Luther is even breathing. That’s why they stripped Kai of his life? Luther shakes his head and murmurs, “Wha…what?”

“Did I stutter?” Kai asks with a growl. He steps close to Luther’s face and says, “Wizards. Betrayed. Me.” I’m frozen in fear, genuinely afraid Kai is going to go full lion and hurt Luther, but after a tense few moments, he steps back.

“I do not wish to be part of a community that treats witches as second-class. I am neither witch nor wizard, and I will protect this world with the coven I have.” With that, Kai strides out the door, leaving a deafening silence in his wake.

It takes me almost ten seconds before I can slowly move to the door myself. The air is tense as I glance back at Luther one last time.

The wizard scratches his eyebrow and looks away, visibly shaken by that interaction. “I…didn’t know. The wizard history books said his disappearance was a mystery.”

I look down and choose my next words carefully. “History books are rarely written from the perspective of marginalized folks. And in this case, it’s me and my fellow witches.” With that, I close the door and head out of the mansion.