Chapter Text
The door clicked shut, and the room fell silent. Derpy lifted his enormous head from behind the bed, curiously observing the space Mira had occupied just moments before. Both his large eyes and Sussie’s six, perched atop his head, gazed uneasily at the half-demon standing in the middle of what she had once considered her sanctuary.
Rumi could only hear noise. Noise, noise, noise, a high-pitched ringing in her ears that wouldn’t stop, that grew louder and louder with every passing second.
“Celine, do hunters kill all demons?”
“Yes.”
Her chest tightened; her lungs weren’t getting enough oxygen for her to breathe, to exist. Her hands clenched the fabric of her hoodie into fists.
“So everything that has patterns…?”
She has them, she had them, she will always have them. Purple roots in her skin, a physical representation of the poison that ran through her veins.
“When the Honmoon is sealed, all the demons will be gone from this world, and so will your—”
And so will you.
Lies, lies, it was all lies. She had always lived surrounded by lies, she had lived a lie, she was living a lie. She had always told lies, she didn’t know what else to do.
“Whole life spreading lies,” came out of her like a strangled whisper.
More fuel for the wildfire growing in her head.
“So these will be go—”
So I will be gone?
Her hands loosened their death grip on her hoodie and moved up to her ears, covering them in an attempt to ward off the voices—no, her own voice—that whispered in her head.
It was useless. A futile attempt.
“Yes, those will be—”
Yes, you will be gone.
She squeezed her eyes shut and clutched her head desperately. A strangled scream escaped her lips, and she fell to her knees as something sharp dug into her scalp. She loosened her grip and felt a dampness at her fingertips—no, claws. Her head burned, throbbing with her racing heart, blood mingling with her purple locks, and a couple of red rivulets trickled down her forehead.
Even with those sensations overwhelming her, she never opened her eyes.
“So sweet, so easy on the eyes, but hideous on the inside.”
That’s all she was in the end, wasn’t it? A pretty face, the supposed K-pop idol princess, but at the core of her soul, in the deepest part of her being, behind that Ryu Rumi mask, she was nothing more than a faceless abomination. Human and demon, not one of the two, but something that shouldn’t exist.
A mistake.
“I can’t wait until every one of them is destroyed and send them back to suffer with Gwi-Ma for eternity.”
The question was: would she die? Would she be sent to suffer for the rest of eternity alongside all the other demons? No, she didn’t disintegrate into magenta dust when she was wounded. No, no… She bled.
She was bleeding. She felt a warmth spread across her forehead, pausing at her right eyebrow and gliding around her eye. Sharp claws ripped through the hoodie she was wearing as a bestial growl grew in her throat. Pieces of fabric flew around her, and her arms were exposed to the world.
Her arms… Covered in purple patterns right down to the tips of her fingers claws.
A mistake. Something done wrong.
“A demon with no feelings don’t deserve to live, it’s so obvious.”
It was obvious, wasn’t it? She was just an empty shell, something taught to walk and follow orders, nothing more. What were her desires? Did she even have any? Oh, right… To seal the Honmoon, turn it golden, and then she finally—
A tingling sensation ran through her biceps. Her hands, when had her hands moved to her arms? Red? No, that wasn’t right, she should see purple. The patterns aren't red, they're purple, just like disease, just like Gwi-Ma’s fire, just like her own hair.
A mistake. Something done wrong. The existence of a being like her was inconceivable.
That, she realized in that instant, was what she had been since the day she was born.
Not a person, not a demon.
A miserable mistake.
“Our faults and fears must never be seen.”
A guttural growl escaped her throat, and she tasted a distinct metallic taste on her tongue. Her lips and gums ached, as did her muscles, her head, her left eye, her chest—her whole damned body screamed, wept, cursed, roared, begged, yearned—
“I see your real face and it’s ugly as sin.”
Her claws dug into the wooden floor. Red, she saw red everywhere. Gods, why was there so much red? On the floor, on her hands, on the torn pieces of clothing, in her mouth, on her face, on her arms, everywhere.
“You’re rotten within.”
Rotten to the core, to the tiniest of her nerves. Rotten, rotten, rotten.
Mistake…
Monster.
Demon.
Abomination.
Mistake.
Hunter.
Human.
Mistake—
Rumi.
MISTAKE
And then she roared, and the world around her trembled.
“How did it go?” Zoey greeted her with a question when Mira entered the younger girl’s room.
“Hm, not great,” Mira said, taking a few steps inside and kicking the door shut behind her. “She says she’s not keeping anything from me— from us— but I still can’t shake the feeling that she’s hiding something.”
“Something… wrong?”
Mira sighed and crossed her arms. “I don’t know. Something— just something.”
“Well, maybe she doesn’t feel ready to tell us whatever is going on with her…”
It came out more as a question than a statement.
“But when will she be ready, Zoey?” Mira blurted out, pacing back and forth in front of the bed where Zoey was sitting. “The Idol Awards are coming up, and she’s having doubts about Takedown. It doesn’t make any sense. Why now? Why with this song? Rumi has never done anything like this before.”
Zoey frowned. Something in her heart twisted uncomfortably. “Is she… having doubts about our song?”
“I heard her going over the lyrics before going into her room. There was a sheet of paper where she had written them, and I saw that she had crossed out several verses,” she sighed, and then, in a low voice, “Nothing makes sense.”
Mira’s voice faded into white noise for Zoey as her thoughts began to take on a life of their own against her will. Were her lyrics wrong? Weren’t they enough? Why would Rumi want to change anything when the song was almost finished? The instrumental was ready, the backing vocals too, her parts and Mira's were recorded. Everything was ready to go to post-production to smooth out the rough edges and polish the final touches.
All that was missing was Rumi’s voice.
Although Rumi still couldn’t sing all her verses. Whenever she tried, something seemed to stop her.
Maybe it had something to do with the song itself? With what it meant? It was certainly very different from what they’d been singing since their debut; their first diss track. It wasn’t something like How It’s Done or Golden, but its complete opposite, where verses about hopes and dreams turned into well-camouflaged threats and insults that only a few would understand.
Now that Zoey thought about it, maybe that was it? Maybe that was the reason for Rumi’s strange behavior?
Zoey desperately hoped that was the reason.
“We have to admit it, Mira, that song is… hatred. It’s not what we usually write. It’s not—,” she stopped as a sudden thought crossed her mind, a thought she materialized by saying softly, “It’s not something that will unite the fans.”
Mira stopped and turned to Zoey, frowning. “What?”
“Think about it,” Zoey jumped out of bed and began pacing the room. “Yeah, okay, it’s a song against the Saja Boys, against demons in general, against everything we were taught to hate. See?! Hate. It’s a hate-filled song.” She stopped to turn fully toward Mira. “And hate doesn’t unite the masses.” She took a few cautious steps toward her bandmate. “Our songs shouldn’t be based on hate, Mira. We write them specifically to unite the souls and hearts of our fans with our music. Now imagine what they would think when they heard something like Takedown…”
Mira’s frown weakened with each point Zoey made until it disappeared completely, replaced by an insecure, uncertain look, and her eyes fixed on the ground between her and Zoey.
“Confusion at best?” Zoey continued. “We’d lose fans at worst, because they’d definitely think that’s not something Huntrix would do, right? And if we lose fans, the Honmoon loses strength, and if it loses strength, demons can pass through it more easily, and everyone would be in even more danger.”
Mira couldn’t refute that, because Zoey’s words carried such absolute truth that there was no point in trying to convince her otherwise.
“You’re right,” Mira conceded, glancing up at Zoey and meeting her eyes. “Maybe Takedown isn’t the most suitable song to sing at the Idol Awards.” She looked away. “Or to sing in general, I think.”
“Yeah, agree,” Zoey smiled, now more cheerful than when Mira had entered the room. “We should talk to Rumi about it, though maybe not right now considering you two just had a convo,” she chuckled softly. “But maybe tomorrow?”
Mira smiled back. “Yes, tomorrow. The sooner the bett—”
A tremor shook the room, making them stagger for a moment before they regained their balance (thanks, hunter training). A high-pitched, unnatural screech echoed in their ears as the Honmoon threads beneath their feet, on the walls, and on the ceiling rippled like a wave, the trails they left in their wake glowing red and magenta.
The pair could only stare at the threads in horror.
“What the fuck was that?! A rift opening up?!”
“No, Mira. No, not a rift! This— We felt this before, remember? This felt like—”
That’s when they heard it. Heavy footsteps against the wooden floorboards, ragged breathing, and incoherent murmurs. There, from the jumble of sounds, an animalistic growl followed by a sharp whisper:
“Mistake… You’re a mistake…”
There were thumps and a sharp screech that made both girls grimace and cover their ears. Something seemed to hit the floor, something heavy, before whatever it was appeared to get up and stumble over things in the hallway, if the distinctive sound of breaking glass was any indication.
Zoey and Mira were frozen. It wasn’t until they heard a guttural growl that traveled through their bodies like an uneasy chill that they snapped to attention and bolted out of the room. They dragged their hands along the walls as they ran, twisting the blue threads into weapons that would deal with whatever had invaded their home.
The demons had never been able to enter places sacred to the hunters; places like their homes. Those monsters had never been able to lay a claw on Celine’s estate, and the Huntrix tower was off-limits as well.
So, why was there something with patterns glowing a sickly magenta hunched over at the very end of the hallway of their rooms?
More importantly, why was it wearing ripped human clothing? Why was it gasping for air like a human struggling to breathe? Why was it growling like an animal, yet its face was streaked with tears?
Why did it wear Rumi’s face? Why did it have long purple strands in her signature braid? Why were its hands purple and full of claws?
Why was crimson staining its torso, its arms, its hands, running down its face? Why were there enormous horns breaking through the skin of its forehead? Why did one of its eyes shine like a star at its brightest point before it died?
Why did Rumi look at them with such fear?
Pure terror shining in mismatched eyes.
Wrong… It felt wrong.
Wrong in so many ways.
Their grip on their weapons loosened slightly, and their defensive stances dropped. Celine had instilled in them the danger of lowering their guard, even slightly, in front of a demon, even a low-level one.
What stood before them was not a demon, however. It couldn’t be.
Demons don’t cry.
Demons don’t bleed.
Demons don’t—
“Rumi—”
Mira tried…
“Unnie—”
Zoey too, but…
Rumi did not allow it.
“BACK AWAY!”
The demon Rumi recoiled as Zoey and Mira took a step toward her. Now more alert, the hunters noticed the violent jerking of her pale body.
Whether it was due to blood loss, the sheer fear that seemed to course through her veins, or a mixture of both, the pair weren’t sure. Nor were they comforted by the fact that, for a moment, they thought the best-case scenario would be if it was all due to blood loss.
Blood trickled from Rumi’s temples, from the wounds on her cheeks, sliding down her neck and staining the collar of the beige hoodie she wore. Though a better description would be “loose pieces of fabric,” since the hoodie and whatever she was wearing underneath were ripped to shreds, as if the claws of a large wild animal had torn them apart.
Beneath the layers of cotton, a sickly magenta glowed brightly. Sharp angles, purple roots, and magenta ran across her bare stomach, as well as biceps that were, for the most part, a crimson mess due to crescent-shaped wounds and the blood that continuously oozed from them. The tips of her hands— claws, dangerous and as sharp as a demon’s— were bathed in that same shade of red that painted her body like a macabre work of art.
It was at that moment that both Zoey and Mira noticed the copper smell that filled the place.
It wasn’t just coming from Rumi, they realized.
No… Everything…
The whole place smelled like blood.
“Rumi, please, calm down…”
Perhaps the request would have worked at another time.
“We just want to help you…”
In a different situation, the attempt to calm her down might have been effective.
“No…”
In contrast, for every step they took, Rumi took two steps back.
“No!”
The shouted rejection sent a chill down their spines as they watched Rumi violently shake her head, backing away once more.
Zoey and Mira wanted to reach out to Rumi, but their fingers were still tightly wrapped around two Shin-kal and one Gok-do.
Spiritual weapons that shone intensely, illuminating the features of Rumi’s face twisted in despair and agony. Her lips were pursed in a grimace that fully displayed her enormous fangs, larger and sharper than those of a human, protruding from her mouth and making her lips bleed where the tips of some pressed against the soft and sensitive flesh.
They just wanted to help, so they took another step—
“NO!”
The scream echoed through the penthouse, sending waves of magenta and red through the Honmoon.
A rift hadn’t opened, but perhaps something else had broken at that moment.
Because the tremor pushed Zoey and Mira back, almost making them fall, but they looked up just in time to see Rumi disappear in a cloud of reddish smoke that soon dissipated, leaving nothing behind except fresh bloodstains on the ground.
Just as Rumi had disappeared, the weapons that felt heavy in their hands gradually dissolved into particles of light that joined with the blue threads vibrating slightly on the floor like small waves.
Small waves that traveled across a floor stained red. A trail of blood that both pairs of brown eyes followed until they found its apparent source.
Hurried steps led Mira and Zoey to the doorway of Rumi’s room, whose door stood wide open, revealing the mess inside. A mess that had nothing to do with rumpled sheets or food left on the nightstand.
Marks on the floor, deep scratches in the wood. More crimson staining the floor around the marks, purple strands scattered nearby, as if someone had pulled their hair out with their hands. There was a dampness present near the bloodstains, translucent, like water, as if raindrops had fallen inside the roofed room.
Zoey gasped and covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes wide as she took in the scene before her. Mira’s breathing had become ragged and uneven, her chest rising and falling furiously—
A sudden chirping drew their attention away from the carnage. Their eyes turned to the source of the sound to find… a magpie… wearing a tiny hat… perched on the door of Zoey’s room, which had been left open when the pair ran out of it.
Mira could only frown and Zoey could only pull her hands away from her mouth before the magpie let out a squawk, opening more eyes than an animal like that should have.
“The fuck is that…?” Mira muttered under her breath, taking a step forward in front of Zoey, her taller body serving as a fleshy shield in case whatever that bird was turned out to be something dangerous.
The magpie looked at the hunters with its six yellow eyes, blinked once with each one, and hopped down, landing softly on the ground in front of them.
Mira and Zoey took a step back, but the magpie just kept staring at them, tilting its head slightly to one side before chirping once more.
“Mira, I… I don’t think it’s anything bad,” Zoey whispered, her eyes fixed on the strange creature that kept staring at them.
“It’s a six-eyed bird that appeared in our home out of nowhere, Zoey. And it has fangs. Didn’t you see them?” Mira replied through gritted teeth. “This must be related to demons. There’s no other explanation.”
“But, look, it hasn’t done anything to us.”
“Yet.”
The magpie, to their enormous surprise, seemed to sigh wearily—or was it frustration? Whatever it was, the bird’s eyes frowned and it let out one more chirp before hopping back and turning its head toward the end of the corridor.
Where Rumi had been just moments before.
The blood was still fresh, the metallic smell lingered in the air. Both were evidence of what had happened seconds, if not minutes, before.
The strange bird glanced at the pair and chirped once more, shifting its gaze between the girls and the end of the corridor several times before finally settling on Mira and Zoey, seemingly waiting for something. A reaction, perhaps?
When the magpie didn’t seem to get the reaction it expected, it stamped a foot on the floor and squawked loudly before hopping into the corridor and taking flight, landing at the end of it, turning its head toward the pair once more. It let out a sharp squawk and pecked at the floor in front of it before looking up and meeting their brown eyes with its six yellow ones.
“I think the bird wants us to go with it?” Zoey’s statement came out more as a question as she peered over Mira’s shoulder to get a better look at the magpie.
“Zoey—”
“No, Mira,” the taller girl’s growl was cut short by Zoey’s sharp retort, her eyes blazing with a fire Mira had rarely seen, let alone been the target of. “Something strange is going on, and we don’t even know where Rumi has gone. That magpie being here can’t be a coincidence.”
“But— What if it’s something demonic?”
Zoey looked away for a second, her eyebrows furrowed and biting her lip.
“Rumi looked… like a demon, remember?” Her eyes returned to Mira, this time with a more subdued fire, but still there, present. “I don’t think we can judge anything based on whether something looks demonic or not right now. I just—” Her voice broke with a small hiccup, and her next words came out weaker. “I just want to find Rumi. You saw how she looked. She…”
The flame in Zoey’s eyes was drowned out by tears that began to form in them, and her lower lip began to tremble slightly.
Tears didn’t have a chance to fall down her cheeks, as a hand gripped her wrist firmly and Zoey’s gaze met Mira's, finding a serious and determined expression on her face.
“Let’s go.”
Mira dragged Zoey with her toward the magpie still waiting for them at the end of the corridor. Zoey let Mira lead her, trying not to look for too long at the blood that stained the floor and walls of the hall.
The six-eyed bird flew to the elevator across the room and called it by pressing its beak against the only available button on the wall. The elevator must not have been called to any of the other floors while the three of them were in their penthouse, because the steel doors opened immediately. Zoey and Mira stepped inside at once, followed by the bird, which perched on Mira’s shoulder after pressing the button that would take them to the roof.
“You really got comfortable quickly, huh?” Mira murmured to the magpie as the elevator went up.
The strange bird let out a small trill that sounded pleased before smiling, almost as if it had understood the words that had been addressed to it.
Literally smiling.
“You’re weird, bird,” was Mira’s response to that strange smile.
“I didn’t know birds could smile like that,” Zoey commented with a small smile.
No further comments were exchanged on the matter and the elevator soon reached the top floor. The steel doors opened to a staircase, which led to a metal door they knew opened onto the rooftop.
The pair didn’t need any kind of guide this time. There was nowhere else to go except up there.
The fresh air of the Seoul night greeted them when they opened the door and they wasted no time in climbing the other set of metal stairs that ended on the rooftop itself.
They found her there. Not in the middle of the roof as they had expected, but standing near—
“Rumi, move away from the ledge!”
They didn’t know— weren’t sure who shouted it. Maybe it was Zoey, maybe it was Mira, or maybe it was both of them at the same time.
Whoever it was, it made Rumi— Rumi with a golden eye, horns sprouting from her forehead, fangs larger than her mouth could handle, ripped clothes, purple claws, blood covering every inch of her body, and patterns glowing that sickly magenta— look over her shoulder at them. Her chest rose and fell erratically, as if the air— despite being in the most exposed part of the tower to the outside world— wasn’t plentiful enough to fill her lungs.
“You… You weren’t supposed to see!” Rumi exclaimed as she turned completely towards them and took a shaky step back.
One step closer to the abyss.
“Rumi, wait!” Zoey called, extending a hand toward her leader, but not taking a step forward for fear of making her move back again. “Please, don’t take another step!”
“Why?!” cried Rumi. “Why shouldn’t I?! It would be so much easier!”
“What are you talking about?!” Mira interjected. “That won’t solve anything!”
“I tried everything! I tried everything and nothing worked!” Rumi shouted, her words barely understandable through all the fangs. “The golden Honmoon won’t change anything. Nothing will! Nothing will fix it! It’s all a lie!”
“What… What do you mean by that?” Zoey’s words lost the force they had moments before, now sounding more uncertain than ever. “Fix what?”
Then Rumi roared:
“ME!”
A magenta and red wave originated from Rumi and traveled across the Honmoon. From their vantage point, they could all see out of the corner of their eyes how the aftershocks reached the mountains and beyond what the human eye could see.
Zoey and Mira watched the red waves recede with each millisecond and looked up at Rumi, their expressions a mixture of uncertainty, insecurity, and fear.
“You saw it, didn’t you?!” Rumi practically spat out the words, and with them, blood. “You saw how I hurt the Honmoon! You saw how I’m destroying it just by existing!”
“The Honmoon isn’t breaking, Rumi!” Mira raised her hands in surrender. “You haven’t done anything wrong to the Honmoon!”
“Lies! All lies!”
Rumi took another step back. The edge was getting closer. One step, just one more, and she—
“Rumi, please.” Despite feeling fear coursing through her body, Zoey stepped forward, the words spilling fast. “I don’t know what’s going through your head right now, but whatever it is, we can talk about it back in our home. Maybe a hot bath and then a change of clothes? We can sit on the couch or one of the beds and talk about everything we need to! Please, Rumi,” she pleaded, holding out her hands to Rumi, palms facing upward.
There it was again.
That primal fear shining in those mismatched eyes.
That was wrong, wrong, wrong.
“Rumi, we’re not here to hurt you,” Mira lowered her hands, taking a tentative step forward. “We just want you to get down from there and come with us. Please,” she extended her hand as well, “come with us.”
Rumi began to shake her head slowly until it turned into a violent jerk where she closed her eyes tightly and squeezed her temples with her hands, claws digging into the soft skin of her face and scalp.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up! You’re lying!” She opened her eyes wide, her gaze unfocused, her eyes clouded, fixed on the blurry metal floor beneath her feet. “You’ll kill me when I let my guard down! You’ll send me to suffer for eternity like all the demons! Hunters kill demons! You’ll kill me! You’ll kill me!”
“That’s not true—”
“We would never hurt you—”
“LIARS!”
Another magenta and red wave traveled through the Honmoon, but this time Zoey and Mira were unaffected by it. Not because they were prepared for it, but because their bodies had become completely paralyzed.
Because Rumi had taken another step backwards.
Her heel had slipped on the edge of the rooftop.
And now her body was falling.
“Rumi!” This time the shout was in unison, there was no doubt about that.
She fell.
Her body started its way down.
Then something big materialized among the blue threads behind Rumi, and the next second their leader was being pushed back onto the rooftop by a huge beast.
Rumi let out a growl as her back hit the ground, her body trapped now under the weight of a huge blue tiger that let out pitiful sounds with each failed attempt by Rumi to escape her prison.
There was no coherent thought in the minds of the other two girls as they both hurriedly approached where Rumi was, whose movements stopped as soon as she noticed the other two approaching.
“Please, please—,” Rumi pleaded, her voice sounding watery (from blood or saliva, neither Mira nor Zoey wanted to find out). “If I’m gonna die, let it be quick.” Something warm that wasn’t blood or tears settled at the sides of Rumi’s head before gently moving it to one side. “Please, make it quick, I beg you…” The strength of her voice died the moment her mismatched eyes met two pairs of brown eyes.
Eyes flooded with tears. Frowns furrowed in apparent pain.
That wasn’t right.
“Rumi, what the hell are you talking about?” Mira growled, but there was no anger in her words, only frustration.
“You’re going to kill me…,” Rumi said softly, as if it were an irrefutable fact. “I’m a demon. I deserve to die, can’t you see?” A weight lifted from Rumi’s shoulders, but another kind of weight still pressed heavily on her chest. “A mistake… I’m a mistake… I’m something wrong, I shouldn’t have been born…” A purple hand reached for Mira and Zoey’s faces, and a clawed finger pointed almost accusingly at them. “And you’re going to kill me…”
A hand grasped Rumi’s purple one and intertwined their fingers tightly as the tiger freed her from her containment.
“We would never hurt you, Rumi. You’re talking nonsense,” Zoey said, trying her best not to cry, but failing miserably if her trembling lip and uneven voice were any indication. “We love you so much, you have no idea. Please, let us help you, unnie…”
“Rumi, look at me,” Mira said gently. She didn’t speak again until those mismatched eyes met hers once more. “I don’t know where all this is coming from, but I promise you— I promise you, Rumi, that we would never lay a finger on you to hurt you in any way.” Her voice was harsh, but something inside Rumi told her that, strangely, it wasn’t directed at her. “We love you so much, Rumi… You’re not a mistake, you’re our Rumi… Please, don’t leave us…”
“Let us take care of you, Rumi, please…,” Zoey pleaded, moving closer to the woman lying on the ground. “We want you here with us, not anywhere else. We want you alive, Rumi… You’re not some kind of mistake, you’re Rumi, and we wouldn’t want you any other way. We want you here, alive, with us…”
Long arms hugged Rumi’s neck until Mira’s chin rested on a bleeding shoulder.
“Please, Rumi, stay with us…” Mira cried, her voice deeper with the tears she could no longer hold back. “Live… I can’t lose part of my family like this… Not like this…”
A lighter weight settled on Rumi’s stomach, and another pair of arms wrapped around her torso. Something warm dripped not only onto her shoulder but now also onto her stomach, soaking her skin and the remnants of clothing still clinging to her with something that wasn’t blood.
Pleas to live one more day fell upon her keen ears. Trapped in a prison of warmth different from the one that had engulfed her seconds before, Rumi could do nothing but listen to their pleas, their hiccups, and feel their salty tears soak her battered body.
They… They weren’t killing her. There wasn’t a Gok-do piercing her chest or a Shin-kal buried in her eye. No… just arms holding her tightly, as if they didn’t want to let her go no matter what, as if she would disappear the moment they released her.
…Although she almost left, didn’t she?
Rumi almost tasted the air passing rapidly around her as she began to fall until she was saved by a spirit tiger that until now had functioned as a messenger pigeon.
Even a being like that didn’t want to see her fall? Didn't it want to see her disappear from this world at last?
If even a beast like that didn’t want her to die, then she must have done something right in her life… Right?
Because hunters that trained to destroy what she was wouldn’t let a golden opportunity like this pass them by, and yet they were embracing her. They were begging her for things she never thought she’d ever hear.
Requests to stay longer on this Earth.
Pleas for her not to leave, not to disappear.
At that moment, all the doubts that had gnawed at Rumi’s mind for so many years seemed unfounded, because a demon was not worthy of the love with which she was being bathed in at that moment.
So that surely meant she was human.
It had to.
'Because demons deserve to die.'
And if Zoey and Mira said that she couldn’t die, then the only logical conclusion was that she was human.
That was the only thing that made sense.