WHEN THE HEAD FELL · EXCERPT

My head left my body.

My sight rolled; the world turned upside down. The last person I saw was Li. Once she had smiled at me beneath a migǔ tree. Now she stood in the cold armor of a deputy commander of the united divine, human and beast forces. When the blade fell, her hand paused for barely half a second. The Black Spirit Sword, once a sign of protection, dripped with something warm that had been mine.

At her waist, the old sachet embroidered with crooked migǔ flowers swayed helplessly in the blast. She never went anywhere without it.

The crowd cheered the end of the universe's greatest villain. I understood what that word meant: someone standing against the order most people wanted. And order could be the most exacting gallows of all, using justice as its rope to hang what it refused to understand.

My head was only its latest offering.