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  For those of us still learning to embrace our strength

  1

  THOM NGHO HAD BEEN WRONG about many things lately, but there were four things she knew to be true.

  One, the Monkey King had betrayed her, just when she thought she would finally achieve the one thing she had always wanted to do—get rid of her superstrength.

  Two, she had changed her mind—she knew her power was a part of her she couldn’t change. A part that came from her father, the Boy Giant, who had wanted to give her an opportunity to learn and train with him, one she now wished she hadn’t turned down.

  Three, the Monkey King had turned her mother into a cricket—which was why she needed to go after him.

  And finally, Thom was pretty sure that she and Kha were in over their heads.

  They crouched in their hiding spot behind a cluster of trees. As a dragon, Kha could turn invisible, but he’d changed into his human form now. From their perch on the hill, they had a perfect view of the tallest mountain on the island, the home of the demons where the Monkey King had taken her when they had still been friends. Before he had betrayed her.

  Thom wondered if she and Kha were at the wrong spot—there were so many mountains on the island, and since they’d arrived, she hadn’t seen anyone—not the demons or the Monkey King.

  “It’s so quiet,” she whispered to Kha. “The Monkey King should be here. He had a head start.”

  After he’d turned her mother into a cricket, he had revealed that he was just a clone of his much stronger self, a version he was going to break free from under the Mountain of a Hundred Giants. Once the true Monkey King was released, he would be even more powerful than the clone that had tricked her.

  Kha frowned and gazed out at the view. If they hadn’t been on a dangerous mission to stop the demon-god from unleashing himself from his five-hundred-year prison sentence, it would have been a beautiful scene: the lush field at the base of the Mountain, the green canopy of trees growing along the slope, the expansive blue sky, and the ocean in the distance. But a heaviness weighed the air, a tense pause like something bad was about to happen.

  “This is the right mountain, though, I’m sure of it,” Kha said.

  “How?”

  “I can feel some sort of enchantment around here, like there’s a spell keeping the Mountain intact so the real Monkey King can’t break free.”

  Thom unstrapped her backpack. She reached inside and pulled out the mason jar containing the cricket—her mother. One antenna twitched like she was trying to reach out toward Thom.

  “Hey, Ma,” Thom whispered, feeling silly. Could Ma understand her while she was a cricket? The black beads of her eyes shone, and her antennae stilled as if she were listening intently.

  “How’s she doing?” Kha asked.

  Thom held the jar up to him. “She’s a cricket,” she said dryly, like it was the worst thing in the world, because it was the worst thing in the world, at least to Ma.

  Kha pouted sympathetically. “We’ll catch the Monkey King, Thom. And we’ll make him turn her back.”

  Thom tightened her jaw. Yes, they would. She was going to make the Monkey King pay for what he’d done.

  Something rustled down below, then grew louder. The crunch of dried leaves and the snapping of twigs. The thundering of feet.

  Demons.

  As they marched into the field at the base of the Mountain, they looked scarier and bigger and stronger than what Thom had remembered them to be. The demon friends she’d met the last time she was on the island had been gentle giants. These demons, the ones gathering as if they were assembling an army, looked like they could snap her in half with a flick of their wrist. They were all some breed of predator—a chimera with the head of a boar and the body of a lion, a hyena with the head and neck of a giant snake, a wild boar with the muscular legs of a stallion.

  And there were so many of them. Hundreds, maybe thousands, pouring in at the base of the Mountain, most on feet, some on wings. As they gathered, they grew louder like the crowd at a concert, a constant roar, but high-pitched and wild. Feral.

  Thom stuffed the mason jar securely into her backpack, where her mom would be safe, and turned to Kha, whose horrified expression mirrored what she was thinking. How were they supposed to go up against that? Where had so many demons come from? She knew the Monkey King had friends, but the last time she was here, there had been twenty, maybe thirty of them.

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  Kha’s chest moved up and down a few times, his eyes scanning the crowd below them. “We wait until they calm down, maybe later tonight, and then we sneak to the base of the Mountain and…”

  “And what? Guard it? Wait for the Monkey King to show up?” Thom could take on the Monkey King; she could beat him if she really tried. Maybe with a bit of luck, she could steal back the cudgel, and then she and Kha would have a fighting chance. But the thing was, the Monkey King wasn’t alone. He had an army now.

  The demons roared. They were excited, jumping, shrieking, some tackling one another. Fights broke out in parts of the crowd, circles forming to make space as the violence spread.

  Then they all quieted, something catching their attention.

  The Monkey King.

  He skipped through the air, twirling a wand like he was conducting a symphony—only it wasn’t a wand at all. It was the iron cudgel. He’d shrunk it down, showing it off like a long-lost toy.

  At the sight of him, Thom’s fist clenched. If she could fly, she would have launched straight for him. But she could only stand at the top of the hill, hidden behind the trees, and watch as he flew above his followers, whirling his iron cudgel and changing it back to its staff-length size. The weapon that she had stolen from the heavens for him only so he could betray her.

  “Brothers!” the Monkey King called in his giggly, singsong voice. “Some of you have traveled far to witness this momentous event. For four hundred and ninety-eight years, I have been stuck under this mountain!” He pointed the cudgel at the base of the incline behind him, and the demons roared, the air filling with their shrill excitement.

  Thom stepped back, easing behind a tree, even though the demons were too far away to notice her. These guys were much bigger than the ones she’d arm-wrestled, their muscles bulging, their roars guttural, their teeth sharp as they growled at one another. No way could she take on a whole army, even if she was superstrong, even with Kha by her side.

  “Now,” the Monkey King continued, silencing the demons, who went still with anticipation, “is the time for my imprisonment to come to an end.”

  He dropped to the ground. The demons moved back to make space, bowing, some lowering to all fours as if to kiss his feet. A circle formed around him as he approached the base of the Mountain, holding his cudgel like a baseball bat.

  “We have to stop him,” Thom said, moving forward.

  “Wa
it, Thom.” Kha darted in front of her. “We’re outnumbered. There’s no way we can beat him and all those demons down there. Maybe if we had more time or more people on our side—”

  “We don’t, though. We have to try now, on our own!”

  Thom tried to walk around him, but Kha transformed into a dragon so fast that she bumped against his scaly body. He circled her, but his coils remained loose, like he was protecting her instead of trapping her.

  “Look at them,” he said, jerking his head at the demon army. Their shrieks echoed across the mountainous terrain. The leaves quivered, the ground rumbled.

  He was right. Thom and Kha were outnumbered, and the Monkey King would destroy them both. They had no plan—heroes always had a plan. Already, nothing was going how she’d expected. She’d thought she would find the Monkey King alone, that she could take him on by herself.

  She stood helpless, watching as the Monkey King turned to his demon brothers one last time, gave them a smirk, and then flew at the Mountain. As he raised the cudgel, Kha’s dragon body curled tighter around her, almost like he was afraid she would rush down toward the demon army on her own.

  Then the Monkey King brought the cudgel crashing against the Mountain. The whole island shook as he slammed it at the ground again and again. Dust filled the air, swallowing his powerful form. The shaking grew stronger. The demons shrieked louder. Large chunks of rock and dirt cascaded all around them, blurring Thom’s view of the Monkey King and the demon army.

  Eventually, after what felt like hours of utter chaos, the rocks stopped falling. The demons quieted. The dust started to settle, and slowly the air cleared.

  The Monkey King stepped forward from the foglike dust. But he wasn’t alone. A second figure emerged, just as tall and lithe and powerful.

  The real Monkey King.

  2

  HE LOOKED ALMOST EXACTLY LIKE the first one, the one she thought had been her friend, except that he seemed older somehow. It might have been the thick layer of dust coating his fur, making it look gray and aged, but there was something serious about his gaze as he peered out at his army, something mature and knowledgeable, the absence of the silliness she always associated with the Monkey King. With her Monkey King.

  The demons bowed to the second Monkey King, all of them falling to their knees, some pressing their foreheads to the ground. He turned to the first Monkey King, the one who still held his cudgel. The real Monkey King held out his hand, and with a giggle, the clone handed it to him.

  The weapon purred, hummed with pure happiness. A contented sigh went through the crowd, as if they could feel how right it was that the real Monkey King had been reunited with his cudgel.

  Then, with a pop, the first Monkey King, the clone who had betrayed her, disappeared. A single golden hair floated where he had just been. The real Monkey King snatched it, rolled it between his fingers, and stuck the hair into his armpit.

  Great. All this time, the Monkey King she’d thought was her friend had been nothing more than an armpit hair.

  Then the real Monkey King turned to the crowd. He curled his wrists around the cudgel, lifted it up to his chest, tucked his chin down. And giggled. His grin spread wide across his face, his eyes crinkled, even his ears wiggled.

  Everyone was enraptured. Even Thom felt drawn to his glee.

  Then he threw his head back and cast his staccato laughter out over the crowd. It bounced across the army of demons until they were all roaring along with him.

  That familiar sound sent a wave of longing through Thom. He was her friend, he had been her friend. If only things had been different. Why couldn’t he have been good? Why couldn’t he have told the truth?

  Why did he have to turn her mom into a cricket?

  At that thought, anger boiled through her veins. She moved forward, forgetting that Kha’s dragon body was blocking her way.

  “No, Thom,” Kha said. He dragged her away from the edge and farther into the copse of trees they’d been hiding in. “Let’s regroup. Think of a plan.”

  “What plan?” She tried to jerk free but only managed to get an oomph out of him. “He’s out now, the real him. It’s too late to come up with a plan. He’s going to do something, something bad. We need to stop him!”

  “Brothers!” the Monkey King called to the crowd.

  Thom stopped fighting and strained to listen.

  At his voice, the crowd died down, waiting with hushed expectation.

  “I’m free!” he declared.

  Again, cheers. Applause.

  “Are we ready?” the Monkey King shouted at his army.

  Screams and shouts of agreement. Thom’s ears rang with the noise.

  “Ready for what?” Thom asked.

  “I don’t know,” Kha said.

  The Monkey King grabbed a handful of fur from his shoulder, held his fist to his mouth, and blew. The tufts of hair spread out like dandelion seeds, floating across the crowd. One by one, each hair popped into a clone of the Monkey King. His giggles echoed as each clone grabbed a demon and launched into the sky. The demons who had wings could fly, but those who couldn’t paired up with a clone. Thousands of demons and Monkey King clones burst up, until above her, a whole army of flying, shrieking monsters swarmed the sky like giant vultures.

  Together, they flew up, becoming dots until they were gone. And the real Monkey King led them, his demon army, toward the heavens.

  * * *

  The silence that remained made Thom feel hollow and weak. Her knees were so wobbly that she would have fallen if Kha hadn’t been holding her in place. The Monkey King and all the demons were gone, and she and Kha had just watched it happen. They hadn’t done a thing to stop him.

  “We need to go after him,” Thom said. “Follow him and the demons and find out what their plans are.”

  A snap of a twig made them both jump.

  It was Concao, the fox demon, the Monkey King’s closest friend. Her white fur, usually so fluffy and pristine, was covered in dirt and something red and viscous. She crouched a few feet away, studying them with a guarded expression.

  “Concao,” Thom said, one hand braced on Kha’s back. “Wh-what are you still doing here?” Thom didn’t trust her. Why hadn’t she gone with the army?

  “Please,” the fox demon said, coming closer on all fours. She was limping, her back left paw curled and hurt. “You must come. It’s Shing-Rhe. I can’t carry him, but you can, strong girl. You have to help me.”

  Shing-Rhe was hurt? Thom dug her fingers into the feathers along Kha’s back.

  “It could be a trap,” he whispered.

  “It’s no trap!” Concao said, her voice desperate. “Please. I will explain, but Shing-Rhe is hurt. There’s no time.”

  Thom let go of Kha.

  “Thom,” Kha whispered, a guttural sound vibrating in his throat.

  “It’s okay.” Thom patted his back. “Show me,” she said to Concao.

  The fox demon didn’t hesitate, turning and bounding away rather quickly for someone who was hurt. They raced after her into the forest, barely keeping up, until they came across a group of monkey brothers all slumped on the ground.

  Even though the monkeys were technically demons, they didn’t have the grisly, predatory look of the monsters that had joined the Monkey King’s army. These guys had always been kind and gentle with Thom. They were peaceful, their faces adorably innocent, their hands reaching out when the fox demon sniffed at them. Thom covered her mouth. They were all injured in one way or another, clutching wounds or curled into balls.

  “Did the Monkey King do this?” Thom asked.

  “It was the others,” Concao said.

  For some reason, Thom was relieved, even though she knew the Monkey King might as well have hurt the monkey brothers himself if he hadn’t stopped the others from doing so.

  “Shing-Rhe!” Thom spotted the elder monkey against the roots of a tree. She knelt at his side. His eyes were barely open, and he groaned when she touched his shoulder. “S
hing-Rhe, it’s me, Thom.”

  He didn’t respond, just closed his eyes.

  Thom looked at Concao and Kha. “We need to get him and the others back to the cave behind the waterfall,” she said. “The rainbow water there will heal them.”

  “I can carry some of them,” Kha said.

  But when they led the monkey brothers to the dragon, none of them had the strength to hang on to him.

  “Wait.” Thom dug through her backpack—peeking in at her mother the cricket to make sure Ma was okay—then pulled out the golden string the Boy Giant had given her when she’d met him in the heavens. As she twisted it in her fingers, she remembered how her father had looked as he had given it to her, nervous and awkward. A jolt of guilt made her pause. She hadn’t known he was her father at the time, didn’t understand why he was giving her a magical string. And when she’d found out who he really was, she hadn’t exactly reacted … the way a good person would have. No, she had hit him with the cudgel she’d stolen and then left him there. She had to get back to the heavens, if not to stop the Monkey King, then to find her father and apologize for everything, for hurting him and not trusting him.

  She grimaced with regret as she lengthened the golden string. Even though it was as thin as thread, it was unbreakable, and kept growing longer no matter how much she used. And it could be loosened only by the person who tied it. With some maneuvering, she bound the monkey brothers to Kha’s back, being extra careful with Shing-Rhe, until they were all secured.

  “Can you take the weight?” she asked Kha.

  He hovered experimentally. “Yes, but I don’t know if I can carry the two of you.”

  “That’s okay—we’ll walk.”

  The fox demon nodded.

  Kha couldn’t go very fast or fly very high with so many monkeys on his back, but he needed Thom and Concao to show him the way to the cave anyway. It felt like hours by the time they reached it, each step reminding Thom that she was moving farther from stopping the Monkey King, wherever he was, whatever he was doing.