My grandfather once told me that my best friend was a plank of wood. Then he proceeded to whack me in the shoulder with it, yelling, "Too slow. If I were a real demon, you'd have died five times by now!" He repeated the process, and I got really good at ducking.

We called this 'training'.

Training happened every morning at four o'clock sharp, before anyone or anything stirred in the Jade Society. In the misty, dark quiet of the early morning, the grass beneath our feet moist with dew, Ye Ye would take my brother and me out past the horse stables and into the woods. There, he taught us everything he knew about martial arts. How to punch. How to block. How to stab. How to kick.

On the morning of Chinese New Year Day, I didn't dare mention the fact that I'd somehow helped slay the nian dragon, one of the most ferocious beasts to walk the Earth, a creature that hadn't appeared in decades. Ye Ye would be too busy scolding me for sneaking out to congratulate me on slaying a demon. That's Asian-style tough love for you.

So instead I threw myself into training, pretending the damp, bent tree branch I wielded was a sword. Alex danced in front of me, blocking my jabs with his own makeshift weapon. My eyes were playing tricks on me. The nian dragon kept popping up in my brother's place, and instead of holding back, I found myself beating Alex back full-throttle.

Ye Ye sat down in the grass. His eyes followed our every movement as he stroked his long, grey beard. When we finished cycling through the techniques he'd taught us, he patted his arms against his black robe in approval.

"You've improved, Falun," Ye Ye said. A rare compliment.

"And me?" Alex said eagerly, leaping off the mossy ground. My brown-haired, lanky fifteen-year-old brother had butt-planted after failing to parry my attack. "What about me, Ye Ye?"

My grandfather gave him a stern look. Then he rubbed his wrinkly forehead. "And you, Ah Li," he said, emphasizing my brother's Chinese name with a sigh, "you..."

Alex leaned forward with an eager expression on his face.

"You go read a book or something. I have a headache."

My brother's face fell. He stood up, dusting off his muddy pants. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small black notebook, pressing it so close to his face it must've rubbed his nose.

"Nerd," I coughed.

Alex lowered the book and cocked an eyebrow at me over the top. "Say what you want, but when Ba returns and realizes I've memorized all his travel research, I'll be his favorite child."

"Until I beat you in a sword fight, blindfolded, with one hand tied behind my back."

My brother glared at me. "You talk big, but have you ever slain a demon?" When I stayed silent, he smiled smugly. "Didn't think so." He buried his head back into our father's notebook.

A retort rose to my lips, but I bit it back. Correcting my brother wasn't worth the effort. My one night of demon slaying was over. I'd saved the world, and I had nothing to show for it.

When was Marvel Studios going to make a movie documenting my life?

"Falun. Ah Li. The gods have an honorable destiny in mind for you both," Ye Ye reassured us, pressing his index fingers to our noses.

"Sure, Ye Ye." Though I smiled at my grandfather, I didn't dare to bring myself to believe in his words. I'd known from a young age that as a girl, I would never be allowed to help the men and boys fight off demons, no matter how much Ye Ye trained me in secret. As blood traitors, Alex and I would never be allowed to be anybody, period.

"Speaking of the gods—we'd better get to the temple before the sun rises," my grandfather said. "You know how long the line for prayer gets during Chinese New Year."

I stifled a groan. "Another visit to the temple? We go every day."

Ye Ye raised his eyebrow at me, as if surprised that his sixteen-year-old granddaughter wasn't leaping for joy at the idea of projecting nonsensical thoughts into the abyss. "It is good practice to pray to the gods, Falun," my grandfather scolded. "The day may come when you need their help."

"Yeah, Falun," Alex mocked.

I jabbed him hard in the ribcage. "You better pray I don't beat you up, Ah Li."

Alex tried to push me, but I sidestepped him, and he ended up nearly face-planting in a puddle of rain.

Setting off at the pace of a man half his age, Ye Ye led us out of the woods.

As dawn stretched across the sky in pink and orange streaks, we re-entered the rectangular arrangement of modest white houses that was the Jade Society. Ye Ye headed straight for a three story, square-shaped red pagoda: the temple for worshipping the deities. I climbed the white stone steps after my grandfather.

The entrance to the temple was lined on both sides by grey stone walls with images of dragons carved onto their surfaces. Evil spirits couldn't turn corners, so the shadow walls kept demons outside the temple. Didn't stop annoying little brothers from entering, though. A big oversight I planned to bring up with the architects one day.

Ye Ye heaved open the golden doors of the temple in one breathless motion that caused him to stumble backward.

"Ye Ye!" Alex and I rushed forward, each catching one of Ye Ye's elbows before he fell. Even though he grumbled about handling himself just fine, he allowed us to help him through the entrance and into the worship hall. Ye Ye reached into a red basket and grabbed a fistful of incense sticks right before heading inside.

Although the morning had been perfectly still before, a draft billowed through the front doors right before they closed, breezing past me in a whoosh of cold air that rustled the choppy ends of my hair.

The large room was empty—at least, of mortals. Our footsteps echoed in the silence. Green, orange, and yellow colors adorned the walls inside. The vast interior was dark, the sole source of light seeming to emanate from gilded statues of the gods.

Ye Ye headed straight for the central alter, which housed a towering statue of a man with the biggest, droopiest earlobes and funkiest hairdo I'd ever seen. It looked like his head was covered in snails. I'd mentioned that to Ye Ye in passing once, and he nearly beat the living daylights out of me. Word of advice: don't insult Buddha in front of my grandfather.

Carved from white jade, Buddha's statue sat in a lotus position with a serene smile on its stone face, as though the statue had been expecting us.

"You two know what to do," Ye Ye said. "Don't pray for silly things like video games today." He looked knowingly at Alex when he said this. "The gods are watching with careful eyes. It is the day of Chinese New Year, after all." With that, my grandfather reached into the pocket of his robe and pulled out three sticks of incense, handing one to Alex and me and keeping the third for himself.

Alex and I had come to the temple to pray with Ye Ye almost every morning, so all we had to do was go through the motions. Ye Ye lit our incense sticks, and placed them in the sand-filled holders in front of Buddha. The glow of the flickering flames illuminated the statue; for a moment, I could've even sworn that Buddha's lips twitched upward. A trick of the light. My brother and I knelt on either side of our grandfather.

I coughed as the smoke from the incense entered my nose, and then kneeled down ont he ground, pressing my palms together against my forehead in prayer. I didn't know what Ye Ye and Alex prayed for, but my wishes were the same as the ones I'd had before the new year: my grandfather to recover from his cough, my father to return home after ten years of silence, and Mao to get lost. Preferably somewhere in Antarctica.

I'd harbored these unfulfilled wishes for so long that I was convinced the gods were the lousiest bunch of jerks in the universe. If the gods had one smattering ounce of goodwill in their immortal souls, they would've rewarded Ye Ye long ago for his loyalty. They wouldn't have allowed my mother to die after giving birth to Alex, or my father to disappear when I was six, presumed dead on a demon hunt. They wouldn't have let Mao demote the name of Liu to the lowly status of blood traitors—of servants.

I added a fourth wish, too. Ye Ye's time is limited, and he's always wanted to see a deity. Please, this year, let the gods join our banquet once more.

Though there was no wind inside the temple walls, the incense stick I'd lit for Buddha flickered and threatened to go out. My heartbeat quickened. The gods couldn't have heard my thoughts—could they have?

We finished by place our palms and foreheads against the cold stone floor in a deep bowing motion, repeating it three times. Then Ye Ye reached into his pocket again and pulled out a small piece of sticky cake, nian gao, He placed it on the barren offering table in front of Buddha.

"May the deities prosper and bring us good fortune in the new year," my grandfather murmured.

Golden warrior-type figures, the guardians of heaven, surrounded the statue of Buddha. There were several other altars. One for the Jade Emperor, the ruler of all the gods. One for Xi Wangmu, his wife, and the Queen Mother of the West. One for Guanyin Pusa, the goddess of mercy. One for Nezha, the Third Lotus Prince. Mazu, the sea goddess; Leigong, god of thunder. We lit incense for them all, with Ye Ye apologizing to them for not having more food to offer.

Not that it mattered. It was Chinese New Year Day. Soon, the aunties and uncles would flood the temple with offerings, putting on a big show of their loyalty to the gods. Kind of like how I'd floss my teeth the morning of a visit to the dentist's office and act like I did it all the time.

Alex and I waited forever as our grandfather continued to pray. I didn't dare disturb him. Heck, even earthquakes knew not to disturb Ye Ye when he prayed. And coming from a Californian, that's saying a lot.

After Ye Ye was satisfied that we'd honored every god, we left the hall. Before the golden doors shut, a draft blew through the gap and put out one of the candles we'd lit for Mazu. I thought I heard soft laughter behind me.

When I turned around, my heart jolted in my chest. My eyes zeroes in on the nian gao we'd placed on the sea goddess's altar. It looked like someone had taken a huge bite out of it.

"Falun, why are you lingering behind?"

"C...coming." Maybe Ye Ye had gotten hungry earlier when he was preparing the offerings. This didn't mean anything. I shook my head and followed my grandfather and brother back into the crisp morning air.

"*****

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