The queen’s hands shook as she placed her son in her friend’s outstretched arms, knowing she would never hold him again ...never see him again. She clawed at her throat as a sob tore from her. She was saying goodbye to her baby—her everything. She curled into herself as pain ripped through her.
With every ounce of her will—with every ounce of her love—she gathered herself and sat up tall. She didn’t have to call for the tears that she needed. She didn’t need a knife to draw her blood. Her fissured heart provided her with both. She cupped her hands and filled them with her tears of blood.
Her eyes churning with silver power, she blew into her hands until her tears caught fire, burning bright green. When the flames subsided, a disk of pure jade, a little bigger than her thumbnail, lay on her palm. Her breath coming in shallow pants, she threaded a yarn through the jade disk and placed it around her sleeping son’s neck. Then she placed her lips on his downy head and closed her eyes.
“It is done.” A fine sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead as she drew away from her baby. “Now you must go.”
“Your Highness ... he will kill you,” the lady-in-waiting choked out.
“He wouldn’t dare,” the queen lied. “Go, before anyone finds out the baby was born. I can shield you until you are beyond the mountains.”
“I cannot leave you.”
“But you must, my dear friend,” she said with a tremulous smile. “Who you hold in your arms is bigger than you or me.”
The lady-in-waiting inhaled a shuddering breath, then steeled herself. “I will serve you both until my dying breath.”
“Go.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
We sprint across the empty highway into a field bristling with dry, overgrown weeds. There are no streetlamps, and the moon is hidden behind dense clouds. We run blindly in the dark as the light from the diner fades away behind us.
“Head toward the woods,” I shout as I pick up pace.
Even in my human form, I retain some of my gumiho’s speed. I grab hold of Ethan’s hand to pull him along, but he keeps pace with me. I shoot him a surprised glance. He is freakishly fast for a human. But he won’t be able to last long in a dead run.
My panic recedes into the background as I focus on finding a way for us to survive. No matter how fast we are, we won’t be able to outrun a suhoshin. He is faster and more powerful than me in every sense of the word. I won’t be able to defeat him in hand-to-hand combat ... unless I unleash my fox spirit. As my gumiho, I’m bigger than a full-grown lion and can run fast enough to leave the woods in a blur behind me. But I won’t need to run, because the suhoshin would find me a formidable opponent.
A savage smile slashes across my face as power thrums in my veins. I gasp and stumble. Ethan steadies me without slackening our pace, and I regain my balance in two jerky steps. I’m shaken. Not from the near face-plant but from the violence that thundered through me.Thisis why I must never awaken my fox spirit ... my inner monster.
I hear the near-silent steps of our pursuer closing in on us. I scrounge in my brain for a way out, but I come up blank. The moon at last peeks out from behind the clouds, as though to show me that there is nowhere to run. We reach the edge of a sorry little pond at the same time as the guardian says from behind us, “Halt.”
I squeeze Ethan’s hand once in ... reassurance? Apology? I don’t know for sure. All I know is that my past has finally caught up with me. Time has come for me to pay the price for what I did. We turn around and face the suhoshin.
In the moonlight, he is even more arrestingly beautiful. He is a seonnam, an angelic being of Sky. Even if his ethereal good looks weren’t a dead giveaway, the silver fire in his eyes would’ve confirmed which life force flowed through the seraph. The gi stemming from the four life sources each exude a different light—silver for Sky, green for Mountains, blue for Water, and red for Underworld.
Unlike the seraphim of the West, a seonnam’s wings are invisible, made of air and wind. The subtle shifting of the suhoshin’s black, shoulder-length hair is the only sign that his wings are flared wide behind him—ready for combat. I instinctively reach for my sword.
“There is no need for that,” the suhoshin says, carelessly waving his hand.
My arms are pinned to my sides, and my legs are bound together. I belatedly remember what my mother taught me about the Suhoshin, the formidable guardians of the Shingae. They have the power to restrain their suspects with unbreakable binding. I snarl and writhe against the magic, but the invisible rope digs into my skin and doesn’t give an inch.
“Why don’t you settle down?” the suhoshin suggests.
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself?” I say, mimicking his gratingly calm voice.
“What do you want from us?” Ethan steps in front of me, shielding me with his body.
I gasp, wondering how the hell he broke free from the binding. The suhoshin stumbles back half a step before he catches himself. Somethinglike wonder and fear flits across his face. His stoic mask slides back into place as he says, “There is no time to talk. You must come with me.”
Ethan reaches behind and presses his hand into my lower back, pushing me up against him. His protective gesture makes emotion clog my throat and shatters the helplessness holding me as immobile as the invisible binding. Ben died because of me. If I’m captured, I will never see the light of day again. I will never be able to avenge his death. I promised Ethan I’ll find Ben’s killer. Iwillfind Daeseong. He’ll pay for what he did.
I’m acting out of desperation, but I don’t care. I wiggle my fingers and find that I can still move my hands. I grip either side of Ethan’s shirt and drive all my weight into my upper back until we are falling ... and falling. Time slows to an excruciating crawl as Ethan and I topple toward the pond.
Everything has to happen just right for this to work. I hope the suhoshin is a second too late reacting to our unexpected move. I hope the moon is reflected on the meager pond behind us. I hope whatever happened during my battle with Daeseong gave me the power to use high magic. I hope I don’t get us killed.
Moon shifting is a form of high magic used to travel from one location to another by moving through the abyss. It’s meant to happen in an instant, but I’m not too clear on the details since I’ve never tried it before. If I fail completely, Ethan and I will fall flat on our backs in the shallow pond behind us and into the waiting hands of the suhoshin. If I fail halfway, we will get stuck in the abyss, never coming out on the other side. I can’t decide which failure would be worse, but hopefully, I won’t have to pick.
