“Whoa,” Ethan says. “I didn’t know Korea had earthquakes.”
“Only when I mouth off.” I shake my head. “Well, it sounds to me like the damn things are too heavy to carry around anyway. Who knows? Maybe the axes will appear again when you need them.”
Ethan pinches the bridge of his nose. “At some point, this shit is going to get too weird for me to handle.”
“I’m surprised you’re handling any of it at all,” I admit.
“Surviving something and handling it are not the same thing,” he says quietly. I can’t see his face because he’s sheathing my hwando and putting it away in my backpack. “Anyway, are you okay to move on?”
“I’m not going to get far if I don’t eat something.” I sniff the air. There’s a hare nearby. “Keep going down this trail. It’ll take you to the beach. I’ll meet you there.”
I take off into the woods before he can respond. Even in my weakened state, it’s thrilling to run through the mountain, my feet kicking up dirt and the trees blurring past me. I slow down to a trot when my prey is close. Then I slink around the line of trees, silent and unseen. Ihaven’t hunted in over a century. As hungry as I am, I feel queasy at the thought of killing and eating a mountain rabbit. But there’s no time for squeamishness.
I let myself recede into the background, and instinct takes over.
I splash into the cold ocean. I don’t like swimming in my fox form, but I need to wash off the blood. I dunk my head underwater and emerge a second later, sputtering. I repeat the head dunk several times until the stiff dried blood washes off my face. How did Ethan not get any blood on his face? Maybe he wiped it off with his hands. Did I get a good look at his palms? I was barely conscious from the blood loss. I could’ve missed it.
I’m not sure I believe myself. But what’s the alternative?
My head is throbbing, and the saltwater burns against my wound. I turn around and swim back ashore. After shaking the water out of my fur, I climb onto a sun-kissed boulder. I return to my human form, even though it’s easier to walk on my injured leg when I’m down on all fours. The beach is secluded, but I can’t risk being seen by humans. A snow-white nine-tailed fox the size of a lion cannot pass for an average fox. A freak-out would ensue. I don’t need to give the Suhoshin any more reason to come after me.
I lie down on the warm surface, spreading my wet hair behind my head. The sky looks impossibly blue, with perfect cotton candy clouds scattered across it. I should stay alert—taking my gumiho form was like sending up a flare to the Shingae—but my eyes flutter shut. The hare went a long way to replenish my strength, but I’m far from 100 percent. The last few days have been rough on my body.
I don’t know if I fell asleep, but I hear a shuffling noise beside the boulder. I shoot up to my feet and reach for my hwando before I remember I left it with Ethan. Luckily, he’s the one who made the noise as he climbed onto the rock beside me.
He scans me slowly from head to toe, then says, “Huh.”
“What?” I touch my wet hair but catch the self-conscious gesture and drop my hand.
“You still have your clothes.” His brows draw into a frown.
“And?” I know what he’s getting at, but I’m not going to make it easy for him. It’s a matter of principle.
“I mean”—Ethan blushes—“didn’t they get ripped apart when you changed forms?”
“Were you hoping to find me sprawled out on the beach ... naked?” I can’t deny I’m having fun.
“Not hoping ...” He cringes, turning even redder. “I was planning for contingencies. I figured I could give you my shirt until we find you some clothes. You’re so short it would come down past your thighs—”
“It’s magic,” I say, cutting him off. I’m not totally merciless.
“What?” He blinks. “Being short?”
“When I transform, whatever I’m wearing changes with me,” I grit out through my teeth.Bastard.This is what I get for taking pity on him. I should’ve let him squirm some more. I narrow my eyes. “So when I change back, I return to being exactly as I was.”
A slow smile spreads across his face. Damn it. I walked right into that one. When he opens his mouth, I slash my hand across the air. “If you say ‘To being short?’ I swear I’ll bring down a world of hurt on you.”
Ethan wisely keeps his mouth shut, but I want to kiss that cocky smirk off his face. No, not kiss. I meant punch. Like really, really hard. With my fist.Fuck.
Anyway, byexactly as I was, I meantback to wearing jeans torn at my thigh and stained with blood. My little dip in the ocean was hardly enough to get a blood stain out of a pair of jeans. You need club soda for that, right? Thinking of laundry hacks clears my mind of unwanted impulses.
“Can you help me rip this off?” I ask, pointing at the torn leg of my jeans. “I can’t walk around in bloody jeans.”
“Sure.” Dropping my backpack on the rock, Ethan sinks to his knees at my feet. “How are you feeling?”
I stare down at his dark bent head, and my stomach swoops with ... lust. My cheeks—as well as some other parts—grow uncomfortably warm. This is definitely lust. And I’m all out of laundry hacks to combat it. Thoroughly flustered, I answer without thinking. “Strange.”
He glances up at me, with his head cocked to the side. When he sees my expression, understanding dawns on his face, and his eyes darken. Holding my gaze, he runs his hands down the backs of my legs, starting from the fold below my ass down to my calves. I shudder, and his grip tightens around my legs.
