My stupid heart does a somersault. He was coming back to me. Then I remember the bomb he dropped on me.
I’m the one who is destined to kill you.
Maybe he was coming back to me to kill me. Maybe I should run far, far away from him. In my mind’s eye, I see my childhood home burning.Run, Daughter. You must run.My mother wanted me to run. Is this why?
“Sunny, please ...,” Ethan whispers, as though he read my thoughts.
I can’t do this. Not now.
Right on cue, the undead assassin approaches in bursts of yellow smoke, appearing in and out of sight through the dense growth of trees. Fighting in the confines of a cave hadn’t done his powers justice. Out in the woods, he moves with terrifying speed and unpredictability.
Yellow’s dagger flies at me from overhead, and I block it with my sword a breath away from my throat. The ping of metal against metal rings behind me as Ethan drops a series of daggers with his axes. Then the blades fly at us like bullets from a machine gun, and we have to break apart to deflect them, our weapons blurring with frantic speed.
The assassin can be hurt even when he’s not in his corporeal form. In the cave, Jihun slashed the yellow smoke and cut the golem, forcing him to reveal himself. Even as I parry the unending onslaught of daggers, I peer into the darkness for signs of the bastard. Yellow apparates from point to point in plumes of smoke. Then I hear it—a sound like a muted clap of thunder—a split second before the yellow smoke blooms at the point of the sound.
My breath catches in my throat with a sharp gasp as a dagger comes out of nowhere, aiming straight for my heart. I slash my hwando in the air, but I’m not fast enough. Damn it. Not like this. I can’t let a walking corpse in a yellow onesie kill me. But instead of embedding itself in my chest, the dagger clatters to the ground a hair’s breadth away from me. Knife after knife falls at our feet, and the assassin shrieks with fury.
I gingerly retreat one step, then another until my back meets Ethan’s. I open my spirit eyes and see the shimmering outline of a protective dome around us. This is what he did when the North Korean soldiers shot at us. So much magic ... How is he doing this?
It pisses me off that I don’t know—that he didn’t tell me any of it. I don’t care if he saves our lives. Well ... I do care. But I can be pissed and grateful at the same time. It must be an untapped talent of mine. Like avoidance. I am a gumiho of many talents.Fuuuck.The adrenaline is getting to me again.
“Is there any chance you’ll stay in here and let me take care of the golem?” Ethan asks.
When I glance over my shoulder at him, his expression is resigned, with a hint of hope. I give him my answer by stepping outside the protective shield.
He sighs. “I didn’t think so.”
A muted clap sounds to my left. I leap and bring my sword down with a two-handed grip, then slice sideways without pause. The assassin flickers in and out of view, wisps of black smoke rapidly overtaking the yellow. Good, I cut the bastard. He finally stumbles to the ground and staggers back into a tree.
Ethan’s silver axe flies through the air and buries itself in Yellow’s shoulder, pinning him to the tree. The golem strains against the axe, his edges blurring, then solidifying.
“Don’t waste your energy. You can’t teleport with my axe in you,” Ethan drawls. I shoot a startled glance at him. How does heknowthat? Again, it pisses me off. But he continues, “Why did you lure us here? Did you want to meet your final death somewhere picturesque?”
“Lureyou? You were nothing but an insignificant pawn from the start. No,youfollowedme. But I’ll take credit for luring the beast here.” The assassin’s mouth stretches into a horrible smile. He gives new meaning togrinning from ear to ear. “My master wants her alive, but he didn’t say anything about you. Shall we play?”
The golem’s face suddenly goes slack. I shake my head in confusion. “Is he dead?”
Ethan takes a step toward him, then halts when a thin yellow snake slithers out of the assassin’s mouth. “What the hell?”
It starts out quiet like the wind brushing against the leaves, but soon, the hissing grows deafening, filling my head to the point of pain. The ground undulates like an endless yellow sea—of glistening, writhing snakes. Nausea floods my stomach as the serpents draw near. And a bloodcurdling scream rips through my throat when snakes fall from the sky like unholy yellow hail. Before the reptiles land on my head, Ethan throws another shield around us.
“Nowwill you stay behind the shield?” he asks in a strained voice, a muscle in his jaw twitching. I nod so enthusiastically that my teeth clack. I. Hate. Snakes.
Sweat beads on his forehead, and his arms tremble. Projecting a defensive shield over both of us is taking a toll on him. Worry hits mefirst, followed swiftly by another emotion. He isn’t some omnipotent god or anything. Expending magic too fast drains him. I breathe a sigh of ... relief? I don’t dissect why I’m relieved by that discovery.
“How long until you pass out?” I cast a concerned glance his way.
“Hell if I know,” he grits past his teeth. “Hopefully I can last until we figure out hownotto get killed by a million poisonous snake bites.”
“Fair enough,” I concede. “Any ideas?”
“I got some ...” His lips quirk. “But why don’t you go first?”
I roll my eyes but can’t hold back my answering grin. These glimpses of my Ethan feel like a healing balm. “I don’t suppose you can fly.”
“I ...” He clears his throat. “Actually ... Icanfly.”
I growl, and Ethan has the sense to look nervous. I take a deep breath through my clamped teeth. “Can you fly with me in your arms while holding up the shield?”
