“I have to find the answer.” She pushes away from me and digs frantically. “Everyone will die if I don’t find the answer.”
“Do not place that burden on yourself.” The captain kneels beside the distraught historian. “No one expects you to find the answer to save us all. We will do it together. The Sentinels will fight for the worldstogether.”
“You are not alone, Minju.” I press my wobbling lips together and gather her wrecked hands in my own. “You will never be alone.”
And neither will I.
“What if I fail them?” She tugs on her hands, but I hold on tight. “I can’t fail them. What if I ruin everything?”
“We’ll be right by your side, picking up the pieces,” I tell her, and she blinks slowly.Am I finally getting across to her?“After we clean up the mess, we can try again. All of us.”
“It’smyjob to find answers.” Her voice breaks on a shrill note. “I don’t know how to fight like everyone else. What use am I if I can’t do this one thing?”
“Minju ...” My hold on her hands slackens, and she wrenches them back to claw at the silver road.
“I have to find the answer,” she mutters, digging and digging. “It’s the only way I can help them.”
Then she screams in anguish and bashes her forehead against the ground.
“Stop it,” Captain Seo yells, jerking Minju up by her shoulders. The historian thrashes against the captain’s hold, spittle flying from her mouth, and scratches at the captain’s arms, drawing blood with her broken fingernails.
“Enough.” I shove Cheyun aside and deliver a resounding slap across Minju’s cheek.
Shocked silence descends on all three of us.
I can’t believe I slapped my friend, but I had to get through to her somehow. I needed to stop her before both of them got hurt.
With a heaving breath, Minju opens her eyes and looks around her.Thank gods.The worst is over. She will need a minute to process the fact that we are in literal hell, but she’s awake.
I prepare to tug her into my arms to console her but stop myself short.What if she remembers I slapped her?The corners of my mouth dip into a grimace. Then again, she did stab me in the heart once.
“Wow,” Minju breathes in wonder.
“What was that?” I squint.
“There are no written accounts of hell.” Her eyes jump from point to point in near manic curiosity. “This is truly an extraordinary opportunity.”
“Fuck me.” I clap my hand over my eyes.
Captain Seo scoffs at my side. “I second that.”
“All right. Up we go.” I hoist Minju to her feet. “We need to get out of here. There’s a reason why there are no written accounts of hell. It’s because no one makes it out alive. Or is it because no one makes itinalive?”
“Oh my word,” Minju squeaks and covers her mouth. “Yes, we must leave.”
I almost stomp my foot when I realize the flaw in my plan. “Buthow?”
“I think we have to keep walking the silver road,” she says.
“Which way, though?” The captain scratches her forehead. “I can’t even remember which direction we came from.”
“I don’t know about you guys, but I didn’t walk here.” I gulp. “Ifell.”
Captain Seo and Minju agree with a sharp nod.
“Even so, we have to keep walking the moonglade,” the historian insists. “Out of all the convoluted scraps of information about the silver road, that is the only clear, consistent fact my father and I discovered. We have to ‘walk the moonglade’ in order to reach the Realm of Four Kingdoms.”
“We have to pick a direction, then.” The captain sighs.
