“What happened?” I rush over with Minju. The captain’s palm is an angry red with blisters popping up one after another. “The door seared your hand.”
“I can see that.” She grimaces, holding her wrist.
Luckily for her, Captain Seo is a shinbiin. Her healing power rapidly pulls the heat out of the burn, and she breathes a relieved sigh after a minute. The burn will take longer to heal completely, but her pained expression smooths out.
“How do we open a door we can’t touch?” Minju waves her hand, murmuring an incantation. “As I suspected, it is heavily warded by powerful magic.”
“Fuck my life.” I kick the door, and the tip of my combat boot sizzles and melts off, revealing my big toe. I groan, curling my fingers into claws, but I refrain from scratching and kicking the door because it’ll hurt me more than it will hurt the door.
“You should be glad your toe didn’t melt off.” The historian pinches her lips to one side. “Hmm.”
“Hmm?” My withered hope perks up again. “Hmmwhat?”
“Oh ... that is ...” Minju shakes her head and tries again. “Your toe didn’t melt off.”
“You already made that observation. What about it?” I reel my hand in a circle, trying to draw out the rest of her thoughts.
“I think that means you can touch the doors without being burned.”
“What? How? Why?” I ask intelligently.
“I’m not sure.” Then her eyes widen. “You know how you extracted thatmudang’s fire magic? It must have something to do with that power. Do you remember how you did it?”
“Hell if I know.” I cringe. “Not helpful. Sorry.”
“Well, I think you can undo whatever magic that’s guarding the doors and open them.”
“Youthink?” The captain throws her hands up. “We can’t risk melting Sunny into a puddle on a half-baked hypothesis. No offense.”
“None taken,” the historian says quietly, clearly offended.
Captain Seo’s apologetic grimace disappears as she summons her twin swords. “We have company.”
Demons.
Not just any demons, but the ones frommynightmare, limping toward us on wrecked, uneven legs. At least they don’t have spider legs anymore. Unfortunately, they brought company—monstrous versions of Jihun and the rest of the Sentinels, even Draco.
Chapter Fifteen
Sunny
That’s not Draco.
I know this logically. Like the rest of the demons, their face is half melted off, and they advance on us with the distinct gait of a zombie. Then why is my stupid heart twisting like this?
It. Isn’t. Them.
Minju whimpers, and I snap out of my grief and confusion.That isn’t Draco.Minju is the one I need to protect right now. I push her behind me and summon the Shin’gwangdo. I call on the Yeoiju and push the light into the sword. At least, I try.
“Shit.” The blade has the feeble glimmer of a day-old glow stick.
My heart pounds uncomfortably fast as I force more light into the Shin’gwangdo. I must have depleted my magic when I took down the wannabe Daeseong and my un-mother the first time.
The demons pick up speed, closing the distance between us every time I blink. I hold up my sword. A light tremor starts in my arms, then my legs, and my chest seizes, drawing a choked gasp from me.
The Yeoiju is siphoning what remains of my life force. My body spasms.No.I withdraw the white light from the Shin’gwangdo, stumbling back from the effort. Minju catches me by the arms before I fall on my ass.
“Sunny, you mustn’t wield the Yeoiju here,” she says in an urgent whisper. “Life doesn’t exist in this place. There is nogifor you to draw from except your own.”
