I swear the captainsighslike a smitten teenage girl when the sunglasses slide back in place. I gleefully tuck away the moment as future teasing material.Absolute gold.
“Now then,” the biggestdokkaebicontinues, “shall we discuss what brings you to our kingdom?”
“Why don’t we start with a round of introductions?” I quip. “You go first.”
I feel another tug on my sleeve. I ignore her, but she tugs again. I turn to Minju with bulging eyes. “What?”
“I know who they are,” she whispers, sneaking a peek at them. “They are the Judges of Ten Hells.”
I study the ten males consideringly. Sure, they have chilling eyes—I focus my magicgigoggles on them—but their life force, while powerful, is not god level. As a matter of fact—I squint and look more closely—something depleted a chunk of theirgirecently, but they are recovering quickly. Either way, they are mighty as they come and should not be trifled with.
But trifling is so much fun.
“Hmm.” I lower my sword a smidgen. “I’m not familiar with the Judges of Ten Hells. Are they special or something?”
Captain Seo makes a choking sound from behind me, and Minju covers a scandalized gasp with her hand. The sexydokkaebichuckles darkly, the sound rumbling in his chest. I start to fan my face, but I catch myself and pretend to scratch my neck.
“I still think introductions are necessary.” I dig my heels in because I am agumihoof conviction. “Do you guys go by numbers or names?”
Minju emits a high-pitched squeak, and the captain kicks my calf with her heel. I ignore them both.
“I am the Judge of Tenth Hell.” He dips his head in a gallant bow. “My friends call me Gyun.”
“And my friends call me ...” I remember the nickname Haesan, my suhoshin-cadet buddy, gave me.Stormy.I suddenly miss the massive merman so much that my breath hitches. “I’m Sunny.”
“Why are you here, Sunny?” The Judge of Tenth Hell cocks his head to a tantalizing angle. “And how did you escape the Tenth Hell?”
“That was Tenth Hell?” It’s an honest question since I had no idea that wasTenthHell. And also, I’m stalling. “Is Tenth Hell the worst hell? With First Hell being the nicest? Or is it the other way around? Although, I can’t imagineanyhell being nice—”
“Sunny,” he says my name so softly that I barely hear him, but his tone scares me enough to shut me up. For a second.
“Now would be a good time to help,” I hiss at my friends from the corner of my mouth.
Do we tell him the truth? How much of the truth do we tell him? My gut tells me he isn’t our enemy, but that doesn’t make him our ally either.
“We walked the moonglade from the Mortal Realm to return to the Realm of Four Kingdoms,” Minju explains succinctly.
I guess we’re going with the truth.
Surprise rumbles through the judges, but they grow silent when the Judge of Tenth Hell holds up a hand. “Why did you choose that deadly path instead of entering past the Gray Void?”
“Because the Gray Void no longer exists, and ...” Minju takes a bracing breath. “The Amheuk now lies in its place.”
There are no surprised murmurs this time around. The judges simply lose theirfucking shit.
“The Amheuk?” cries one judge.
Others whip their heads around every which way, as though the ancient force of darkness is descending on them right this second.
“But how could that be?” another yells, shaking the poordokkaebinext to him by the shoulders.
Maybe thewholetruth wasn’t the best idea.
I shrug with a tilt of my head. Who can stay calm when somebody basically tells you that you’re all going to die? Their alarm is to be expected. What Ididn’texpect was for them to take Minju at her word.
People tend to become angry when they’re scared. And when they’re angry, they start pointing fingers to cast the blame on the easiest scapegoat. I expected them to accuse Minju of lying, of trying to trick them for her own gain. They should be vilifying her—punishing her—to hide from their own fears.
But apparently, the Judges of Ten Hells don’t point fingers and cast blame on others. They feel and express their fear authentically. That is a sign of true strength. I respect them for it, and maybe I can even ... trust them.
