“Wow. You’re agumiho.” The king focuses his gaze on me with disconcerting intensity. At least he stopped using his earthquake-inducing voice. “If it isn’t an imposition, I would love to see your fox form. I imagine you are quite glorious.”
“Your Majesty.” Gyun rests his hand on the king’s arm. “That will also have to wait. I’m afraid this is quite urgent.”
The chaotic energy around the king abruptly settles into an intense quiet. He nods once to the Judge of Tenth Hell and turns toward me again. I didn’t see it before, but he truly is the King of Underworld. Beneath the mess of curls and disheveled clothes, he is all power and authority.
“Tell me.” His command reverberates through me.
I might not have his full attention for long, so I go straight for the kill. “The Gray Void has been destroyed, and the Amheuk has breached the Realm of Four Kingdoms.”
“Gyun.” The king keeps his narrowed eyes on me. “Please question her for me.”
Of course.He wants to make sure I’m telling the truth. Considering the gravity of the situation, I’m not too insulted.
The judge complies with the king’s wishes in an even tone. “Has the Amheuk breached the Realm of Four Kingdoms?”
“Yes.” I level an acerbic look at the king. I should probably be more respectful, but I’ve had a long day.
“Ask her what destroyed the Gray Void,” the king says.
“Idid.” I slash my hand across the air when he turns to Gyun. “Stop wasting my time. I am telling thetruth.”
“But why did you destroy the Gray Void?” the judge asks in genuine confusion.
“It wasn’t a conscious choice. I entered the Gray Void with a word of power branded on my back, and it tried to destroy the rune’s dark magic, which would have killed me.” I harden myself against the onslaught of memories. The unforgiving cold of the Gray Void. The fire of the ancient rune burning through me. The pain as the two forces threatened to tear me in half. “But my survival instinct kicked in, and I somehow destroyed both the ancient rune and the Gray Void.”
Then I remember the desperation of the stranded and their heartfelt gratitude at being freed.
“The Gray Void contained countless stranded souls. They were all trapped there ... suffering,” I murmur past numb lips. “When I destroyed the Gray Void, I ended up releasing them from their captivity.”
The Judge of Tenth Hell pales, horror filling his eyes, but the King of Underworld simply looks resigned.
“You knew about the stranded.” I don’t pose it as a question—it’s a sharp-edged accusation and condemnation—but he answers anyway.
“Yes.” His Adam’s apple bobs.
“Your Majesty.” Gyun’s voice breaks. “To exist in a timeless void with no agency, no hope, no end in sight ... That is a fate worse than any punishment in the Ten Hells. Their very existence must have beenpain. You knew? Yet you did nothing?” Disappointment bleeds into his words. “How could you, Taeyoung?”
“I have no excuse.” The king drops his head. “Ever since I took the throne and inherited that bloody legacy, I have been doing everything in my power to find a way to free the stranded without destroying the Gray Void. But I couldn’t figure out how any of it works. I don’t even know where those stranded souls came from ...”
Curiosity and impatience war inside me. I want to understand the truth of the Gray Void. I want to make sense of all that suffering. But ... the stranded have already been freed. Saving the Realm of Four Kingdoms has to come first.
“Now isn’t the time to seek absolution.” I cut him off.
“You’re right.” The king offers me a solemn nod. “If the Amheuk has truly breached the Realm of Four Kingdoms, we have no time to waste.”
“One last question, Sunny.” The Judge of Tenth Hell scrubs his hands over his face. “Howdid you destroy the Gray Void?”
“I have ...”Haveseems like such a passive word to describe the connection between the Yeoiju and me. But I don’t have a thesaurus on me, so I continue, “I have the Yeoiju.”
The king and the judge exchange a startled glance, and Gyun murmurs, “The prophecies are coming to pass.”
The propheciesin the plural again. I only know about the prophecy of the King Foretold, and the Yeoiju doesn’t come into it. What does the second prophecy have to do with the Yeoiju? With me?
I rub my forehead. “Whatprophecies?”
“Both the prophecy of the King Foretold and the prophecy of the End of Days,” the judge answers.
“How do you know about the prophecy of the King Foretold?” I ask to hide my ignorance about the other one.
