“Sure.” My chest constricts with fear. Defeating Daeseong, a mere servant of the Amheuk, nearly destroyed me. Asking me to stop theactualancient force of darkness is like asking a fruit fly to take down a tiger. “Easy peasy.”
“She never said it will be easy,” Captain Seo grits through her teeth. “But itispossible, Sunny.”
“You don’t understand.” I cup my forehead, averting my gaze.
None of it matters. They won’t want my help if they find out whose daughter I am. They won’t trust me if they find out what I’ve done. How could they when I’m capable of taking away their free will at any time? I don’t even trust myself anymore. I never thought I would bewitch someone, but now I know that I’ll resort to my worst self if I’m desperate enough.
“Double espresso and water.” Ford sets both down on the bar and sends a meaningful glance toward the captain. “Now I’ll get out of your hair.”
Captain Seo has the grace to nod her thanks, finally letting down her guard by a millimeter.
“Ford, wait.” He’s already at the door by the time I catch up with him. “Thank you. I’ll come find you when we’re done.”
“Take care, Sunny.” He gives me a wistful smile.
The door closes behind him with a soft click. I’m tempted to run after him and have him pour me shot after shot of tequila—anything to avoid this conversation. But I don’t deserve tequila, unless it’s mixed into a gross, overly sweet margarita.
“I’m not coming with you,” I say with my back to Minju and Captain Seo. Then, taking a ragged breath, I turn toward my friends and summon the sword of light with a snap of my wrist. I’m counting on the hordes of humans outside to hide the brief flare of magic. I hold out the sheathed sword toward them. “But you can take the Shin’gwangdo.”
“What is the sword of light without you?” Captain Seo asks quietly.
“You can wield it better than I ever could.” I keep my gaze trained on the captain’s face to avoid looking at the blue dragon scales on the sheath. “And with Ethan’s axes, there’s a chance—”
“Stop.” Minju all but growls the word, her expression fierce. “Draco didn’t die so you can hide in Las Vegas, drinking until you can’t even walk straight.”
“Shut up,” I rasp. “Shut. Up.”
I don’t remember unsheathing the Shin’gwangdo, but I’m gripping the hilt of the sword, with the glowing blade pointed at Minju. She stares at me, her face slack and pale, and Captain Seo leaps between us, summoning her twin swords.
“Stand down, Cadet Cho,” she commands, but her voice is reedy with shock.
What the fuck am I doing?
“I-I’m so sorry, Minju.” I lower the Shin’gwangdo, horrified with myself. “I would never hurt—”
The door to the high-limits room bursts open, cutting short my woefully inadequate apology. I spin around, raising my sword again, just in time to block a ball of fire coming for my face.
“Did you think the Jaenanpa was done with you,gumiho?” The scraggly blond sneers, pushing his glasses up his nose. His minions enter behind him, snickering like assholes. “Even dragon spirits can’t kill us, because of the might of our magic.”
The last magic thief to enter the room shuts the door behind him, and the twelve of them form a semicircle behind their scrawny leader. Of course Blondie survived. Draco freed all the human hostages from Akrotiri without killing a single corrupt shaman. It wasn’t the might of their stolen magic that saved them. It was the kid’s mercy.
I swallow a faint moan.Draco.I want to reach in and rip my heart out. Anything to make it stop hurting.
“Aww, you followed me all the way here from Santorini?” I flash Blondie a bloodthirsty smile, and the coward practically turns blue with fear. “I’m touched, but you really shouldn’t have.”
I swish my sword in the air with lazy flicks of my wrist, stepping between my friends and the Jaenanpa. Why do these depraved pieces of shit deserve to live when Draco is dead? The answer is simple. They don’t.
The kid was good through and through.But I’m not.There is nothing holding me back from killing these bastards.
With a battle cry, I rush toward them.
Chapter Five
Sunny
“Not so mighty now, are you?” My nose is an inch away from Blondie’s as I press my sword against his throat. His Adam’s apple bobs, and a single drop of blood wells on his pasty skin and rolls down his toothpick neck. “Careful there. You might hurt yourself.”
A brave soul at one end of the semicircle begins murmuring under her breath. I glance down at the hands curled at her sides. It’s subtle, but she is tapping the tips of her fingers on the pads of her thumbs as though counting something in her head.Ooh, sneaky.She’s incanting a spell.
