He picks me up in his arms and dives toward the ground. My heart lodges in my throat as my toes squirm in my shoes. He slows down as we approach the dark mound, and I pull away from him.
“Stay here. Don’t come out of the dome.” I pray that he listens for once.
Taking a deep breath, I push through the dome and free-fall toward the ground. The wind rushes past my ears and stings my eyes, a scream building in my chest. Maybe I should have thought this through.
Shit, shit, shit.
Closing in on my target, I shift into a diving form with my sword pointed down. There is no turning back now. With a battle cry, I bury the Shin’gwangdo into the Amheuk, momentum pushing my blade in deep.
An earsplitting screech shakes the entire kingdom, and one by one, the squirming tentacles fall to the ground with dull thuds. The eerie scream finally quiets, and a heavy silence descends around me.
Did I kill it?
I pull my sword out with a weak grunt and stumble back from the black blob. I spin in a slow circle, taking in the devastation the Amheuk wreaked on the Kingdom of Mountains. I feel sadness seep past my dull stupor.
“Sunny!”
Before I can turn toward Ethan’s voice, the Amheuk swallows me whole and muffles his desperate cry.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sunny
Darkness is the absence of light. The absence of life.
I can’t exist in the dark.I am no more.
But my heart ... aches. It bleeds.
How can I feel this piercing sadness if I don’t exist?
My Yeoiju hums inside me.
I can’t see, but I can feel ... my hands, my feet, my face.
I am alive.I am still me.
But I am surrounded by the darkness. Ensconced in it.
There is only one way out.
I have to blow up the eternal darkness with the Cheon’gwang. I did it once in Santorini when Daeseong enveloped me in darkness, but I had the help of nature’s gi. Inside the core of the Amheuk, there is only me.
Gods, I hope I have enough life force left in me.
Thegiof nature lingers in my veins, and I concentrate to pool that into the Yeoiju. But it’s not enough. I have to draw from my own life force. Will I be able to control my powers? Or will the Yeoiju siphon the life out of me?
I have no other choice. I take a deep breath, but suddenly, the life force of Mountains rushes into me.
No, it isn’t thegiof Mountains.
Ethan is pouring his silver-and-green life force into me. I don’t understand.How?But his powerfulgichases away the cold numbness drowning my senses and warms me to my toes. It’s almost too much. Yet his life force keeps flowing into me in powerful torrents.
Stop, Ethan.
He will deplete himself. I have to get out of here. I have to stop him before he kills himself.
I call to all the life force flowing through me—mine, nature’s, and Ethan’s—until my Yeoiju expands and glows impossibly bright. My chest pushes out, and my back arches as it fills every corner of my body.
