With a scream, I release the pulsating power, my arms and legs spreading open like a star. The light of the Yeoiju shatters the darkness until I see the sky and mountains surrounding me once more.
I slip and fall as I climb out from the cavernous black cocoon, then I stumble away until the dark mass lies behind me, bubbling and steaming like cooling lava. I plant my hands on my thighs and catch my breath. When the burning in my lungs becomes bearable, I straighten my back and rub my eyes to clear them.
My gaze flits left and right, hardly registering the gaping black wounds that tear through the dying mountains.
Where is he? Did I take too long?
“Ethan.” Dread crawls down my spine. I run to the other side of the revolting blob, whipping my head around. “Ethan!”
Then I see a prone body on the ground a few feet ahead.
“No.” I fall to my knees next to him. “No, Ethan. What have you done?”
I don’t know how he poured his life force into me through the Amheuk. Ethan is a powerful shinbiin. He figured it out.Gods damn it.I shake him hard, but his limp body just flops beneath my hands.
I drop my ear close to his nose and mouth. I can’t tell if he’s breathing.What am I doing?I narrow my eyes and zero in on his body. He’s alive. Hisgiis weak, but it flows steadily through him. I expel a shuddering breath.
“You fucking asshole.” I collapse next to him. “I’ll kill you if you don’t wake up.”
Then I sit up with a gasp. The tentacles on the ground undulate, like a boat bobbing on a calm lake—the movement so slow and subtle that I nearly missed it.What the fuck?I blew up the Amheuk’s core from the inside out.
I don’t want to believe it, but the eternal darkness is beginning to recover. I have to get us out of here.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I throw Ethan over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry and take off into the sky.
I can fly. I don’t know if it’s the Yeoiju or the remnants of Ethan’s life force that’s giving me the power. Frankly, I don’t give a shit. I need to get this foolish, stubborn, generous, and brave male out of here before the Amheuk truly awakens.
I wobble precariously in the sky, and Ethan slips down my shoulder. With a scream, I gather him in my arms, bending backward to bear his weight. Just because Icanfly doesn’t mean I knowhow.
The portal appears light-years away, and I push myself to fly faster, grappling with Ethan’s limp, heavy body.
Almost there.
Muttering curses under my breath, I reach back and awkwardly tug his token free from his neck. Then I summon my tree branch and fling both our tokens at the portal. Bright, silver light flares in the sky, and I fly us toward it, dipping and swerving.
“No, no, no.” Ethan slips out of my arms just as the pagoda comes into view on the other side. I scramble to hold on to him, and my feet tangle on the floor. “Fuck.”
“Whoa.” Jihun somehow catches me and Ethan, one in each arm. But he quickly sets me down to grab his unconscious king with both arms. “Your Majesty.”
I glance around the pagoda, my heart rate refusing to slow. We made it out of the Kingdom of Mountains.We’re alive.Only the Sentinels remain at the pagoda in the woods.We’re safe.
“Why isn’t he responding?” Captain Seo asks, helping Jihun lower Ethan to the ground.
“The asshole poured hisgiinto me.” I wrap my arms around my stomach, willing my body to stop trembling. “It’s all my fault. I thought I could buy us some time from the Amheuk by attacking it at its core. I stabbed it with the Shin’gwangdo. I thought I did some damage to it, but it swallowed me whole the next second.”
“The Amheuk swallowed you whole?” Jaeseok’s jaw drops. “And you’re still alive?”
“I wouldn’t be if Ethan hadn’t shared hisgiwith me,” I confess in a small voice, my teeth chattering. Hailey rushes to my side and puts her arm around my shoulders. I lean my head against her, grateful for her warmth and support. “I charged the Yeoiju with his life force and blew up the Amheuk from the inside out.”
“Is it gone?” Hope and disbelief war on Hailey’s face.
“No.” I shake my head. “I hurt it badly, but it’s already starting to recover.”
“But you bought us much-needed time,” Jihun says gently.
“What about Ethan?” I cry. “What if he d-doesn’t wake up? I wish Minju was here to heal him.”
“I am.” Minju walks up the steps to the pagoda. She’s traded in her white bodycon dress for a lovely pinkhanbok.Gods.She’s a sight for sore eyes.
