Her breathing is jagged, and her eyes well with tears before she convulses into sobs.
I put my hand over my mouth to hide my gasp. Sora said Seok had threatened to sell her sister to the pleasure houses if we failed to kill the king. But I didn’t think he’d actually do it when we still plan on taking the crown.
Anger at Seok, at her position, and at my father floods me, and it’s hard to remember to breathe. Sometimes it feels like fire rises through my limbs and I’ll just ignite. And there’s no way to extinguish it. Not when men like this are still in power.
I grit my teeth as I remember thatIwas supposed to be sold to a pleasure house.
The reason I hate the cold is because I froze on the street after running from men who tried to kidnap me to sell me to the brothels. They came into my room as I was sleeping at my first boarding house. I used the amulet to flee, but I didn’t know where to go. I looked sixteen, but really, I was only twelve. I wound up curling in a ball behind a sugar house. I shook in the alley, freezing all night, and tried to hold on until they turned on the ovens. My lips were blue by the time the sun came up. And now, whenever I get cold, my body remembers nearly dying.
“I’m sorry,” Sora says, sniffling. She wipes at her tears.
She’s apologizing for her tears. As if being sad, as if love is some kind of weakness. Love is the greatest strength. Love powered her to endure all these years for her sister.
“No, I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m sorry this happened.”
Her eyes meet mine. A fierce determination lights her purple irises. “I need him to suffer.”
My gaze hardens. “I know. He will.” I mean it with every fiber of my being. “I swear it on my mother’s soul.”
She nods.
I take a breath. “Do you need a minute? Because I have a plan and—”
Dia lets out a loud screech. It’s a sound I’ve never heard her make before.
I run to the window to see if there’s a predator or something. And there is. But he’s not hunting Dia.
He’s after us.
Chapter Nineteen
Mikail
The Northern Pass, Khitan
You know, I really thought we were done with megafauna trying to eat us when we escaped from Fallow.
Apparently not.
Four zaybears stalk our sleigh from the tree line around seventy yards away. They move in the darkness of the forest, parallel to our sleigh, but they’re getting closer. Their silhouettes are now visible in the snow. One would be a problem. Four is a full-blown crisis.
Zaybears are built like enormous black wolves, but with more strength and thicker pelts like bears. They’re not as hard to kill as pigars, which have to be speared up close, but it’s not easy. The best course of action is to simply not come across one.
Four means we have no chance of surviving.
Royo steers us straight along the pass as I weigh our options. I’m glad he finally stopped talking so I have the quiet to think. They’re still a decent distance away, but we’ve attracted their attention and we can’t outrun them should they chase us.
Zaybears are solitary hunters when grown, so these must be a mother and three juveniles. The juveniles are still seven feet long. The mother is ten.
I suppose it could be worse—a full-grown male is twelve feet.
But they stand about as tall as a man from the tips of their ears to the ground.
No matter what I feel about him at the moment, Euyn is still the best hunter I know. He is also a genocide apologist, but I can deal with that later.
If there’s a later.
It’s a bit troubling that I keep having to say that.
