Page 21 of King Foretold
“Necessities,” she murmurs absently. “And I had pockets sewn in.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” I raise my hand for a high five, but she doesn’t look up from her notebook. I lower my hand after giving myself a sad high five. “Hey, do you happen to have a mirror in there?”
Minju rummages around her hanbok and hands me a silver handheld mirror. I take it with a surprised laugh. “This mirror is anecessity?”
“I have to ...” She shoots me a sheepish glance. “Sometimes ... people show up unexpectedly, and I take a quick look to make sure I don’t have ink on my nose. Or anywhere else on my face.”
“People?Anyone in particular?” I say with a sly smile. “And does he happen to be a sexy dokkaebi?”
“All the runes mean the same thing,” Minju blurts. “Strength.”
“What?” I squint at her.
“You wanted to know what the runes on your back say.” So shewaslistening. “In my research, I found stories of legendary warriors who were as strong as a hundred soldiers and had skin like armor.”
“Like my magic armor.” And the amplified strength also explains the shattered conference table. Curiosity gets the best of me. “Can I look at my back?”
Minju pushes to her feet and walks toward the back wall, and I follow her. She sweeps her hand down the wall, and it turns into a shimmering reflective surface.
“Is there a spell you don’t know?” I whistle. “I’m impressed.”
“You can use the hand mirror to look.” She tucks her chin shyly.
I lift the bottom of my tank top, baring a swath of my lower back, and angle the small mirror in front of me. “Whoa.”
The arcane words of power might actually make cool tattoos. They look like a blend of ancient Sanskrit and traditional Chinese characters, the strokes sweeping and powerful. I pull the back of my tank top up higher, reveling in each new symbol. Then I go deathly still as a scream climbs up my throat. My hand holding the small mirror shakes hard enough to distort the reflection of my back. But it’s there. I can see it.
My past and present blur together.
I’m in the study, but I’m also on the mountainside surrounded by an angry mob. When Daeseong draws the bujeok from his sleeve, it looks like a harmless strip of paper. But as he chants a string of words, the talisman rises above his hand and floats midair, stiff as a sheet of metal.
I can’t read anything on the bujeok, but one elegant rune stands out to me because of its beautiful symmetry. Fear and confusion coalesce inside me as the identical rune on my back turns bloodred.
The past remains layered over the present like a transparent film. I know what happens next. My mother dies. My heart rips down the middle, and tears stream down my cheeks. Daeseong should have died. Not my mother. The rune flares on my back, and rage burns through me. The dark mudang opens his mouth, but the curse slips past my own lips in a jagged whisper.
“Sa.”
The mirrored wall blows out behind me, and I’m jolted back to the present, the past clearing from my vision. The roof creaks above me, seconds away from collapsing. Minju stands in the middle of the study, her eyes wide with horror.
I reach her in a streak of white and leap out through the latticed window. I carefully set her down on the ground, releasing the back of her jeogori from my mouth. Minju turns around and stares at me unblinkingly.
My nine tails drift to the ground, and I hunch in on myself. She has never seen my gumiho. Is she afraid of me? Or is she more afraid of what I’ve just done? WhathaveI done? I don’t understand.
“Sunny.” She throws her arms around my neck and buries her face in my white fur. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Areyouokay?” I ask her telepathically.
“I’m fine, thanks to you.” She steps back and runs a hand down my snout. “Now tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know.” I step back from her touch, returning to my human form, and wrap my arms around my stomach. I glance over my shoulder at the study and shiver when I find a pile of rubble. “I recognized one of the runes. It brought back some bad memories, and ... I don’t know.”
“No.” Minju staggers, her hand on her forehead. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for it to ... I nullified the alternate meanings and offensive powers. You shouldn’t have been able to—”
“Sunny.” Jihun runs toward me with his hand outstretched.
But I’m swept into another pair of arms before he can reach me. The fear and adrenaline jangling through my veins quiet when I breathein Ethan’s scent. I cling to the solid feel of him, even though I know I shouldn’t.
“Are you hurt?” He slides his hands down my arms and spans them around my waist before stepping a few inches away. Then he scans me from head to toe, his eyes frantic with worry. “What happened?”
