Page 6 of King Foretold
I tense when Captain Seo turns toward me, ignoring her sniveling fans. It’s time to eat my words. Hell, I would rather eat a kale salad with no dressing. No, I take that back. There’s no need for dramatics. I take a deep breath. Fair is fair. She proved me dead wrong, so eat my words I shall. With Shakespearean flare apparently.
“Come with me.” She speaks English to me for the first time in a crisp British accent. Becauseof courseshe has an upper-crust British accent.
She heads for an unoccupied corner of the courtyard without waiting for my answer. I don’t have a choice but to follow. I’m more confused than annoyed, though, because Captain Seo might actually be sparing me the humiliation of a public tongue-lashing.
“How did I take down someone so much bigger and stronger than me?” The captain crosses her arms.
“What?” I blink at her even tone. Where is the tongue-lashing?
“Were you or were you not watching my demonstration?” The captain’s eyes narrow with impatience, but she has yet to yell at me.
“Your demonstration?” I blink some more. Had she really been trying to teach me something helpful through her sparring session with Haesan?
“Shall I demonstrate once more onyou?” she snarls. That’s more like it. I understand her antagonism better than whatever that was a second ago. “Last time, Cadet Cho. How did I take Gang Haesan down?”
“You took time early in the round to dissect his fighting style—his strengths and weaknesses.” My eyebrows draw together as I play back the sparring match in my head. It happened fast, but I saw it all. “But not too long, because you already knew your own weaknesses. You knew Haesan had you beat on strength and stamina.”
“Go on.” Captain Seo’s expression gives nothing away.
“Haesan’s fast, but you’re faster,” I continue. “When he began to tire, getting a little sluggish and sloppy, you went in for the kill, so to speak. You got close enough to get a good hold on him, and before he could grab you—because you would’ve been done if he did—you used his own weight against him to unbalance him. From there it was pure technique, flipping him over your shoulder and pinning him down by his throat.”
Gods damn it.I’m actually impressed.
“Now you know you didn’t lose all three rounds to Gang Haesan because he’s bigger and stronger than you.” The captain arches her brow. “You lost because you’re lazy and stubborn. Wouldn’t you agree, Cadet Cho?”
I manage to stop myself from flinching, but my voice breaks as I ask, “What do you have against me?”
“Tell me I’m wrong.” Not a single feather on the ice queen is ruffled. “Weren’t you too busy being angry at me to focus on your rounds? Too busy fuming at the unfairness of it all to keep your head in the game? To strategize?”
I open and close my mouth.Fuck.My cheeks heat with chagrin.
“Do I even need to waste my breath on explaining your laziness? You half-ass your way through every training session.” Her gaze bores into me. “Just because you don’t intend to participate in the trial doesn’t mean you don’t need this training. You need it more than anyone.”
“How do ...” My blood pounds in my ears. How does she know?
“Captain Song asked me to provide you with additional one-on-one training.” Captain Seo ignores my half-spoken question. “We will begin after the end of formal instructions today. But starting tomorrow, you will meet me here every day, two hours before dawn.”
Did Jihun tell her that I possess the Yeoiju? That my objective isn’t to become a suhoshin but to stop Daeseong from unleashing eternal darkness on the worlds? He wouldn’t have. Jihun would never risk the mission. He wouldn’t riskme. Unless ... Does he trust Seo Cheyun? I squint at her. I can’t imagine her as an ally.
“Wait, what?” I squawk as an urgent, very serious thought interrupts my mental spiral. “One-on-one training?”
“Yes. One-on-one training. Every day.” The captain’s expression hasn’t shifted, but I canfeelher glee. She’s enjoying my torment. “Is there a problem, cadet?”
“No, Captain.” My bottom lip threatens to quiver.
Captain Seo holds my miserable gaze for another second. “You’re dismissed.”
With a curt bow of my head, I spin on my heels and join the other cadets in the yard. Training is predictably brutal, leaving me little time to lament this tragic turn of events, but I don’t forget for one instant that I am going to kill Jihun.
Chapter Three
I thought the one-on-one training with Captain Seo was punishment enough for my earlier “insubordination,” but I was wrong ... again. Not to say the one-on-onewasn’tpunishing. She was relentless and demanding, and my legs felt like wilted asparagus by the time she was done with me. It just wasn’t the full extent of my punishment.
I’m on my hands and knees, wiping the floor of the cadet barracks with a wet rag folded into the size of my palm. But the tiny rag and the hands-and-knees method isn’t part of some cruel and unusual punishment. This is how everyone in Korea cleans their floors. Or they used to, at least. My mother and I cleaned our small, thatched-roof hanok like this every morning after we folded away our bedding.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Hana says, crouching down to peer into my face. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine.” I thump down on my ass and use my hands to pull my legs out, one-by-one, in front of me. “As fine as a person can be after fourteen hours of training.”
