Page 18 of King Foretold
“You want the good news?” Jaeseok hedges. “Dragon fire is hotter than any fire we’ve ever—”
“No more good news,” Hailey cuts him off. “What’s the bad news?”
“The bad news is ...” Jaeseok cringes. “We accidentally burned down the forge.”
“It took all of us a fortnight to build that forge,” she cries.
“I should be grateful I checked in on them when I did,” Jihun says with a resigned sigh. “Otherwise, they might have burned down my entire estate.”
“It’s not all bad. I might go so far as to say that there’s more good news,” Jaeseok continues with renewed pep. “The glamour held even against dragon fire. It stayed invisible until the forge burned into literally nothing.”
When Hailey narrows her eyes at him, the dokkaebi tucks his chin into his chest and wisely ceases delivering good news. I bury my face in my hands as a heavy silence descends on the room. No matter how bad things have seemed, I’ve soldiered on out of pure bullheadedness, but this is too much even for me. We don’t have time to start over. Not now. Does this mean it’s all down to me?Gods, no.
“But therealgood news is,” Draco says with a sly smirk, “we did it. We melded the dragon scales and the sacred ashes into one.”
“What?” I lurch forward.
“Behold.” Jaeseok withdraws something shimmering and pearlescent from his pocket and holds it out on his palm. “The needle of light. Or the tiny sword of light. I’m flexible on its official name, but here it is.”
Hailey, Jihun, and I scramble to our feet and gather around Jaeseok, who is all smiles again. I stare at the slender needle gleaming with white light.Oh thank gods.The force of my relief sends a wave of dizziness through me, and I sink down onto the nearest chair.
“It’s beautiful.” Hailey presses her fingers to her lips.
“Any reason you didn’t start off with this?” Jihun pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Jaeseok shimmies his shoulders, presumably to express how much fun he’s having with his way.
“For fuck’s sake,” I hiss under my breath. I’m ecstatic that our hope for the sword of light lives on, but I was ready to curl up and die in a dark corner a minute ago.How’s that for fun?
Rather than shoving the sexy dokkaebi off his chair, I discreetly bang my fist on the conference table.More of a tap, really.But everyone jumps back as the table shatters into a thousand tiny splinters. It’s like I dropped a bomb on it, not bopped it with my fist.
“What . . . How . . .” Coherent speech is beyond me.
“Now we know what those symbols do,” Hailey whispers.
I glance over my shoulder as though I can look down my own back. Of course, I can’t see a damned thing since I’m not a giraffe. But I don’t need to see the arcane words of power to know they are bad news.
Chapter Six
When I return to Jihun’s study that night, the office chairs form a loose oval around the empty space where the conference table used to be. Someone had cleaned up the pile of rubble from the floor but left the chairs in place. Minju sits perched on her usual seat, reading a fragile-looking scroll.
“If the words of power help with today’s lesson, we need to get them permanently tattooed on your back,” she says without looking up from her reading.
I spent my entire off day building a new forge with Hailey, Draco, and Jaeseok. No natural material is strong enough to withstand dragon fire, so we had to use magic to fortify every stone. Needless to say, we didn’t get far on the build. And I couldn’t stay and eat dinner with the others because I didn’t want to be late for this lesson.
“I’lldecide what I do withmybody,” I say pointedly.
I take a deep breath. Minju means no harm—it’s just the way her brain works—but I’m dusty, hungry, and tired of being treated like a container for the Yeoiju. Plus, I’m on edge because I haven’t seen Jihun since this morning, when he left to follow a lead on Daeseong’s whereabouts.
What if he found the dark mudang? I clamp down on my rising panic. No, he would’ve told us right away if he’d found the madman. I don’t even know if Jihun is back from the Mortal Realm.
“I assumed you’d want to avoid getting repainted after every bath, because Hailey told me you’re ticklish.” Minju blinks owlishly at me. “However, if you enjoy being tickled with a wet brush for upwards of an hour, then I apologize for my assumption.”
“I don’t enjoy ...” I choke and sputter, flabbergasted enough to forget Daeseong for the moment.Thatis where her mind went? A tickle fetish? Not bodily autonomy?
“Perhaps you can consider other options of tickling?” the historian continues, tapping her finger on her chin. “How about applying a duster to the bottom of your feet? Or a feather under your chin? Give it some thought. We don’t have to decide anything until we know the runes work.”
“Work how?” I sigh with affectionate exasperation and sink into a chair across from the endearingly clueless historian. “Does shattering the conference table into tiny splinters count as themworking?”
