Page 2 of Four Ruined Realms (The Broken Blades #2)

Mikail

The East Sea

I’ll be honest: this isn’t great.

Euyn knew. My shoulders sag, and I breathe out my disappointment, along with my utter lack of surprise. Of course he knew. He recognized Sora the night we met her in Rahway—that was the look on his face when he asked her full name at dinner. He’d put it together, and yet he said nothing.

There are times, like this, when I wonder if I can really love a man like him. Is this love, or am I merely addicted to the highs and lows like a laoli addict? Will he ever be a good king, or will he be the same as or worse than his brother?

I push my doubts to the side. Right now, I have more pressing issues than the future of Yusan.

Sora was the glue holding all of us together, and she’s in pieces. For once in my loquacious life, I don’t know what to say. She wants to hurt him, and she’s not wrong to, but I can’t let her. In the end, I’m not that much of a hypocrite. I accepted that Euyn hunted people, and it’s hard to be upset with him for keeping secrets from me when I lied to him about any number of things, including Joon’s assassination plot coming from Quilimar. Really, I’ve kept more secrets from him than he could ever keep from me, including the fact that I’m not Yusanian.

It’s a bit too much for me to be self-righteous about honesty.

Just like that, I make the choice to once again stand by Euyn. Although I have to say, I’m less than enthusiastic about it.

“He spared him, Sora,” I say.

She stops crying long enough to flip her black hair over her shoulder and give me a death stare. I suppose I deserve it. It’s difficult to put a positive spin on hunting people for fun.

I try again.

“The reason Euyn was banished was because Chul lived,” I say. “Because Euyn let him go.”

“He doesn’t deserve the throne. He deserves to die,” she says.

She holds my gaze, challenge in her pretty eyes. This is that side of Sora, the one fiercer than any warrior I’ve known. She’d slaughter him right now without hesitation or regret.

“Sora, we all deserve to die,” I say.

Her face shifts, her expression surprised. An understanding passes between us. Regardless of our motivations, we are both mass killers. We steal souls and hope Lord Yama doesn’t come to collect. By most measures, we deserve death.

With a breath, Sora softens just a touch. She won’t kill Euyn—not at the moment, anyhow, and I’ll take it.

“We all made choices that can’t be undone,” I add. “But it’s Joon we need dead.”

“If we bring him the ring, though…” Royo begins.

“He’ll double-cross and kill us,” I say. “Or make us steal the Water Scepter from Wei, which is tantamount to certain death. It would be so unoriginal to let Joon outsmart us a second time.”

“He was never going to spare Hwan?” Royo’s broad brow wrinkles, his expression confused.

Hwan is the man in prison for killing his daughter. The one Royo has been fighting to free. I’m surprised Royo hadn’t figured out that while Joon had promised us great rewards—title, properties, mercy—he has little to no intention of keeping his word. A god king doesn’t care about promises to the likes of us.

Royo, however, is a man of honor, and people like him can’t fathom someone like Joon. Royo and Sora are guided by absolute right and wrong. They don’t possess the flexible morals of those with power. So Joon will eliminate them. Joon eliminates everyone he can’t control.

“No,” I say. “Not unless it suits him. The king has never worried about a commoner unless it served his end goal. He might have Hwan brought to Idle Prison, but only to torture him if need be.”

Royo rubs the old scar dividing his face. “Then King Joon has to die.”

Sora sighs and nods, her anger ebbing. Her back curves, her posture failing. Without burning anger, all you’re left with is the embers of grief. In many ways, fury is better because at least it’s something to cling to. Sadness is a barren expanse.

“You’re bleeding,” she says.

She’s looking at my neck. I touch my skin, and my fingers come away wet with blood. She scratched me while trying to get to Euyn.

“I’ll live.”

“You’re certain Euyn let my father go?” she asks.

Tears swim in her eyes, along with a little hope. It’s nice that I don’t have to lie to her this time.

“Absolutely certain. It was your father who told the palace that Euyn had been hunting convicts in Westward Forest.”

“Which you knew about,” she says.

She searches my face, and Royo eyes me, too. I want to lie, but it would only be to save face. In order to get through this new mission, I’ll have to start telling the truth—as much as I can, anyhow.

“I did,” I say.

She holds my stare. “Did you know he was my father?”

“No. I swear and I vow it. You look nothing alike.”

She sighs and looks down at her hands, at the nails that drew blood. We’ll have to spill a lot of it to save the people we love. I made my peace with that a long time ago, as did she.

“You really think Euyn’ll be a good king?” Royo asks.

I draw a breath. Do I?

“I think we’ve all done things we aren’t proud of,” I say. “I think a person is more than the strikes against them. At least I’d like to believe we are. I think Euyn has changed and continues to evolve. And if nothing else, he will be better than Joon.”

“Or maybe you just hope,” Royo says.

Both of them stare, waiting for a response, so I shrug. “All the same.”

Bells ring out on the ship. We’ve reached the capital of Khitan.

“Quu Harbor!” the captain calls out, walking the deck. “Quu Harbor!”

Just in time for me to forget Royo’s words.

I glance at Sora, her spine straightening again as she pulls herself back together once more. I forged papers for her because she has an indenture mark on her real ones. Although indentures and slaves are free once they cross into Khitan, the country has to at least pretend they snuck in. I also created papers for Aeri and Euyn, as they are both technically dead. And I, of course, never enter any foreign realm under my real name. I never use my real name at all.

It’s not an auspicious beginning, bringing dead liars into Khitan, but I will outsmart Joon. We lost the battle, but I will win the war.

First, I need to meet with another technically dead spirit—Fallador, the exiled Prince of Gaya—to see how we can get to the queen. And how we can finally free our homeland.