Page 20 of King Foretold (Realm of Four Kingdoms #2)

“Sunny.” Someone brushes my hair away from my face. “You have to wake up.”

I sit up with a gasp, which immediately turns into a moan. “Fuck.”

“I told you to wake up, not sit up,” Minju chides as she brings a cup to my lips. “Drink.”

I take a few sips, then push the cup away. “No more. Wh ... what happened?”

“You were injured.” She helps me lie back down. “I was summoned to heal you.”

My forehead crinkles as I try to remember. I was sparring with the Mean Girl, and I cut her. Nothing lethal, but enough to end the round. And ...

“Oh gods.” Everything rushes back to me. “Was anyone ... Did I ... hurt anyone?”

“No, you didn’t hurt anyone.” Minju pulls her knees up under her hanbok chima and rests her chin on them.

Someone changed me into a clean, bloodless dobok.

I reach my hand under the shirt and gingerly feel my stomach.

My skin where the fist-sized hole used to be is smooth.

I peek under the covers. The area feels a bit tender to the touch, but there isn’t even a scar.

If left on its own, the wound would’ve taken days to heal unless I bled out first.

“Good work.” I offer the historian a wan smile. Minju is impressively competent at healing spells. “With skills like this, I’m surprised you didn’t become an uinyeo.”

“I was advised against becoming a nurse. Something about inappropriate bedside manners,” she mutters. “I still don’t get it. Don’t the patients deserve honesty? A dying person should know they’re dying, right?”

I sputter a laugh, then wince, grabbing my stomach. It looks pretty on the outside, but it still feels like I did a thousand sit-ups on the inside. Jihun picks that exact moment to slide open the door to the room—I actually don’t know where I am—and falls to his knees at my side.

“Gods, Sunny.” He cups my cheek in a warm, calloused hand, his expression soft and unguarded with concern. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” I lean away from his hand and glower at him. “Why are you acting like I’m on my deathbed?”

“Cheyun told me what happened ...” He runs his hand through his hair, and his silken strands stream down the sides of his face. “Your injury sounded ... alarming.”

“Well, Cheyun was exaggerating.” I sit up to prove my point but regret it right away. The effort hurts me enough to make bile rise to my throat, and the room spins so fast I can’t tell if I’m in Kansas or Oz.

And I must sway, because Jihun shifts to wrap his arm around my shoulders and offers me his chest to rest my head.

My scoff sounds too much like a whimper.

I don’t want to burrow into his rock-hard chest, but my head falls against it regardless.

On the upside, it feels like a lightly padded brick wall and is surprisingly comfortable.

“Will she be okay?” Jihun asks Minju.

“Her body heals fast,” she hedges. “We don’t need to worry about that part.”

Is she implying there’s a part we do need to worry about? I’m too woozy to ask, but luckily, Jihun has the same question. “What do we need to worry about?”

“Her bloodlust.” Minju lowers her voice as though she’s suddenly concerned about her bedside manners. “Captain Seo believes Sunny is too even keeled to lose her head like that, and ... she sensed dark magic coming off of her.”

The captain actually said something not insulting about me?

I’m more shocked by that than the dark-magic part because I might already know the answer to that one.

I haven’t told Minju, or anyone , about the word of power branded on my back.

I don’t know if it was shame that held me back, or something else.

I think a part of me didn’t want anyone to take it from me.

But that can’t be right. Why would I want to cling on to the dark magic that killed my mother? It doesn’t matter. Whatever it was that held me back, I have to get over it. I can’t risk hurting anyone.

I’m tired of not being able to trust myself.

I’m done being afraid that my powers will harm people.

I finally came to terms with being a gumiho.

I came to terms with the Yeoiju being a power for good.

I accepted that I can be good. I will not let a fucking stain on my back sentence me to a life of paranoia again.

That’s one part of my old life I definitely don’t miss.

“I think I know ...” I lift my head away from Jihun’s chest and shake his arm off my shoulders. He drops it immediately but doesn’t move away. Fine. I surreptitiously lean my shoulder against his arm to keep myself steady. “I think I know the source of my bloodlust.”

Minju grabs my hand. “Tell us.”

Biting down on my lip, I shift on the bedding and push my shirt off one shoulder. “It won’t wash off.”

“Is that the rune Daeseong used against your mother?” the historian asks haltingly. “The word of power you spoke out loud?”

“Are you asking if this is what I used to accidentally destroy the study?” I tug my shirt back into place, covering the rune. “Then yes. That’s the one.”

The room grows quiet. Minju glances at Jihun with something like panic in her eyes, and he wraps his arm around my shoulders again. I don’t shake it off.

“So what do we need to do?” I clasp my hands in front of my bosom like anything is possible with a little gumption.

“I bet you know some good cleansing spells, right? Should we chant one to scrub this little stain off?” When she doesn’t say anything, I prattle, “Worse comes to worst, I’ll go back to the Mortal Realm and get it lasered out like people do with drunk tattoos. ”

“You can’t go through the Gray Void.” Minju shakes her head as the blood drains from her face. “It will sense the dark magic in you and destroy you.”

“Wh ... what?” I rear back and nearly headbutt Jihun’s face. “I have to go through the Gray Void to get to the Mortal Realm. It’s the only way home. What do you mean I can’t go through it?”

“The Gray Void exists to stop the Amheuk from reaching the Realm of Four Kingdoms.” The historian sends Jihun another wide-eyed look, and he nods for her to continue. “It will detect and destroy any trace of dark magic that comes within its reach.”

“Why are we talking in circles?” I throw my hands up. Then I double over, feeling the pain in my stomach all the way to the back of my teeth. I hiss out a long breath, holding still until the throbbing subsides. “Let’s get this creepy rune off my back. I don’t want it.”

“I ... I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to remove it.” Minju covers her face with her hands.

“What do you mean you don’t know how?” Panic and ... triumph clench my insides into a confused knot.

“I’m so sorry,” she says, repeating the useless apology. “This is all my fault.”

It is her fault, an insidious voice says in my head as heat spreads across my back. I clench my jaw to hold back the words. To hold back the rage. I twist the blanket in my hands and fight to slow down my breathing.

“There’s no use assigning blame at this point.” Jihun watches me with a troubled expression. “We need to focus on finding the solution.”

“Yes.” Minju sniffs loudly, then turns to me. “I’ll make it right, Sunny. I’ll find a way to erase the rune. I promise you.”

“Soon?” I ask in a small voice, exhausted from keeping my dark anger in check. “I ... I don’t feel like myself.”

A part of me wants this power—this broken and tortured magic, jarring in its wrongness.

Something in me craves it. It makes me powerful, and I’m desperate to destroy Daeseong.

If I cross this line, what does that make me?

Then I remember the awful magic that has always been a part of me—the forbidden power I’ve buried so deep inside that I nearly forgot its existence.

Have I been fooling myself all this time? Can I choose to be good?

“This darkness inside you ...” The weight of Jihun’s hand feels comforting on my back. “It isn’t you, Sunny.”

I meet his eyes but quickly look away. The sincerity in his gaze—his faith in me—is too much.

Because I want it too much. I’m afraid to need it—to need friends who believe in me, even when I doubt myself.

But I hesitantly take strength from Jihun and remind myself that I can control my hidden power.

I can choose to never use it. There’s that, at least. As for the word of power on my back, Minju will make it right. She promised.

“Whose room is this anyway?” I clear my throat and glance around the small bedroom.

“Mine.” Captain Seo walks in without bothering to knock, which makes sense in light of what she just said. “The uinyeos at the infirmary are petty cowards ... At any rate, I needed to find you somewhere private, and close to the training yard, to heal. My room was the obvious choice.”

“Thank you, Captain.” I force out the words even as they cling to my throat for dear life.

“I did my duty.” She arches a perfectly shaped eyebrow.

I want to think she would’ve left me to bleed out if it wasn’t for her duty , but that doesn’t ring true somehow. So I arch my not-so-perfect brow and say, “Nevertheless.”

“Of course, she can’t stay here much longer.” She addresses Jihun. “The cadets are ... wary.”

“But they aren’t wary of Jo Danbi?” My voice rises with each word.

They’re happy to rub elbows with that cheating, murderous piece of shit, but not me. Not the big, bad gumiho. What have I ever done to them? Except what happened in the training yard today. In my defense, I only went after Jo Danbi, and dark magic or not, she had it coming.

“Her conduct was unacceptable,” Captain Seo says with a steely glint in her eyes. “As a consequence, she is no longer a cadet.”

“She got off easy.” Jihun seethes.

To my utter shock, Captain Seo nods in agreement. “Bloody politics.”

“Politics?” I ask Jihun, because I get the sense Captain Seo doesn’t want to talk to me unless it’s strictly necessary.