Page 29 of King Foretold (Realm of Four Kingdoms #2)

“Wake up, my lady.” Miok gives my shoulder a firm shake. “You will be late to the meeting.”

“What meeting?” I croak and yawn into my hand. “What time is it?”

“It’s long past sunset.” My handmaiden wraps an arm around my shoulders and helps me sit up on the sleeping mat.

“What day is it?” Sleep clings to my mind like cobwebs.

“I dressed you in that hanbok this morning,” Miok says kindly.

I glance down at myself, and the memories of the day chase away the last traces of sleep. Ethan surprising me with a picnic. Ethan getting shot in the shoulder. Ethan setting my body on fire. Ethan getting past my defenses despite my best intentions.

When I got back to my room at the Sunset Pavilion, I crawled under the blanket without changing and let the oblivion of sleep claim my tired body and soul. I toy with the idea of going back to sleep. I might prefer oblivion over what I’m about to learn at the meeting.

“They are waiting, my lady,” my handmaiden says, interrupting my skittish thoughts. “You don’t have far to walk since the meeting will be held here tonight.”

At Miok’s gentle but firm urging, I reluctantly get off my ass and make my way to the meeting.

But my jaw promptly hits the floor when I step out to the semi-open main hall.

It faces a serene courtyard with a lily pond, surrounded by flowering shrubs in countless shades of pink.

The sight never fails to steal my breath.

Except tonight, I don’t spare it even a passing glance because every ounce of my attention is snagged by Jihun, Hailey, and Jaeseok, who look like they walked off the cover of Vogue .

What in the name of ...

Jaeseok looks ridiculously hot in a fitted white tux and a black dress shirt, sitting propped against a wall, with his wrist dangling off a bent knee.

Hailey’s fishtail gown must have been poured onto her because it clings to her every curve, and the fabric shifts and glimmers like molten gold as she restlessly paces the floor.

As for Jihun, he carries off his classic black tux like tuxedos were invented with him in mind.

He somehow manages to look dashing—yes, I just used the word dashing —even as he sits like an uptight suhoshin, cross-legged in front of a square table with his back impossibly straight.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me there was a dress code for this meeting?” I mutter, frowning down at my wrinkled hanbok.

“Sunny,” Hailey cries and envelops me in a lung-collapsing hug, squeezing a grunt out of me.

“Uh, hey.” I awkwardly pat her waist because she has my arms pinned to my sides.

“They told me you were impaled with a wooden stake.” She crushes me harder.

“I’m okay,” I manage to wheeze in reassurance.

“It was more like a wooden pole,” Minju says unhelpfully. I hadn’t seen her sitting in a corner with her nose buried in a book. “Jo Danbi had girthy forearms.”

“I’m going to kill her,” Hailey snarls, while simultaneously nuzzling her cheek on top of my head like I’m a cuddly puppy.

“Get in line,” Ethan drawls as he walks up the stone steps to the main hall, looking impossibly handsome in a pristine jade green dopo. After a fleeting but heated glance my way, he settles down across from Jihun at the table.

My body gets some wildly interesting ideas from that look—like summoning a palanquin posthaste —but I resolutely ignore them and untangle myself from Hailey’s death grip.

“Were you able to leave your quarters without anyone’s notice, Your Highness?” Jihun murmurs.

“Yes.” Ethan gives him a curt nod. “But we don’t have long before someone realizes I’m gone.”

“Okay then. Now that everyone is here”—I wave my hand to encompass the three suhoshins—“can somebody tell me why ...”

I’m interrupted by the flap of powerful wings as Captain Seo lands lightly in the courtyard. “ Now everyone is here.”

“Lucky us,” I mutter with such wimpy sarcasm that I almost sound sincere. Who even am I?

I shoot Jihun a narrow-eyed glare for not telling me about Captain Seo.

His shoulders shift in a barely perceptible shrug, but a hint of a grin plays around his lips.

That traitor wanted me to be wary of her so she could keep me on my toes.

It may, or may not, have made my training more effective, but it was a dick move regardless.

Before I can decide whether or not to break his perfect nose, Jihun looks at Seo Cheyun. “Were you followed?”

“That’s why I’m late.” Her lips twist in annoyance. “The Council of the Suhoshin is getting suspicious of our extracurricular activities. I had to shake one of their minions.”

“It was only a matter of time before they caught on that there’s more to our mission—especially General Bak,” he says grimly. “Captain Seo, will you debrief us on the assassination attempt?”

“Cadet Cho has more insights to share than I do.” Captain Seo tips her chin at me, then sits down to Jihun’s right.

Is she publicly deferring to me? I turn to her with a questioning glance, and she gives me a nod of confirmation. She does want me to take this one. That doesn’t jibe with the arrogant, implacable captain I’ve come to know and loathe.

Well, she hasn’t been a complete asshole lately. She is arrogant and implacable, but she is also fair and loyal. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I like her, but I might admit to a pinch of grudging admiration. I nod back at her and take a deep breath.

“By the looks of his clothes and weapon, the assailant was a hunter from the Kingdom of Mountains, not a trained assassin. He had deadly aim, but he didn’t have deadly intent.

I think that’s the only reason Ethan got away with an arrow in his shoulder.

” I clench my fists to steady my voice. Even though the hunter hurt Ethan, he didn’t deserve to die.

“The male was already remorseful when I chased him down. But when he saw Ethan with the golden axe and the silver axe, he became downright distraught. He somehow recognized him as the Prince of Mountains.”

“According to legend, the Spirit of Mountains gave the golden axe and the silver axe to a woodsman, worthy of ruling the Kingdom of Mountains,” Minju explains.

“The people of the Kingdom of Mountains believe that only the true heir of Mountains—someone with honor, integrity, and compassion—can bear the legendary axes.”

I guess everyone in this realm, like in the Mortal Realm, grew up listening to “Golden Axe, Silver Axe.” Except their version carries more significance than the quaint Korean folklore. No wonder the hunter became distraught.

“The assailant saw the axes and realized he’d been sent to kill the true heir of Mountains.

” I rub my pounding temple, wishing I could crawl under my bedding and sleep this whole nightmare away.

“Before we could stop him, he s ... stabbed an arrow into his own throat. As he bled out, he begged for forgiveness. He tried to explain that he wouldn’t have come if he’d known who he was, even .

.. even though his children were starving. ”

“That poor hunter. Someone took advantage of him because he and his family were destitute and hungry.” Hailey’s eyes spark with anger. “Only the worst kind of coward would do something like that.”

Furious murmurs of agreement ripple across the room.

My eyes seek out Ethan, because we know his father is that coward.

His expression doesn’t change, but his hand fists on top of the table.

I want to rush over and hug him until the rigid lines of his back relax.

But I’m held back by more reasons than I can count on one hand.

“You said the assailant was a hunter from the Kingdom of Mountains.” Jihun brings the discussion back on track, and I belatedly realize my slipup.

No one other than Minju and Ethan know about my magic gi goggles.

“I understand you identified him as a hunter from his clothes and weapon, but how can you be sure he was from the Kingdom of Mountains?”

I raise my eyebrows at Minju. I don’t mind sharing with the class, but she’s more careful about revealing my powers than I am. She pinches her lips to the side, then nods, coming to a decision.

“Sunny can discern which life source we originate from.” She drops the bomb so matter-of-factly that it feels anticlimactic.

“What?” Jaeseok sits forward so fast that he rebounds slightly. Maybe it wasn’t anticlimactic for everyone. “How? And just to be sure, what ?”

“I can see the colors of the life forces.” I take the last seat at the table, across from Captain Seo, with Ethan and Jihun on either side of me. “The hunter’s gi was green.”

An awed sort of silence descends on the room.

I welcome the distraction, even though it’s over my weird, no-one-but-me powers.

I just ... Grief isn’t an emotion I often allow myself to feel.

But lately, it’s as though the walls that protected my heart for over a century are cracking and crumbling.

I feel too much, too often. I need a break from the emotions I don’t want, like mourning the death of a hunter I didn’t even know.

I exhale slowly and force myself to relax.

“That’s fire,” a disembodied voice says in my head, scaring the shit out of me. “Can you see my gi? Is it the same color as my hair?”

“Draco?” I rise to my knees, scanning the dark courtyard for blue scales. I can’t believe they are frolicking in the moonlight in their dragon form. “Come out this instant.”

I cringe as soon as the words leave my mouth. Eww. I sound like a naggy parent. But the teenage dragon spirit emerges from the shadows of a bejeweled tree, with their hands stuffed in the pockets of their jeans. At least they had the sense to shift back to their human form.

“What are you doing here?” Jihun manages to convey cool displeasure without sounding naggy. I should work on that.

“I’m here to help.” Draco climbs the stone steps and sits with one leg dangling off the raised floor. “I can contribute more than just my dragon scales.”