Page 4 of King Foretold (Realm of Four Kingdoms #2)

The Mean Girls snicker behind me. I don’t waste my energy acknowledging them. I have my hands full with the furious angel in front of me, as well as the angry gumiho inside me. The captain picked the wrong day to mess with me.

“Because he’s three times my size and weight.” I throw an arm out toward Haesan, and he whimpers. “And he’s a being of Water, with the might of waves in his veins. Without magic, no one in this training yard can defeat him in hand-to-hand combat.”

“Is that your expert opinion, Cadet Cho?” The captain sounds terrifyingly calm. “That no one smaller and weaker can defeat him?”

“It’s common sense,” I bite out, doubling down.

I’ve already shown enough disrespect to earn me a week of barracks cleaning. I might as well crash and burn like a blazing meteorite. Besides, the captain can’t work me to literal death. This whole cadet farce grants me amnesty, which means no killing me ... for now.

“Would you agree that Gang Haesan is stronger and bigger than me?” Captain Seo unbuckles her leather belt and drops her twin knives onto the ground.

Fuck. I shoot a panicked glance at Haesan, who turns an interesting shade of green. I’m the one who challenged her authority. She’s angry at me . I won’t let her take it out on my friend. I round on the captain with murder in my eyes.

“Leave him out of this,” I growl.

“You’ve made that impossible, haven’t you?” She steps into the sparring circle that Haesan and I recently vacated. “How else can I unburden you of your flawed thinking? As your instructor, it would be remiss of me not to use this as a teaching opportunity.”

With his giant shoulders drooping, Haesan walks inside the circle.

Captain Seo is taller than me, but she still only comes to the merman’s chin.

Even assuming her slender figure is made of corded muscles, Haesan could lay her out within three minutes.

Is the captain counting on that so she can punish him for hurting an instructor?

I can’t let that happen. I suck in a breath, ready to apologize . .. to beg.

“In this circle, I am not your instructor,” Captain Seo says in a clear, carrying voice.

“We stand as equals. Don’t be afraid of repercussions.

There will be none unless you fail to try your best. And do not insult me by holding back because I am smaller and weaker than you. Is that understood, Gang Haesan?”

“Understood, Captain,” Haesan answers automatically.

“I am not your captain.” A ghost of a smile crosses her face. “I’m Seo Cheyun, your sparring partner. Ready?”

Haesan nods and takes his fighting stance. “What are you waiting for, Seo Cheyun?”

The cadets, as well as the other instructors, gather around the circle, jostling me from behind, but I don’t take my eyes off the fight. The excited murmur quiets into awed silence as Captain Seo and Haesan face off.

Haesan is big, but he’s startlingly fast. He’s been holding back with everyone, not just me.

But Captain Seo ... She fights like a work of art come to life.

She moves like poetry, lithe and fluid, and strikes like lightning.

Their fight is an intricate dance choreographed to a symphonic masterpiece—beautiful and deadly, nuanced and brutal.

They punch, kick, block, and spin in a blur of flying limbs and twisting bodies.

Haesan lands the first punch, and they break apart, dust swirling at their feet.

Cheyun wipes the blood off her busted lip with her knuckles and gives her opponent a nod of acknowledgment.

He smirks and beckons her with a flick of his hand.

After another furious burst of fighting, Haesan grunts and stumbles back two steps, barely stopping within the circle. Cheyun stands with her leg in the air for a second longer—the leg that just delivered an explosive kick to the merman’s chest—then lowers it with impressive control.

Then they circle each other in loose fighting stances, panting from the exertion. The two seem evenly matched. I don’t know who I’d put my money on. This fight might come down to stamina. They can’t fight at this speed and intensity forever.

Yet, they spar for fifteen more minutes straight without seeming to tire. They are fucking machines. I’m exhausted just from watching them.

Suddenly, Cheyun moves in on Haesan like a streak of light, heading straight for his center of mass.

She is so fast that I would’ve missed it if I wasn’t paying attention.

But it’s not going to work. I already tried that strategy.

Battering into Haesan is like slamming into a mountain.

It’s going to hurt her a lot more than it’ll hurt him.

This will be over as soon as he gets his hands on Cheyun and throws her across the yard. I don’t even blink because I’m afraid to miss her spectacular defeat. But—and I don’t say this often—I’m wrong.

Cheyun lifts Haesan off the ground with a grunt and throws him over her shoulder, and he flies feet first through the air. In a blur of movements, she slams him down on the dirt and kneels on his chest, pressing one knee against his throat. “Do you yield?”

Haesan gurgles, and she eases the pressure off his windpipe to let him speak. “I yield.”

Riotous cheers shatter the awed silence.

The cadets jump, whoop, and pump their fists in the air, like their favorite basketball player sank a game-winning three-pointer with 0.

01 seconds on the clock. They already think Captain Seo is the biggest badass to ever walk the Realm of Four Kingdoms, and she just handed Haesan, someone twice her size, his ass on a platter.

It’s going to be nauseating to watch them suck up to her even more.

The captain helps Haesan to his feet and claps him on the back. That probably hurt her hand, and I hold back a snort. But the merman nods and smiles at something she says, and I purse my lips. I’m not obtuse enough to miss the fact that she’s behaving like a decent being toward Haesan.

Then why the hell is she such a jerk to me ? I swallow the small knot of hurt. It isn’t bigotry, because I don’t feel that slimy mixture of rage and shame when she torments me. It feels like straightforward loathing. Whatever. I don’t care if she hates me. At least, I don’t want to care.

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. Because of course she 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 on you ?” 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 risk me . 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 can feel her 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.