Page 42 of King Foretold (Realm of Four Kingdoms #2)

Ethan sucks in a sharp breath as his eyes bore into mine, and I freeze. Shit. Am I found out? Did I reveal too much of my heart? I try to turn my head, but he catches my chin between his fingers. My pulse flutters in my throat.

“Say that again,” he rasps.

“S ... say what? We agreed to stick together. Re ... remember?” I stutter before the words I can’t voice spill out of me. I love you, I love you, I love you. “Until w ... we stop Daeseong.”

“I remember.” He lets go of my chin but holds my gaze. “I remember everything.”

Images of cozy meals and laughter in an enchanted house, of long conversations beneath the blue sky, of his hands and lips on my naked body .

.. flicker through my mind. But that was before.

Before we found out his true identity. Before we learned about the prophecy.

Everything was different then, and there is no going back.

“I said ,” Keeper Bae booms, “the travelers may approach the portal.”

“That’s my cue.” I spin away from Ethan and stomp toward the pagoda. Without turning around, I wave over my shoulder at my friends. I hate goodbyes, especially when this could really be goodbye. “Laters.”

“Rude,” Draco grumbles. My sinuses burn at the hurt and worry in their voice. “I’m not saying goodbye to your back.”

Then they tackle me from behind in a crushing hug and storm off before I can say a single word. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to with my tears so close to the surface.

“Be careful, Sunny,” Hailey shouts, and my throat works to swallow. This is why I hate goodbyes.

Ethan and Jihun take time to say proper goodbyes to the Sentinels. It must be nice to be emotionally well adjusted. I stomp up the stairs and stop in front of the keeper. He glares at me.

“Do we have a problem?” I glare right back at him.

“Problem?” Keeper Bae’s frown shifts from surly to confused. “Why would we have a problem? Stop talking nonsense and hold out your hand.”

I meekly do as I’m told because I’m oddly touched by his confusion.

He doesn’t care that I’m a gumiho. Without ceremony, he pours some of the dirt from his hands onto my palm.

My skin tingles under the soft mound of earth, and I peer at it, holding it up to my eyes.

Ethan and Jihun come quietly to my sides and hold out their hands without being asked. The keeper fills their palms as well.

“This is for your passage to the Kingdom of Mountains tonight.” Keeper Bae then hangs loose necklaces with small pouches of dirt around our necks. “And these are for your passage back. Do not lose them. I have no way of opening the portal on that end from over here.”

“Understood.” Jihun nods. “And this will take us to the portal at the lake?”

“That’s what you asked for, isn’t it?” the keeper mutters irritably. “That portal has been closed off for decades, but I did my part to get you there.”

“Thank you, Keeper Bae.” Then Jihun turns to Ethan and me. “I’ll go through first and make sure nothing’s amiss. Give me five minutes before you follow.”

“What if the King of Mountains has an army waiting for us?” I scoff in disbelief. “Will five minutes be enough for you to dispose of them all?”

“You’re right.” The corners of his mouth twitch with amusement. “Give me ten minutes.”

“We’ll all go through together,” Ethan says with wry affection. “Sunny, hold this for me.”

He adds his dirt to my mound before I can ask him why. Then he dusts off his hands and sweeps me up in his arms.

“What the hell are you doing?” I yelp in surprise but manage to fist my hand around the dirt.

“You’ll see. Throw the dirt against the pillar when I say now,” he says with a crooked grin, then turns to Jihun. “Captain, whenever you’re ready.”

His unreadable gaze travels from me to Ethan, then he nods curtly.

“Against which—” I begin.

“Now,” Ethan shouts.

“For fuck’s sake.” I throw my handful of dirt against the pillar nearest us, and Jihun does the same.

Before I can demand to be put down, I’m blinded by a beam of green light.

The same light that Shim Duna escaped through.

I get it now. The light is the opening to the portal, and the mound of earth is the token to the Kingdom of Mountains.

But I don’t have much time to be awed because as soon as Ethan steps through the light, we’re free-falling toward a mirrorlike lake surrounded by emerald green mountains.

I scream and wrap my arms around his neck. I can’t be sure, between the air whooshing in my ears and my shrill scream, but I’m pretty sure he chuckles before he slows our descent.

“I got you, Sunny,” he murmurs in my ear, letting his lips brush its sensitive shell. The asshole is definitely laughing at me.

“I don’t understand how you can fly,” I grumble. “You’re not a suhoshin.”

“I’m half-seonnam, remember?” He pulls me tighter against him as he lands next to the lake.

“Lucky you.” I shove at his chest but stop when he stares at the lake, his expression turning bleak. “Ethan, what’s wrong?”

“Do you know the Korean folklore about the seonnyeo and the woodsman?” His voice is barely above a whisper.

“The one where the woodsman finds a seonnyeo bathing in the lake?” I lay a hand on his cheek, wanting to reach him through his pain, but his gaze remains trained on the water. “He hides her clothes to stop her from flying away so she will have to marry him.”

In the old story, the woodsman saves a magical deer, who grants him one wish.

The woodsman wishes to marry, so the deer tells him how to make an angel from the heavens his wife.

The woodsman must steal the seonnyeo’s celestial dress while she bathes in the lake so that she won’t be able to fly away.

Then he must hide her clothes from her until they have three children.

The woodsman does exactly as he’s told to claim a beautiful seonnyeo as his wife.

But when their second child is born, the angel begs him to return her dress.

Ignoring the deer’s warning, the woodsman gives his wife her clothes because he loves her dearly.

And as soon as she has her celestial dress back, the seonnyeo flies away into the heavens, holding a child in each arm.

The woodsman understands too late that the deer told him to wait until they have three children, because she could carry only two in her arms.

I never liked how the humans made the woodsman a lovesick victim and the seonnyeo a conniving, unfaithful female. That bastard forced her to marry him—forced her to bear his children. Is it any wonder she escaped from her captor the moment she got the chance?

“The humans got it all wrong, you know.” A muscle tics in Ethan’s jaw. “There was never a foolish, lovesick woodsman—only a cruel, greedy one. And the seonnyeo never got to fly away with her children.”

“Oh Ethan . . .” I whisper.

The royal line in the Kingdom of Mountains are descendants of the first woodsman, the most powerful being of Mountains.

His father was the woodsman who forced the seonnyeo into marrying him, and his mother was the angel from the heavens—a noble maiden bathing in the lake, seen naked by a powerful male.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how he blackmailed her with her virtue .

How he forced her to accept his hand to avoid bringing shame upon herself and her family.

Women in the Joseon Dynasty were taught that their virtue was worth more than their lives.

When a girl turned fourteen, she was given a small silver dagger to keep on her body at all times.

If a man raped her, she was taught to kill the rapist first, then end her own life.

That was what the silver dagger was for—to dispose of her unpure, worthless self.

Purity culture has been fucking women over, be they human or shinbiin, for as long as men took it upon themselves to determine a woman’s worth.

Not only in Korea but also everywhere in the worlds.

Not only in the Mortal Realm but also in the Realm of Four Kingdoms. To this day, they use our bodies to objectify us or shame us, depending on what suits their needs.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “But your mother did not stay a helpless victim. She captured the hearts of her people and gave them hope. She opposed and outsmarted a tyrant king. Because of her strength and courage, the prophecy of the King Foretold will be fulfilled. You will be her legacy.”

“Thank you.” He gently sets me down on my feet and presses his forehead against mine. I step back and look away from him as Jihun approaches.

“My prince.” His jaw clenches as he holds my eyes for a second too long, then he scans the surroundings. “We need to get out of the open and find cover for the night.”

“Of course, Captain.” With a faint smile, Ethan cocks his head at me. “Do your thing, Sunny.”

“Since you asked so nicely,” I snark but turn my gaze toward the wooded mountains. I see the lay of the land in a single glance, the familiar gi of Mountains a balm on my weary soul. “There’s a cave nearby, hidden by the trees. We can camp there for the night.”

“I still cannot wrap my head around that.” Jihun’s lips quirk into a wonderous grin. “Please lead the way.”

I roll my eyes at him, but it feels gratifying to be good at something for once. I’m actually proud of my magic gi goggles. My steps feel light as I lead them toward the cave.

“Your eyes are still brown.” Ethan falls into step beside me, studying my face. “So you don’t have to open your spirit eyes to see everything anymore?”

“Not exactly everything.” I purse my lips. “I can perceive the gi of living things, including trees, mountains, bodies of water ...”

“Don’t forget caves,” Ethan adds with a teasing smile. I’m so relieved he’s back to himself that I beam back at him like a dork.