Page 53 of King Foretold (Realm of Four Kingdoms #2)

Ethan and I watch Hailey drink tea straight from the pot as we sit huddled in the corner of the king’s chambers. I’m both impatient for and dreading this news we needed to sit down to hear. The pot must be enchanted because she’s been drinking from it for a good minute, and the tea keeps coming.

“Conjuring all that icy fog really dehydrates me.” She stops drinking at last and wipes her mouth on her sleeve.

“Stop stalling, Hailey.” I stare enviously at her black turtleneck and jeans. Modern clothes in black. I sigh. “We’re sitting down. Tell us the bad news.”

“Who says it’s bad ...” She trails off when I narrow my eyes at her, and she drops her head. She looks so small and vulnerable that I feel terrible for rushing her. But she squares her shoulders and meets my gaze, then Ethan’s. “Daeseong is stirring.”

“It was a matter of time,” I say stoically, even though I want to hurl. Ethan squeezes my hand, and I squeeze back hard enough to crush any other male. “How exactly is he stirring ? Is he doing more dinner shows for the Jaenanpa?”

“When he first returned to the Mortal Realm, he moved stealthily ... strategically. So much so that we still don’t know the full extent of his activities before Heaven Lake.

” Hailey shakes her head slowly. “But something ... changed. Since he surfaced at the Jaenanpa’s fundraising gala, he’s been giving us an education on what mayhem truly means. ”

“How?” Ethan asks with a dark frown. “Wasn’t the gala only a few nights ago?”

“In just a few short days, the Jaenanpa attempted to kidnap hundreds of humans across the Mortal Realm. We managed to stop most of them, but they got away with a few.” Hailey wipes a weary hand down her face.

“But since yesterday, they succeeded in kidnapping close to a thousand people. We stopped hundreds of attempts, but we can’t keep up with them.

Every Jaenanpa follower seems to have come out of hiding.

There are too many of them for us to track. ”

“That makes no sense. The Jaenanpa works in the shadows, never revealing their true numbers. That’s how they’ve been flying under the radar from both the Suhoshin and the human authorities.” My brows furrow in frustration. “Why would they risk exposure now?”

“Daeseong must be driving them.” Hailey’s lips press into a grim line. “I don’t know what he has on them, or what he promised them, but these fanatics are not going for subtle. It’s like they don’t expect there to be a tomorrow ...”

“Oh gods,” I whisper, Hailey’s words triggering the memory of what I saw in the dark mudang’s mind at Heaven Lake.

I remember the Amheuk’s yawning hunger and Daeseong’s terrified exhilaration of doing his master’s bidding.

“They’re helping the dark mudang usher in the Amheuk to the Mortal Realm.

That’s why they’re unafraid of the consequences of their actions.

They know there won’t be a future for humankind. ”

Hailey gasps, and I seek out Ethan, my stomach lurching with dread. He meets my eyes and reaches out to squeeze my hand. My fear fades gradually to be replaced by determination. We will stop Daeseong.

“I don’t know very much about the Jaenanpa, but aren’t they comprised of corrupt mudangs?” He thinks out loud. “They’re human. Don’t they realize the Amheuk will destroy them as well?”

“That must be the carrot Daeseong is dangling in front of them.” My fist clenches on my lap. “He’s promising them power and immortality, leaving out the part that they’ll be mindless shadow monsters.”

“But why are they kidnapping all those humans?” Ethan asks. I look at him with a sad shake of my head, and his eyes grow wide with alarm.

Daeseong was resurrected from the dead through an unthinkable blood sacrifice.

When his followers grew to five thousand people with the birth of a baby, they synchronized a bloody ritual.

All five thousand of them, including the newborn, took their final breath at the exact same moment and brought the dark mudang back to life as a creature of the Amheuk.

I turn to Hailey. “Have the Sentinels discovered where the Jaenanpa is keeping them?”

“Not yet, and that brings me to what I’m doing here,” she says.

“The Jaenanpa’s activities are becoming more and more frenzied.

It’s obvious they’re nearing some kind of D-Day.

We need to find the kidnapped humans before it’s too late.

I was hoping you have the King of Mountains locked up somewhere and we can grill him about where his friend Daeseong is hiding out. ”

“What?” My stomach drops like deadweight. “I thought the dark mudang was in LA.”

“He was, but we lost him.” Hailey hisses out an angry breath. “We tried to track him down, but he’s a slippery son of a bitch. He pops up all over the world but rarely stays in one place long enough for us to pin him down.”

“Can’t we squeeze one of the Jaenanpa’s mudangs?” I say, already getting a bad feeling about interrogating the tyrant.

“Even the highest echelon of the Jaenanpa have no idea where Daeseong is, or what he’s doing.

” Hailey shakes her head. “They just execute his orders without question. What’s worse, the dark mudang doesn’t tell them what to do until the last minute, adding to the chaos of the Jaenanpa’s activities.

There is no logical pattern to their behavior, so we can’t study it to track him down. ”

“You think the tyrant knows where Daeseong is?” Ethan grimaces as though talking about his father has a bitter aftertaste.

“It’s probably a long shot. Yet it’s the only shot we have—pinning down Daeseong is the only way to stop this.” Hailey bows her head apologetically. “I know this is the last thing you need, Your Highness.”

I want to bury my face in my hands and curl into a tight, impenetrable ball, but I rub Ethan’s arm instead. I don’t want him confronting his father already. The poor guy needs a breather, for gods’ sakes.

“You don’t have to come with us,” I say softly.

“You’re not going anywhere near him without me.” Ethan stands, pulling me up with him. “He’ll try to hurt you to get to me.”

I can only nod. I hate that the sick motherfucker still has the power to hurt Ethan after everything he has taken from him.

“I’m so sorry to add to your burden, my prince.” Hailey looks miserable as she rises to her feet. “You, too, Sunny.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Ethan says with warm sincerity. “Your journey here couldn’t have been easy. I’m grateful you came to find us.”

“Yeah.” I give her shoulder a little shove. “It’s not your fault. We have to work as a team to stop Daeseong. I thought that was the deal.”

“Oh, Sunny.” Tears flood Hailey’s eyes, and I immediately regret the mushy things I said. When she tackle hugs me, I heave a put-upon sigh but surreptitiously wrap my arms around her.

“Ugh,” I grumble out of principle. Before I get too comfortable in the embrace of my friend, I squirm and complain, “Get off me, you clingy grim reaper.”

Ethan grins knowingly at me, and I bare my teeth at him to make sure he doesn’t think I’ve gone soft. He chuckles under his breath, then turns to the nearest royal guard. “I need an escort to the dungeon.”

“I know the way, Your Majesty.” A royal guard at the other end of the half circle marches up to us. “It will be my honor to escort you.”

Hailey spins to me with her mouth hanging open. I pat her back and explain, “It all happened so quickly, but yeah, Ethan is the King of Mountains.”

Ethan groans and presses his fingers against his eyelids. “Let’s focus on the task at hand. We need to find Daeseong before it’s too late.”

Fortunately, the palanquins stand where we left them, and Hailey and I each take one.

Her modern clothes are too noticeable, and I am still a gumiho.

We can’t risk being noticed as we travel outside of the king’s personal quarters.

Ironically, the new King of Mountains is the least conspicuous of the three of us, so he walks ahead of the palanquins with the royal guard.

The palace grounds are quiet, so I crack open a side window and peek outside. Various court personnel go about their business and pay us no heed. With the king’s jimil so secluded from the rest of the palace, no one seems to have heard the roof explode or the rest of the mayhem. I sigh with relief.

But word will soon spread that the tyrant has been imprisoned by his son. I hope the old king was bluffing about the generals who are loyal to him. Either way, we should be prepared for an uprising from the loyalists.

Ethan needs to start recruiting allies with the help of Captain Ha.

Not only does the captain of the royal guards seem competent and trustworthy, but he should also have a good understanding of the court politics in the Kingdom of Mountains.

I know Ethan will never let me handle his father alone, but he doesn’t have much time to prepare.

The royal guard escorts us to the dungeon without delay.

Hailey and I step out of the gamas and join Ethan at the front entrance.

The hanok, located on the outskirts of the palace, looks like any number of buildings we passed on our way here.

Other than its secluded location, nothing indicates that a dungeon lies within.

Ethan gives the heavy wooden doors a tug, but it’s barricaded from the inside.

Jihun and Captain Ha must be with the tyrant, somewhere deep, dark, and far away from the entrance.

I doubt they’ll be able to hear me, but I pound a fist on the door anyway.

I yelp when the heavy doors immediately swing open, nearly knocking Ethan and me to the ground.

“I didn’t expect you so soon, Your Majesty.” Captain Ha draws back in surprise, seeing us right outside the dungeon.

“Neither did I,” Ethan says darkly. “We have come to speak with the prisoner.”

“Hailey?” Jihun steps out from behind the captain. “What are you doing here?”