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Chapter Thirty-Two

Seokga

T he first thing he sees through his blurry, black-ebbed vision is Kisa. His Kisa, standing in the cold cavern, drenched to the bone. Seokga nearly falls to his knees in relief. She’s alive, he thinks, before the sickeningly icy knowledge that she was dead before he ever met her sets in.

The second thing he sees is Jang, struggling in skeletal shackles, defeat written all over her face. He smiles in satisfaction, even as he holds a hand to his still-bleeding side.

The third thing he sees is his father.

Sprawled on the rock where he left him so long ago.

A living corpse, he thinks as he stares at his father. Dirty, skeletal, gaunt. His black eyes are coated by a dull film. Seokga’s stomach twists inside of him, and he tells himself it’s only the pain of Jang’s bite. Thanks to the incline of the rock, Mireuk is perfectly able to see him, as well.

“My son,” Mireuk says, cracked lips stretching into a bloodless smile. “You came.”

“ Fuck, ” Yeomra breathes, freezing on the spot. Jang smirks.

The enormity of seeing his father for the first time since his imprisonment is like a sudden death to Seokga. His airways work and fail before he can finally find enough breath to compose himself even though he is falling apart on the inside.

“Hello, Father,” Seokga finds himself somehow managing to sneer. The pain in his side has receded and his whole body has gone numb. “You’re looking…terrible.” He sways on his feet slightly, saved only from falling as Kisa darts toward him. Her presence steadies him.

“Ah, Seokga,” Mireuk says with a sigh. “I’ve missed you. All this time, the things I have regretted…” His eyes slide to Kisa. “And this must be her, mustn’t it? She’s pretty. I see why you like her.”

“I’m not freeing you,” Seokga grits out between his teeth. “Your crimes against humanity put you here, and here you shall stay, Father.” A glimmer of pride spans down the bond between him and Kisa.

“You think me so incapable of change,” the Mad God whispers mournfully. “I could prove you wrong. I could undo all of it, if only these shackles were to come off…A world without pain. I could do that. Take it all back…”

“ Bullshit, ” Seokga snaps. The madness in his father’s mind is not the sort that can be treated or empathized with. They tried. For so long before imprisoning him, they tried. All it led to was death and destruction.

“I can turn back time…You can save Hani…or save Kisa…whomever you prefer…”

Kisa stiffens next to him.

—manipulative—he’s—goading—Lonely God—said—Yeomra—can’t—need—leave—now—now—now—

At his sides, Seokga’s fingers twitch. Kisa watches them until she cannot.

“This will help you, too, Seokga…Don’t pretend it will not…”

All the issues that stem from your relationship with your father can be healed. He wants to start again, like you have…And you, Seokga, can give him that. I know he would be eternally indebted to you.

“My son, my son.” Mireuk’s bloodless smile grows. “Don’t you want that?”

You love him. I think that you would still do anything for him.

“I do,” he rasps before he can stop himself. He can feel Mireuk’s influence encroaching on him like a fungus. His head aches with the effort of withstanding it.

“Seokga, please,” Kisa begs. “You can’t listen to him.”

“You and I are so alike, Seokga,” Mireuk whispers. “Misunderstood at every turn…All you have to do is untie me, son, and we can prove them all wrong.”

“Seokga,” Yeomra warns, voice dark. “Don’t. You know what your penance will be.”

Do you mean to say that a part of you doesn’t still long for his approval? Doesn’t wonder about what would happen if you earned it?

“Listen to me, Seokga,” Mireuk says. “Don’t listen to him. Come here. Unchain me. Do what your brother could never do…Be better than Hwanin could ever be.”

“Seokga,” whispers Kisa, grabbing his hand. “Please…don’t do this. I’m begging you—”

You love fully and completely, only to have it returned in less than half.

“Son…” Mireuk licks his lips weakly. “I love you. It would break my heart…if you wasted my love.”

I love you.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

How long has he waited to hear those words?

Seokga takes a deep breath. And lets go of Kisa’s hand.

He’ll have to let her go eventually anyway.

“SEOKGA!” Yeomra roars, but with a flick of his wrist, Seokga has created an illusion of unbearable pain for the death god. Yeomra falls to his knees as Seokga, chin held high, eyes holding his father’s, ascends the rock on which he lies.

“ No! ” Kisa cries, scrabbling after him. But Seokga is faster.

The first set of shackles are smooth under his hand. Seokga smiles down at his father as he rips them from the stone, shattering them into nothingness. Mireuk’s grin turns monstrous and wicked as his arms, and then legs, are freed.

The Mad God rises…

…and realizes he cannot.

From where he stands, illusioned invisible at the base of the rock, Seokga waves an indolent hand and dismisses the Seokga that stands above his father. Dismisses the illusion of broken chains, revealing that the skeletal shackles are still firmly in place on his father’s wizened wrists and ankles.

“ NO! ” roars his father, straining against his bonds. “ NO! ”

The illusion hiding himself, the true Seokga, from sight is the next to dissipate…followed by the pain grounding Yeomra. In Seokga’s opinion, the bastard deserves it for consistently failing to notice what’s going on in his own godsdamn realm.

“You villains. Always falling for the same tricks,” Seokga says in mock boredom, brushing invisible lint off his sodden pants as he looks meaningfully at Jang, and then at his father. “When will you learn? It’s utterly pathetic. If you’re going to be evil, you might as well be halfway good at it.”

Above him, perched on the rock, Kisa grins down at him. She doesn’t look at all surprised as she hops down. “How exhilarating,” she gasps. “I was never much one for theater—or improvisation, at any rate—but I think I pulled it off, don’t you?

“You knew?” splutters a pained-looking Yeomra.

“I see him for who he is,” she replies, pointedly cocking an eyebrow. “No matter if he’s illusioned or not. I told you that you underestimated him.”

Seokga has never loved Kisa more than he does in this moment.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, swaying on his feet. “I should have listened to you about Jang. I-I shouldn’t have called her…”

“No,” Kisa says firmly, lurching closer to him and cupping his face in her hands. “Don’t blame yourself for it. For any of it. My death is not your fault. It’s hers. And I don’t blame you for not wanting to think she had it out for you…”

“Seokga,” his father pants desperately, “think of all I can give you…that we can give each other…”

“No, thanks,” says Seokga, leaning into Kisa’s touch. It’s all he’ll ever want. All he’ll ever need.

Mireuk’s face contorts into the vicious mask that Seokga remembers. “I will hunt you to the ends of the earth…I will burn your mother’s verdant hills and plains with scorches of wildfire…I will pull the veins from your skin and tie them together …”

“That’s not completely anatomically possible,” Kisa points out, beaming at Seokga. Her eyes are sparkling, and damn it, if his heart isn’t swelling full to the point of bursting. Tenderly, he wraps his arms around her. Embracing her is like gasping that first breath of sweet air after drowning. Seokga buries his face in her mane of coffee curls, squeezing her tight.

“I love you.” She doesn’t need to say it back. She doesn’t even need to feel the same. He just needs to say it. “I love you, Kisa.”

He’s not hurt when she pulls back slightly. The time that they’ve had, he will treasure forever. The two of them got a second chance, and that’s more than many can ever ask for.

So when Kisa smiles tenderly at him and whispers the words back, he’s sure he’s misheard her, or has found himself in an illusion of his own making.

“I think I might love you, too,” she murmurs.

“ SEOKGA —” Mireuk roars.

“Goodbye, Father,” Seokga says, turning away. And he doesn’t look back once.