Chapter 26
Grace was sitting in the drizzle, shock freezing her in place, when she heard the slap of shoes.
She started to scramble up, to block Hae from sight, her addled brain thinking he couldn’t be found here.
“Zo, I—I need—” Grace broke off as she started sobbing and hyperventilating at the same time.
Zoe grasped Grace’s shoulders firmly. “Breathe, Gracie. Take deep breaths.”
Grace did as her friend instructed, barely pushing away the panic attack.
“Okay,” Zoe said. “You good?”
She nodded, taking a final deep breath.
“Then tell me what you need.”
“I need you to help me with him.” Grace gestured to Hae. She’d tried dragging the god to her car, still tilted sideways in the road. But her grip had kept sliding off his rain-slicked skin.
“Damn, Gracie. What the hell happened?”
“I’ll explain later. But for right now, I need you to help me get him in my car and then wait with Piper for the ambulance to arrive.”
“You’re leaving?” Zoe lifted a brow.
“Yes.” She had to get Hae out of here, before the authorities arrived and asked questions about him that Grace couldn’t answer. “Just tell the EMTs that you found her like that. Please.” Grace scooped her arms under Hae’s, waiting for her friend to come help.
Zoe sighed as they picked up his feet. “When I said I’d hide a dead body for you, I never thought it would literally happen.”
Struggling under his weight, they finally lifted Hae into the back seat. Grace thought she heard the distant sound of sirens and hurried to the driver’s side. “I’ll call you, I swear.”
Zoe held Grace’s door open. “If you don’t, I’m going to hunt you down for those answers.”
“Thanks for this, Zo.”
With a grim nod, Zoe shut the door.
“It’s okay. We’re all going to be okay,” Grace chanted to herself the entire drive home. The mantra only interrupted by the familiar voice of the GPS guiding her home.
The rain had slowed to more of a mist by the time she parked in her driveway. Hae groaned as she pulled him out of the car.
“Come on, Hae, work with me here,” she begged as he stumbled along with her, not quite conscious, but no longer deadweight. Thank the gods.
Haechi met them at the door, whining sadly, as if sensing something was off.
“It’ll be okay, boy. He’ll be fine.” She wondered if the dog could hear her doubt. She stumbled the last few steps to the bed, letting Hae slide out of her grip and onto the mattress.
Haechi jumped onto the bed to settle himself between Hae and the wall.
He looked so pale, she could practically see the veins under his skin.
She wondered if she should get him out of his wet clothes.
The very thought of undressing him made her cheeks burn.
But she reminded herself that if she wanted to become a doctor, she’d see lots of patients in all stages of undress.
She should get used to it. And she could at least get his wet shirt off.
“Can you sit up?”
Hae obeyed, his head lolling forward as she yanked away the soaked material.
Though his gorgeous physique was splayed out in front of her, she didn’t have time to react to it, she was too busy still internally freaking out.
“This isn’t right,” Hae grumbled. “This shouldn’t be happening to me.”
His weight became too much for her to support, and he slipped out of her grip to flop back onto the pillows.
Grace considered his prone form and decided she should stop at removing the shirt and pulled the covers over him. “Are you okay?”
“Am I okay?” he repeated, his words a slurred croak. She sat next to him, the old mattress sagging so his body bumped into hers. She realized for the first time that she couldn’t feel his ever-present warmth.
She laid the back of her hand to his forehead like Halmeoni used to do for her.
He was still warm. And he was ghostly pale as if the color had been leached from him entirely.
Except the dark bags under his eyes, which were bloodshot, that made him look like he’d just gone on a bender. He looked drained.
“I think using your powers is bad for you,” she said. “Maybe you should stop—”
“That’s not important. We have to find out why those things attacked.”
“What were they?”
Hae stared at the ceiling. “I can’t be sure. Not yet.”
“What they did to Piper.” Grace’s throat tightened. This was not the time to be overemotional, she told herself. It was the time to think, to strategize. But every time she closed her eyes she saw Piper lying on the asphalt as the rain washed away her blood.
“They won’t hurt you,” Hae mumbled as he fought to keep his eyes open.
“What?”
“If you’re scared, don’t be. I won’t let them do that to you.”
“You can’t order someone not to be scared,” she said softly, leaning in to brush a damp strand of hair off his forehead. She wanted to lean closer, to let her head rest on his shoulder. To hold on to him tightly enough to reassure herself that he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Those things are probably after me,” Hae murmured. “I don’t want you getting hurt because of me.”
Tears pricked at her eyes and she turned her face away. Why was it that his words made her feel cherished?
“I don’t want you to get hurt either,” she admitted, looking back at Hae. Only to find him asleep.
Maybe that was for the best. She felt like she was about to say something she’d regret.
That night, Grace dreamed of storms and pounding rain.
She was running but didn’t know where she was going. Was one of those creatures chasing her? Would it find her out here?
She heard an angry hiss and took off as shadows morphed into monsters giving chase.
You’ll never escape, a voice boomed in her head, vibrating through her skull. You created this. You caused this.
Her legs, exhausted from running, gave out. She fell, the mud splattering her cheeks and stinging her eyes.
A rock jabbed into her hand, opening a gash along the lines of her palm. Blood seeped out only to be washed away by the driving rain.
Grace cried for her halmeoni.
The hiss of the creatures surrounded her, coming from all directions. So loud they started to drown out the pounding of the rain.
“I’m sorry!” Grace shouted to the sky. “I didn’t mean to!”
“Grace!” Halmeoni’s voice called.
“Halmeoni?” Grace called back. “Where are you? Help me!”
“Grace, come here!”
Grace stumbled to her feet, forcing them to move. Out of the gray curtain of the rain, she saw Halmeoni’s pool house, the light like a beacon. She raced for it, sobbing by the time she pulled the door open, stumbling to her knees.
It was warm and bright in here even as the rain continued.
“Oh, my sweet, poor child.” Halmeoni knelt beside her, a towel in her hands.
Grace was shivering as Halmeoni bundled her into the soft material. She burrowed into her grandmother’s comforting arms.
“Th-there are m-monsters out there.” Grace’s teeth chattered. She couldn’t seem to chase away the chill in her bones. “We need help. We need to stop them before they hurt anyone else.”
“Yes, they will hurt others.”
“What?” She looked up, but instead of the comforting smile her halmeoni always wore, she watched Grace with cold scrutiny. “Halmeoni?”
She tried to pull back, but her grandmother’s arms tightened. She squeezed Grace so hard it hurt.
“You caused this. Everyone they hurt is on your head.” Halmeoni sneered now.
Grace wrenched herself free, sprawling hard onto the floor. The pain of the fall rocked through her entire body.
“You’re not my halmeoni!” Grace sputtered, crab-walking away as whatever wore her grandmother’s face straightened, looming over her.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Grace asked.
“Don’t you know? You’re the one who brought me here.” Her halmeoni’s familiar face glowered. “You don’t know what you are playing with.”
Grace felt like she was going to be sick.
And her halmeoni’s mouth opened to show fangs instead of teeth. Her body ripped apart, morphing into some kind of clawed beast as she pounced.
Grace woke up screaming.