Chapter 41
Grace scrambled up, leaning out of the broken frame to search the yard below. Habaek was gone, but Hae was sprawled among Halmeoni’s ruined flower bed.
She hurried down the stairs, lungs still burning from the attack. But she didn’t slow down. She had to get to Hae.
He was still lying below her window, shattered glass crunched under Grace’s shoes as she rushed to him. The spiny shadow of palm trees slashed across his face like dark angry daggers. His pale skin was bleeding. And when she ran her fingers over a cut on his cheek, she found that he was burning up.
She stood to yank her phone out of her pocket.
Yuhwa answered on the first ring. “Grace?”
“Hae used his powers,” she blurted out without any preamble. “He’s hurt and he’s burning up.”
“Why did he use his powers?” Yuhwa asked.
Grace hesitated before she finally answered. “He…disintegrated Habaek. I’m sorry, Yuhwa.”
“Don’t be. Habaek might be gone but he’s not dead. And when he reappears he’ll be pissed.”
Yuhwa let out a stream of Korean curses under her breath that Grace only recognized because her halmeoni tended to use them whenever she watched the news.
“Okay, run a bath.”
“A bath? But what about Habaek? He used my shower to appear earlier.”
“It sounds like he’ll be out of commission for a bit. Run the bath. Cold. Ice cold. I’m on my way.” Yuhwa hung up, and Grace whirled around, manic with the urgency.
“Calm down,” she told herself, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before the panic attack took control. “You can do this, one step at a time. Get Hae inside. Then run a bath.”
She knew she’d never get him up the stairs, so she half carried, half dragged him to the pool house. Soaked in sweat herself now, she turned on the bathtub tap. When she emptied the ice maker from the pool house kitchen, she made a trip into the main house to grab more.
It would have to be enough.
Hae was still propped against the tub where she’d left him. Grace bent down, checking his forehead with the back of her hand. She let out a hiss—it felt like he was even hotter than before.
“Okay, work with me here.” Grace slung his arm over her neck. “Come on.”
With a grunt of effort, she lifted him, using the edge of the tub for balance.
She settled him against the lip of the tub, and leaning down to use all of her weight as leverage, she pushed him into the water. It sloshed over the side, soaking her jeans.
Hae shouted, shocked awake by the icy bath.
He clutched the edge of the tub, trying to pull himself out again.
“No, Hae, you have to stay in there.” Grace forced him back into the water even as he flailed against her hold. The struggle soaking her shirt.
“Please, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Grace begged.
Hae thrashed about so much that he slipped against the porcelain and slammed into the tile. His head snapped back from the impact and he went limp now, unconscious.
“Shit!” Grace tried to pull him back up, but his body was too heavy, too slippery. And he kept dunking under the surface.
With no other choice, Grace climbed in behind Hae. Teeth chattering, she wrapped her arms around him to keep his head above the surface. Water sloshed on the floor as she wrestled with Hae’s weight. His head lolled back against her shoulder, his cheek hot as fire against hers.
His body was like a radiator, taking away the worst bite of the chill from the melting ice.
Hae groaned, starting to struggle slightly as he came to again. But she held tight. “Shh, it’s okay, I’m here. You’ll be okay. I’ll make sure you’re okay.”
Her voice seemed to calm him, and he let his weight settle against her, his hands gripping at hers. Now, instead of trying to wrestle free, he held on to her just as tightly as she held him.
When Yuhwa arrived twenty minutes later, the water was no longer cold and Hae no longer felt hot as a boiler. Though he was still feverish against her skin.
“Grace?” Yuhwa stepped into the bathroom.
“Oh, thank the gods, I didn’t know how I was going to get him out.” Grace let her head fall back against the back of the tub.
Yuhwa reached into the water, opening the drain before pulling Hae against the side of the tub. Far enough that Grace could squeeze out.
“Why don’t you go get changed,” Yuhwa said. “I’ll get him into bed.”
Grateful, Grace climbed out, dripping water all over the tiled floor as she wrapped herself in a towel.
After changing out of her soaked clothes, she returned to the pool house to find Yuhwa tucking Hae into bed, Haechi curled against his side. Yuhwa pressed a hand against his forehead, pushing away his damp hair. “It feels like his energy is drained.”
“He used his powers.”
“Why?”
“Your father attacked.”
Yuhwa just nodded, like she’d been expecting that answer. “With the sonnimne?”
“No, he came himself.”
“He has a body?” Yuhwa asked, horrified.
“Kind of. It didn’t seem solid. Not yet,” Grace said.
“How? Did he find a way to gain a form?”
“I, uh, kind of drew it for him.” Grace shrank back at Yuhwa’s startled look.
“Why didn’t you consult me first?” Yuhwa sounded a little hurt at being left out. And it was just another niggling piece of guilt to eat away at Grace. Why couldn’t she seem to do anything right these days?
“I’m sorry, Hae thought it had to be done right away. He said that we couldn’t waste any more time.”
Yuhwa sighed. “Yeah, Hae can be very convincing. It’s part of his annoying charm.”
“Has he always been like this?”
“No, he used to be worse.” Yuhwa laughed softly. “He was so sweet and curious, it made him irresistible.”
“I think I know what you mean,” Grace murmured.
Yuhwa looked down at Hae’s sleeping face. “He was born in the heavens, which mortals always romanticized. But I think he was lonely up there. I think he yearned for the companionship and love that humans so often take for granted.”
“Then why does he want to go back?”
“Hae has always loved humans, but I don’t think he believes they love him. Not in the way he yearns for. And when mortals abandoned us for new gods, I think it proved to him that his fears were right.”
Grace squeezed Hae’s hand. It must have hurt to be discarded so callously.
“Come on, Haechi,” Yuhwa said as she walked to the doorway. “He doesn’t need you warming him up right now. Let him sleep.”
The dog woofed softly but bounded off the bed. “You coming?” Yuhwa asked Grace.
She was watching Hae sleep. His hand gripped tightly in hers. She considered pulling away but settled down beside him on the bed. “No, I want to sit with him for a bit.”
“Okay.” Yuhwa and the dog left quietly. Grace pushed a bit of Hae’s hair behind his ear. It had dried in soft waves, sticking to his flushed cheeks. Yuhwa’s revelations worried her.
She never realized that Hae’s desperate desire to go home might not just be because of his powers or her comic. But because it might have hurt him to be here, among those who had so callously deserted him.