Chapter 54
Hae’s room was empty. But instead of that triggering Grace’s swarm of anxiety, she felt oddly calm. She’d somehow known he wouldn’t be here.
“Where could he have gone?” Yuhwa asked, throwing aside the sheets in frustration, like she’d find him hiding under there. “He’s too weak to have gone far in this storm.”
Grace knelt to look under the couch. “The sword is gone too.”
“The sword?”
“Yuhwa, he can’t use it, not in his state. It could kill him.”
“Okay, then we have to find him before he finds Habaek.”
“The dream,” Grace said, remembering calling for Hae in the pelting rain on the roof of the parking garage.
“What dream?”
Grace turned to the door. “Come on, I know where he is.”
The atmospheric pressure bore down on them the moment they stepped into the parking garage, splashing through shallow puddles. It felt like the air was more vapor than oxygen. There was a foreboding electricity that made the hairs on the back of Grace’s neck stand on end.
A hiss echoed across the parking structure.
“Sonnimne,” Yuhwa said grimly, her razor-sharp eyes searching the shadows. Grace saw them moving between cars, emerging into the open. Three of them. Teeth sharp, eyes focused on the two girls.
“Go, I’ll hold them off,” Yuhwa said, lowering into a fighting stance.
“There are too many of them.”
“Just go!” Yuhwa insisted to Grace as she ran to intercept the sonnimne.
Grace hesitated only a second, eyes wide to take in the clash as Yuhwa flew at the first monster, vaulting it into the air with a kick and spinning to catch another with an uppercut.
“Go!” Yuhwa shouted again. “Kalago!”
Grace took off then, running up the ramp to the roof.
The entire roof was flooded. Water rose to her knees as she fought the current and called for Hae.
But it was the dark hair and eyes of Habaek that appeared before her. Like he was born of the water itself. He wore a long white hanbok, sleeves billowing in the wind.
His robe should have been soaked through, but it was dry. Lightning flashed, reflected dully from the bronze adornments on his boots and belt. He was a specter bearing down on her.
That’s when Grace saw Hae. He fought the current like her, the water now churning rapids.
Just like in the dream, Hae gripped his sword. The water carried Habaek forward fast as lightning. The water god swiped at Hae, forcing him to his knees.
Habaek laughed cruelly. “You’re weak. There is no way for you to reach the sun for help, while I have all I need to beat you right here.”
Habaek lifted his hands, gathering water.
“Perhaps, but I’m not completely powerless.” Hae lifted the sword. It glinted despite the clouds blotting out the sun.
“You will lose.”
The light of the blade brightened, a ray shooting into the clouds to part them, allowing the sun to peek through.
Hae smiled. “I don’t think so.”
He lifted the sword, the glow extending from the hilt to his hands.
Habaek’s eyes widened, but Grace didn’t see fear in their depths. Habaek’s was not the look of someone whose enemy had gained an advantage. It was the look of someone about to get exactly what they wanted.
He showed me how to find the sword on purpose, Grace realized. He wanted this.
She raced forward, slipping in the water and slamming into the side of a nearby sedan. She righted herself, ignoring the ache in her knee where it had met metal, and kept running toward Hae, calling his name. But a rumble of thunder buried her voice.
She watched in horror as the blade started to glow.
Grace pushed forward, still shouting Hae’s name.
A wave rose, taking her legs out from under her. She fought to stand again, but the undertow dragged her to the edge of the roof, sweeping her over a six-story drop.