Chapter Thirty-Two Sunny #2
Muttering a curse, Ethan grips me tightly against his chest and dives straight for the dark limb.
“Wh-what are you doing?” I shout, digging my nails into his shoulder.
At the last possible millisecond, he swerves sharply to the right, and the tentacle shoots past us, carried by its momentum. Ethan hovers in the sky, whipping his head left and right, but another serpentine limb punches through the sky from directly above us.
“Eth—” The blood oath sears my insides, and a shriek tears past my throat, preventing me from warning him.
Not like this.
But the darkness doesn’t rip through us. A second passes, then two. And I pat his chest, then mine to make sure there are no gaping holes in either of us. My whole existence is pain at the moment, but we’re both unhurt.
How?
I glance around, struggling to focus my gaze through the torture of the blood oath. Then I blearily make out the tight dome of green and silver gi above us. Ethan threw a shield around us in the nick of time.
“H-handy that,” I croak.
“I don’t know how long I can hold—” Ethan grunts, lurching forward as though someone punched him in the stomach. His arms loosen from my body for a terrifying heartbeat before he tightens his grip again.
“What’s wrong?” I cry. “Are you hurt? What’s going on, Ethan?”
“Gods.” His eyes grow distant, then fill with horror. “The Amheuk is destroying the Kingdom of Mountains. Its life force is . . . weeping.”
“I’m so sorry, Ethan.” I raise a shaking hand, even as I whimper in pain, and cup his cheek.
“I . . . I can’t breathe.” He sounds faint, as though he’s fading away. “My kingdom . . .”
“Ethan, look at me.” Strangely enough, the agony shredding me apart eases by a fraction, and I manage to suck in short little breaths. “Look at me.”
He shakes his head, his gaze darting around as more and more black tentacles tear through the Kingdom of Mountains. A tear slides down his cheek as he sways in the sky, and he says brokenly, “I’m sorry, Mother.”
“No, Ethan.” I grasp the nape of his neck, forcing him to meet my eyes. “Your mother loved the Kingdom of Mountains, but she loved you more. You did everything you can. This isn’t your fault.”
My spine tightens with a shattering ache. Yet . . . it doesn’t hurt enough to make me scream at the top of my lungs anymore. With a soft whimper, I curl against Ethan’s chest, and his attention snaps back to me.
“Let’s get you out of here.” He tightens his arms around me, determination bracketing his lips.
I sag with relief. We need go. I wish I could fight for his kingdom, but I’m useless in this state. I can’t even protect him.
Ethan flies toward the portal, straining to hold the shield around us. My pain eases by another notch, allowing the exhaustion to roll in. Hurting is hard work. My eyelids grow heavy, but I force my eyes open.
My vision gradually clears, and a part of me wishes it hadn’t. Ethan’s face is haggard with grief. The Amheuk is smashing his beautiful kingdom to pieces, and he’s suffering to the depth of his soul. My heart clenches in my chest.
I wish I could make it stop.
I take a deep breath, then stop with a frown.
I can breathe normally again. I exhale as though to prove my point.
And the pauses between the bouts of pain are growing longer.
What is going on? I stare down at my palm, and the rough circle barely seeps blood now.
I gasp softly as understanding dawns on me.
My blood oath is fading.
“Wait, Ethan.”
The eternal darkness is hurting him, and I want to hurt it right back. With the curse waning, I can finally do something about it. I won’t let him lose his kingdom without a fight.
“What is it?” He peers into my face with frantic eyes. “Are you hurting?”
“I-I can manage the pain. The blood oath is weakening because . . . the Kingdom of Mountains is dying,” I say in a husky rasp. “I’m so sorry.”
Relief and devastation vie for dominance on Ethan’s face. “You’re okay. That’s all that matters.”
“Well, I’m not going to watch the Amheuk destroy your kingdom lying down. I’ll—” I hiss as the curse digs into my skin like a knife scoring a thousand cuts in my body.
“We’re getting out of here,” Ethan growls. “You’re still in pain, whether the blood oath is weakening or not.”
“Please listen. I’m not being bullheaded for no reason.” I grip his arm. Yes, I want to hurt the Amheuk for hurting Ethan, but that’s not all. “I can buy everyone in the Kingdom of Sky some time so they can prepare for a last stand against the Amheuk.”
“How will you buy them time?” Ethan narrows his eyes on me.
“Will the dome keep me from falling?” He nods warily, and I push against his chest. “Put me down.”
When he reluctantly complies—and I don’t plummet to my death—I summon the Yeoiju to my heart’s center.
“Whoa.” His face slackens with wonder. “Your eyes are on fire—white fire.”
“Are they?” I smirk, then summon the Shin’gwangdo with a snap of my wrist.
“Show-off.” A crooked grin curves his lips.
I’m distracted for a second, but I’ll have to kiss the hell out of him later. “That wasn’t showing off . . . This is.”
Spinning away from him, I reach out to the nature around me. We need your help. I spread my arms wide as the gi of the trees, of the lakes, of the earth flows into me. I know you’re hurting, but we have to fight.
The life force of nature flows through my veins, powerful and verdant.
Even as the Kingdom of Mountains dies, its gi is stronger than the faint life force I felt in the Kingdom of Water.
It still isn’t as formidable as nature’s life force in the Mortal Realm—perhaps because it’s the gi of a single life source—but it’s more than enough to infuse my Yeoiju with power.
I grip the Shin’gwangdo with both hands until it gleams with white light, as bright as the sun.
Another black tentacle shoots toward us from below but bounces off Ethan’s protective dome.
Then another and another charge at us, and Ethan grunts behind me.
The dome holds, but his labored breaths tell me it won’t for much longer.
Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I search the ground below. I freeze when I find what I’m looking for—a swirling black mass with countless tentacles branching from it.
“Ethan.” I glance over my shoulder and point toward the core of the Amheuk. “Can you get us closer to that?”
“I can try,” he rasps.
He picks me up in his arms and dives toward the ground. My heart lodges in my throat as my toes squirm in my shoes. He slows down as we approach the dark mound, and I pull away from him.
“Stay here. Don’t come out of the dome.” I pray that he listens for once.
Taking a deep breath, I push through the dome and free-fall toward the ground. The wind rushes past my ears and stings my eyes, a scream building in my chest. Maybe I should have thought this through.
Shit, shit, shit.
Closing in on my target, I shift into a diving form with my sword pointed down. There is no turning back now. With a battle cry, I bury the Shin’gwangdo into the Amheuk, momentum pushing my blade in deep.
An earsplitting screech shakes the entire kingdom, and one by one, the squirming tentacles fall to the ground with dull thuds. The eerie scream finally quiets, and a heavy silence descends around me.
Did I kill it?
I pull my sword out with a weak grunt and stumble back from the black blob. I spin in a slow circle, taking in the devastation the Amheuk wreaked on the Kingdom of Mountains. I feel sadness seep past my dull stupor.
“Sunny!”
Before I can turn toward Ethan’s voice, the Amheuk swallows me whole and muffles his desperate cry.