Chapter Fourteen Sunny
Chapter Fourteen
Sunny
It seems counterintuitive, but the Kingdom of Underworld is not for the dead. After all, Underworld is one of the four life sources created by the Cheon’gwang.
“Does hell lie in the Kingdom of Underworld?” I ask Minju, not letting the smudge of red gi out of my sight.
“Every King of Underworld has been less than frank when it comes to that question.” She purses her lips in annoyance. “But it is not outside the realm of possibility.”
“Good.” I stalk toward the life force of Underworld. “Because I think I just found an entrance to the Kingdom of Underworld.”
The red gi veers to the left of the moonglade, but I have a feeling we shouldn’t get off the silver road. I’ll worry about that when we get closer to the entrance. For now, we walk.
“What do you see?” Captain Seo shortens her stride to match mine.
“I see the gi of Underworld over there.” I point toward it even though she can’t see it. I’m the only one in both realms who can.
I stare at the red life force ahead of me, because it might be our only way out of hell.
But I also do it to keep my eyes averted from the wall of fire that surrounds us, rising without end, with countless emaciated bodies jerking and twitching inside.
Their silent screams scrape against my skull, and cold dread slithers down my spine.
I wonder if my friends can see it too. Their steps seem steady enough, but their eyes are intensely focused on the moonglade a few paces ahead of them. Minju is wringing her hands raw, and a muscle tics uncontrollably beneath the captain’s right eye. Yup. They see it.
“How much farther?” Captain Seo clips out.
“Not very far,” I murmur.
But the entrance to the Kingdom of Underworld—at least, I hope it’s the entrance—is much farther away than I’d thought.
I press a hand against the stitch in my side and pant as I put one foot in front of the other.
On the plus side, the red smudge is getting bigger as we march on.
We are definitely headed in the right direction.
I catch Minju by the arm when she stumbles and ask, “Do you need to take a break?”
“No.” Her gaze flits up toward me. Then with a gasp, she tucks her chin into her chest. She must’ve accidentally gotten an eyeful of the burning bodies. “No break.”
“Okay.” The glowing red gi arches like a doorway in the distance. I wrap my arm around Minju’s shoulders. “Let’s keep going.”
To my relief, the silver road curves slightly to the left as we get closer to the archway. Good. We can keep walking the moonglade and get the hell out of . . . hell. I snort. That’s one hell of a pun. I snort harder.
“What’s so funny?” The captain keeps her gaze pointed down.
“Nothing.” I shrug. “Deadly peril always makes me a little loopy.”
“That’s adorable.” Minju peeks at my face for a split second before lowering her eyes to the road again.
I snatch my arm away from her shoulders. “If you have enough energy to utter such blasphemy, you can walk without my help.”
Captain Seo and Minju laugh at my expense. I bite my cheeks to hold back a smile. I’m happy to share my loopiness with my friends. We could all use a distraction from the tortured souls floating around us.
They must have done some horrible shit to be in there, but it still doesn’t sit right with me.
I actually feel sorry for Yeomla, the god of Underworld.
Deciding who gets punished, how much, and for how long seems like a heavy burden to bear.
But who am I to pity a god? They probably don’t give us regular folks a second thought.
“Wait. Look over there.” I point toward the red gi again. The life force appears arched because there is a physical door framing it. “You guys can see that now, right?”
They both look up from the road and follow my line of sight.
“There’s an arched entryway,” Minju gasps.
“Thank the fucking gods.” The captain pushes her hair off her forehead. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Laughter sputters out of me even though I clap a hand over my mouth. Minju and Captain Seo blink at each other.
“I get it now.” A slow smile spreads across the captain’s face. “You really are adorable.”
“Well, fuck,” I mutter. Cutesy is definitely not my vibe.
“I still don’t get it.” Minju blinks big round eyes at me. “What’s so funny?”
“You know, because we’re in hell . . .” I clamp my mouth shut when the traitor dissolves into giggles.
“Sunny is just precious, isn’t she?” Captain Seo says with a shit-eating grin.
“So precious.” Minju sighs. “I want to tuck her inside my pocket and carry her around with me.”
“I highly doubt that scrap of fabric you’re wearing even has a pocket,” I jeer to hide how vulnerable I feel.
I don’t mind being teased, but I do mind how much I enjoy it, coming from these two. I’m trying . . . I’m trying really hard . . . to move on from Santorini. But I’m not ready for soft, squishy feelings yet.
“You’re right.” Minju’s smile droops, and I feel like a dick. Well, at least, a dick isn’t precious. “I miss my hanbok.”
“I’m sure the Kingdom of Underworld has plenty of hanboks.” Captain Seo narrows her eyes at me, and I look down at my toes. “Just hang on a little bit longer. We’re almost there.”
“And you look lovely in that dress, even though it’s microscopic.” I mumble my version of an apology. When Minju’s face shifts into an aww expression, I point a warning finger at her. “If you call me anything resembling ‘cute’ or ‘sweet,’ I will take that back so fast.”
The captain coughs to cover her laugh, and Minju wisely says nothing. But her smile tells me she’s thinking “cute” and “sweet” in association with me. Oh well. I guess it’s fine as long as I don’t have to hear it.
“What do you know?” I stop in front of the entryway. “We made it.”
I blink and shake my head to dispel my magic gi goggles so I can take a proper look at the physical obstacle we’re up against.
“It’s just a door,” I say, sounding almost disappointed.
The double-leafed door, made of rough black metal, stands about eighty feet tall, with long, vertical handle bars in the same material.
But still, it’s just a door. “I’m not asking for Cerberus—I bet he’s busy guarding Hades or something—but there should at least be a brutish horned dokkaebi standing around with a giant spiked club. ”
“I take offense at that stereotype.” Minju, a half dokkaebi, pouts.
“Are you upset this door won’t be challenging enough to get through?” Captain Seo gapes at me. “I’m not certain twenty people could push it open.”
“Do you think we need to push or pull?” I tap my chin with my finger, remembering the iconic comic about a kid at genius school pulling on a door with all his might when it says push.
We can’t afford to make the same mistake.
“It’s important to figure that out before we waste all our energy pushing or pulling the wrong way. ”
With an inquisitive hum, Minju approaches one end of the door and peers at the hinges, then she walks the width of a basketball court to reach the other end and repeats her inspections. She hums again and returns to our side.
Captain Seo and I look expectantly at her, but she shrugs. “I can’t tell.”
“That’s okay.” I swallow my frustrated groan and nod encouragingly at her. “We’ll figure it out together.”
“From a logical perspective, the door should open toward us.” The captain rubs her jaw. “It presumably leads to the Kingdom of Underworld, where people reside. If the door opens outward, people could be hit by it. As opposed to in here, where no living beings should be roaming around.”
“But if it opens inward, shouldn’t there be scratch marks on the silver road?” I walk a half circle in front of the door. “Because I don’t see any. The door is too heavy not to leave a mark.”
“Then it’s magic,” Minju offers unhelpfully. But of course, she’s right.
“Maybe if we—” With a sharp hiss, Captain Seo snatches away the hand she’d pressed against the door. “Shit.”
“What happened?” I rush over with Minju. The captain’s palm is an angry red with blisters popping up one after another. “The door seared your hand.”
“I can see that.” She grimaces, holding her wrist.
Luckily for her, Captain Seo is a shinbiin. Her healing power rapidly pulls the heat out of the burn, and she breathes a relieved sigh after a minute. The burn will take longer to heal completely, but her pained expression smooths out.
“How do we open a door we can’t touch?” Minju waves her hand, murmuring an incantation. “As I suspected, it is heavily warded by powerful magic.”
“Fuck my life.” I kick the door, and the tip of my combat boot sizzles and melts off, revealing my big toe. I groan, curling my fingers into claws, but I refrain from scratching and kicking the door because it’ll hurt me more than it will hurt the door.
“You should be glad your toe didn’t melt off.” The historian pinches her lips to one side. “Hmm.”
“Hmm?” My withered hope perks up again. “Hmm what?”
“Oh . . . that is . . .” Minju shakes her head and tries again. “Your toe didn’t melt off.”
“You already made that observation. What about it?” I reel my hand in a circle, trying to draw out the rest of her thoughts.
“I think that means you can touch the doors without being burned.”
“What? How? Why?” I ask intelligently.
“I’m not sure.” Then her eyes widen. “You know how you extracted that mudang’s fire magic? It must have something to do with that power. Do you remember how you did it?”
“Hell if I know.” I cringe. “Not helpful. Sorry.”
“Well, I think you can undo whatever magic that’s guarding the doors and open them.”
“You think?” The captain throws her hands up. “We can’t risk melting Sunny into a puddle on a half-baked hypothesis. No offense.”
“None taken,” the historian says quietly, clearly offended.
Captain Seo’s apologetic grimace disappears as she summons her twin swords. “We have company.”
Demons.
Not just any demons, but the ones from my nightmare, limping toward us on wrecked, uneven legs. At least they don’t have spider legs anymore. Unfortunately, they brought company—monstrous versions of Jihun and the rest of the Sentinels, even Draco.