Chapter Fifteen Sunny
Chapter Fifteen
Sunny
That’s not Draco.
I know this logically. Like the rest of the demons, their face is half melted off, and they advance on us with the distinct gait of a zombie. Then why is my stupid heart twisting like this?
It. Isn’t. Them.
Minju whimpers, and I snap out of my grief and confusion. That isn’t Draco. Minju is the one I need to protect right now. I push her behind me and summon the Shin’gwangdo. I call on the Yeoiju and push the light into the sword. At least, I try.
“Shit.” The blade has the feeble glimmer of a day-old glow stick.
My heart pounds uncomfortably fast as I force more light into the Shin’gwangdo. I must have depleted my magic when I took down the wannabe Daeseong and my un-mother the first time.
The demons pick up speed, closing the distance between us every time I blink. I hold up my sword. A light tremor starts in my arms, then my legs, and my chest seizes, drawing a choked gasp from me.
The Yeoiju is siphoning what remains of my life force. My body spasms. No. I withdraw the white light from the Shin’gwangdo, stumbling back from the effort. Minju catches me by the arms before I fall on my ass.
“Sunny, you mustn’t wield the Yeoiju here,” she says in an urgent whisper. “Life doesn’t exist in this place. There is no gi for you to draw from except your own.”
“I gathered that,” I pant. “I’ll just have to stop these fuckers the old-fashioned way.”
“I’m not sure you can,” Captain Seo says grimly.
“But we have to try.” Ethan and our friends need us. We will not die in hell. “Wannabe Daeseong and Un-Mother are from my nightmare. I’m guessing the anti-Jihun is from yours, Captain? Are the rest of the fake Sentinels from your nightmare, Minju?”
“Y . . . yes.” She releases my arms when I pat her hand, signaling I’m okay now.
“All right. We got this.” I raise the Shin’gwangdo in a two-handed grip and widen my stance. “Stay behind me, Minju.”
Anti-Jihun reaches us first, and Captain Seo slices his head off in a single swing. Before I can finish wondering if the head will reattach itself to the body or if the body will regrow a head, the captain stabs the fake Hailey in the chest.
In the span of seconds, Anti-Jihun regrows his head and rushes us, with the demon Jaeseok at his side, their mouths snarling and snapping.
Captain Seo meets them halfway, swinging her swords with deadly precision.
Minju claps a hand over her mouth when the captain cuts Demon Jaeseok’s legs off at his knees.
I squeeze her shoulder, then run into the fray.
I cleave Wannabe Daeseong from his shoulder to waist and kick him to the side as Fake Hailey comes at me.
I slash her across the chest in a slanted X.
But when the not Draco lunges at me, I freeze and stare at their distorted face, searching for what .
. . I don’t know. I scream when a blade bursts out of their chest and their face goes slack.
“Sunny, you need to keep it together.” Captain Seo pulls her sword out of Not Draco, and they slump to the side. “They’re demons. Only demons.”
I come to my senses with a gasp—just in time to kick Un-Mother away from Minju. But the demons keep coming, everything about them grotesque and wrong.
“This isn’t going to work.” I nudge Minju toward Captain Seo. “Take care of her, Cheyun. I have to get this fucking door open.”
I run to the door leaf closest to me and hover my hands over it. With a bracing breath, I press my palms against it, squeezing my eyes shut. The door feels hot, but not enough to burn. I crack one eye open. Yup. My hands show no signs of melting off.
“What did we decide on?” I yell over my shoulder. “Pull or push?”
The captain cuts down one demon and jumps over its limp body to slash another, while Minju smacks one—Wannabe Daeseong, I think—over the head with her romance novel. I don’t think they heard me.
“Shit.” I look up at the handle bars. My fingertips would barely graze the bottom of the handle even if I took a running leap. They must be decorative. “Push, it is.”
I brace my shoulder against the door and push with a roar. My feet slip on the silver road, but I step forward and push harder. I shift into my gumiho form, flaring my nine tails behind me. Now the size of a full-grown lion, I give the door a mighty heave. It doesn’t budge an inch.
Use your head, Sunny.
An amused snort escapes my snout as I imagine ramming the door with my head. I guess even my gumiho isn’t immune to my morbid loopy humor. The situation is more dire than I thought.
What did Minju say about the stolen magic? I shift back to my human form and stop straining against the door.
Think, Sunny. Think.
How did I draw Blondie’s magic out of him? I step back and summon an orb of white light to my palm. It flickers, threatening to fade away. You know what? Thinking is overrated.
I let instinct take over.
I close my eyes and sense the magic warding the door. Many people contributed to protect this entryway—many powerful beings of Underworld. The black metal is knit together by magic. I can’t parse out the spells, but I can sense each life force powering the magic.
When I open my eyes again, I see the strands of red gi swirling around the door, forming intricate runes. My Yeoiju hums in my chest, calling to the magic, and the surface of the door shimmers, dimly at first, then glows brighter and brighter.
My physical senses vaguely note the captain’s grunts and labored breathing, her sword whooshing and ringing through the air. I faintly hear Minju’s squeaks of alarm followed by dull thwacks. But I turn my mind inward again. This is where my focus belongs.
I don’t force the magic from the doors. I coax it out. You aren’t needed here anymore. The white orb on my palm shines—no longer weak and flickering—as the red gi flows into it in a gentle ribbon. You can return to your life source.
The white light burns bright, and my lungs expand on a full, satiating inhale.
For a fleeting second, I wonder if my Yeoiju wants to cling on to the life force of Underworld—it’s so powerful and beautiful.
But when I release a flowing exhale, the glowing orb disperses the red gi into the air, and everything, including my white light, returns to where it belongs.
My Yeoiju hums softly in my chest, warm like a banked fire, and I blink away the white flame from my eyes. Disappointingly, the door is still just a door. A big, heavy door that I can’t open. I slap my palm against it, dropping my head in defeat.
“Oh shit.” I barely catch myself before I fall flat on my face.
When I regain my balance, the right half of the door stands ajar. I nudge it with the tips of my fingers, and the door opens wider without resistance. With an excited squeak, I spin around to face my friends.
“It was push, you guys,” I squeal with a huge-ass grin, but my smile dies a quick death.
Captain Seo falls to one knee, crossing her swords above her head, and the entire Bizarro Sentinel crew bears down on her—their misshapen faces obscenely hungry. And Minju swings her book with wild eyes as my fake parents close in on her.
Doom threatens to buckle my knees. I couldn’t reach Draco in time. I close my eyes. I can’t watch more of my friends die. Then don’t. I force my eyes open, my nails digging into my palms. I can’t reach them in time, but the light of the Yeoiju can.
I won’t let them hurt my friends.
My body clenches with fury, and I scream as white light explodes out of my chest. I feel heat coursing into me from behind. It feels different from the warmth of nature’s gi in the Mortal Realm, but I don’t have the bandwidth to decipher what that means.
I focus on my desperation to save my friends. I don’t hold back. I let the white fire pour out of me. Captain Seo and Minju shield their eyes as the demons disintegrate fleck by fleck, like dry kindling on a log fire.
“Sunny,” the captain calls out. “Sunny.”
Her hoarse shout reaches me as though from far away. I don’t know how long she’s been calling my name, but bit by bit, I return to the present—to the edge of hell. The demons are gone, and my friends cringe against the Yeoiju’s light, their eyes squeezed shut.
“Fuck.” I have to douse my magic. Before I can try, the gi fueling the Yeoiju abruptly shuts off, and the white light sputters out on its own. I don’t worry about the how, and instead run to my friends. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, we’re fine,” Captain Seo reassures me as I help her to her feet. “Thanks to you.”
“How did you summon the Yeoiju?” Minju asks in a small voice. “Did you deplete your gi?”
“I . . . I don’t think so.” I shake my head. “I didn’t have very much left in me.”
“If you didn’t use your own life force, then—”
“The gi of Underworld,” I breathe. “I felt heat coursing into me, fueling the Yeoiju. I must’ve somehow absorbed the life force I released from the magic warding the door. I thought I sent the gi back to its life source, but maybe I unconsciously called it back?”
Minju bites her bottom lip, something like fear in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Dread curls in my stomach. “You’re scaring me.”
“What?” The historian blinks rapidly then pffts with a flap of her hand. “It’s nothing. Wait. You opened the door?”
Is she trying to distract me? Well, it works. “I sure did.”
“So?” Captain Seo grins. “What are we waiting for?”
“Nothing at all,” I say, then race the hell out of . . . hell.