Chapter Thirty-Three Sunny
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sunny
Darkness is the absence of light. The absence of life.
I can’t exist in the dark. I am no more.
But my heart . . . aches. It bleeds.
How can I feel this piercing sadness if I don’t exist?
My Yeoiju hums inside me.
I can’t see, but I can feel . . . my hands, my feet, my face.
I am alive. I am still me.
But I am surrounded by the darkness. Ensconced in it.
There is only one way out.
I have to blow up the eternal darkness with the Cheon’gwang. I did it once in Santorini when Daeseong enveloped me in darkness, but I had the help of nature’s gi. Inside the core of the Amheuk, there is only me.
Gods, I hope I have enough life force left in me.
The gi of nature lingers in my veins, and I concentrate to pool that into the Yeoiju. But it’s not enough. I have to draw from my own life force. Will I be able to control my powers? Or will the Yeoiju siphon the life out of me?
I have no other choice. I take a deep breath, but suddenly, the life force of Mountains rushes into me.
No, it isn’t the gi of Mountains.
Ethan is pouring his silver-and-green life force into me. I don’t understand. How? But his powerful gi chases away the cold numbness drowning my senses and warms me to my toes. It’s almost too much. Yet his life force keeps flowing into me in powerful torrents.
Stop, Ethan.
He will deplete himself. I have to get out of here. I have to stop him before he kills himself.
I call to all the life force flowing through me—mine, nature’s, and Ethan’s—until my Yeoiju expands and glows impossibly bright. My chest pushes out, and my back arches as it fills every corner of my body.
With a scream, I release the pulsating power, my arms and legs spreading open like a star. The light of the Yeoiju shatters the darkness until I see the sky and mountains surrounding me once more.
I slip and fall as I climb out from the cavernous black cocoon, then I stumble away until the dark mass lies behind me, bubbling and steaming like cooling lava.
I plant my hands on my thighs and catch my breath.
When the burning in my lungs becomes bearable, I straighten my back and rub my eyes to clear them.
My gaze flits left and right, hardly registering the gaping black wounds that tear through the dying mountains.
Where is he? Did I take too long?
“Ethan.” Dread crawls down my spine. I run to the other side of the revolting blob, whipping my head around. “Ethan!”
Then I see a prone body on the ground a few feet ahead.
“No.” I fall to my knees next to him. “No, Ethan. What have you done?”
I don’t know how he poured his life force into me through the Amheuk. Ethan is a powerful shinbiin. He figured it out. Gods damn it. I shake him hard, but his limp body just flops beneath my hands.
I drop my ear close to his nose and mouth. I can’t tell if he’s breathing. What am I doing? I narrow my eyes and zero in on his body. He’s alive. His gi is weak, but it flows steadily through him. I expel a shuddering breath.
“You fucking asshole.” I collapse next to him. “I’ll kill you if you don’t wake up.”
Then I sit up with a gasp. The tentacles on the ground undulate, like a boat bobbing on a calm lake—the movement so slow and subtle that I nearly missed it. What the fuck? I blew up the Amheuk’s core from the inside out.
I don’t want to believe it, but the eternal darkness is beginning to recover. I have to get us out of here.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I throw Ethan over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry and take off into the sky.
I can fly. I don’t know if it’s the Yeoiju or the remnants of Ethan’s life force that’s giving me the power. Frankly, I don’t give a shit. I need to get this foolish, stubborn, generous, and brave male out of here before the Amheuk truly awakens.
I wobble precariously in the sky, and Ethan slips down my shoulder. With a scream, I gather him in my arms, bending backward to bear his weight. Just because I can fly doesn’t mean I know how.
The portal appears light-years away, and I push myself to fly faster, grappling with Ethan’s limp, heavy body.
Almost there.
Muttering curses under my breath, I reach back and awkwardly tug his token free from his neck. Then I summon my tree branch and fling both our tokens at the portal. Bright, silver light flares in the sky, and I fly us toward it, dipping and swerving.
“No, no, no.” Ethan slips out of my arms just as the pagoda comes into view on the other side. I scramble to hold on to him, and my feet tangle on the floor. “Fuck.”
“Whoa.” Jihun somehow catches me and Ethan, one in each arm. But he quickly sets me down to grab his unconscious king with both arms. “Your Majesty.”
I glance around the pagoda, my heart rate refusing to slow. We made it out of the Kingdom of Mountains. We’re alive. Only the Sentinels remain at the pagoda in the woods. We’re safe.
“Why isn’t he responding?” Captain Seo asks, helping Jihun lower Ethan to the ground.
“The asshole poured his gi into me.” I wrap my arms around my stomach, willing my body to stop trembling.
“It’s all my fault. I thought I could buy us some time from the Amheuk by attacking it at its core.
I stabbed it with the Shin’gwangdo. I thought I did some damage to it, but it swallowed me whole the next second. ”
“The Amheuk swallowed you whole?” Jaeseok’s jaw drops. “And you’re still alive?”
“I wouldn’t be if Ethan hadn’t shared his gi with me,” I confess in a small voice, my teeth chattering.
Hailey rushes to my side and puts her arm around my shoulders.
I lean my head against her, grateful for her warmth and support.
“I charged the Yeoiju with his life force and blew up the Amheuk from the inside out.”
“Is it gone?” Hope and disbelief war on Hailey’s face.
“No.” I shake my head. “I hurt it badly, but it’s already starting to recover.”
“But you bought us much-needed time,” Jihun says gently.
“What about Ethan?” I cry. “What if he d-doesn’t wake up? I wish Minju was here to heal him.”
“I am.” Minju walks up the steps to the pagoda. She’s traded in her white bodycon dress for a lovely pink hanbok. Gods. She’s a sight for sore eyes.
“Minju.” I rise to my feet and stumble to her side. “How did you get here? I thought the King of Underworld moved his kingdom to purgatory?”
“I did not have the privilege of asking the King of Underworld how he transported everyone to the Kingdom of Sky. Or how he’d moved the Kingdom of Underworld to purgatory in the first place.
” A small frown mars her forehead as she puzzles out the mystery.
Then she gives her head a sharp shake. “But never mind that for now. I must attend to our king.”
I wring my hands, standing behind the historian, as she examines Ethan. “Will . . . will he be okay?”
Minju glances over her shoulder and smiles at me. “See for yourself.”
Worried out of my mind, it takes me a second to realize that she’s talking about my magic gi goggles. I shake my head and swallow the tears gathering in the back of my throat. His gi was so weak when I found him unconscious.
Blowing out a long breath, I focus my gaze over Ethan. His life force glows an exquisite silver green and flows over his prone body, growing stronger with each heartbeat. I clap a hand over my mouth as my legs give out from under me.
“Ethan, can you hear me?” I crawl to his side. “Wake up. Please.”
“Sunny.” Jihun crouches next to me and squeezes my shoulder. “Give him time. Even without expending his gi on you, he has not rested in days. Let him sleep and recuperate.”
“And you should rest as well,” Minju says.
I think I nod, and Jihun helps me to my feet and leads me down the pagoda steps. I look over my shoulder at Ethan the entire time. In a sudden intake of breath, my gaze flies to Jihun’s profile. As usual, I can’t read his stoic expression.
I displayed my feelings for Ethan in plain sight just now. I had no room for anyone else in that moment. Even so, how could I be so callous? Jihun might’ve already known that my heart belongs to Ethan, but I haven’t told him that we decided to be together.
“Jihun, I—”
“Don’t make this any harder,” he interjects, looking straight ahead. “I know. I knew it the moment I returned to the cave with the palanquins, the day we infiltrated the Shinsi Palace. Both of you were . . . glowing.”
“I still should have told you,” I whisper. “I’m sorry, Jihun.”
“I asked you not to make this harder for me.” He sighs and turns to me with heartbreak and tenderness in his eyes. “You and Ethan deserve to be happy. As for me . . . I’ll survive.”
“You’ll do better than survive. You will thrive.” I glance back toward the pagoda, where Captain Seo stands guard over Ethan. “Because you’ll find someone who loves you with her whole heart.”
“Don’t,” he rasps. “I don’t want nor need your pity. And I sure as hell don’t need you to play matchmaker. Like I said before, I will do with my heart as I see fit.”
“But—”
“Go to the Sunset Pavilion. Miok will take care of you.” He stops at the edge of the woods, a muscle ticcing in his jaw. “Get some rest, and I’ll send word when His Majesty awakens.”
“Wh-where will Ethan be?” I can’t breathe at the thought of being separated from him.
“The Queen of Sky has asked him to stay at the Celestial Palace.” The lines bracketing his lips soften. “The King of Underworld and the Queen of Water are also there. They are preparing for our fight against the Amheuk. When he regains consciousness, Ethan must lead the four kingdoms.”
“Yes, of course,” I say numbly.
The Realm of Four Kingdoms needs the King Foretold. Ethan’s place is with them. I always knew that.
Then where’s my place?
“Sunny—” Jihun begins.
I cut him off. “I’ll see you later.”
I shift into my gumiho and streak through the woods. I’ve fought too hard and come too far to lose Ethan. But I don’t know how to hold on to him without holding him back, especially with my dark secrets hanging over me.