Page 86 of Vicious Spirits

Sinhye flung Somin aside. The momentum threw her into a metal column holding up one of the industrial shelves. Her head slammed against it with a thud that echoed through her ears. The sound reverberated. Her vision blurred. The world spun and twisted into three rotating layers as she fell. The last thing she saw was Sinhye lunging at Mr. Ahn.

KING JINJI FELLin love with Lady Dohwa and asked her to be with him, but she refused, as she was already married. Even if she didn’t love her husband, she was loyal. So King Jinji was forced to live without the woman he loved until his untimely death. But as a spirit, he returned and found that Lady Dohwa’s husband had died as well. She accepted him into her bed, and King Jinji stayed with her for seven days before leaving again.

Lady Dohwa became pregnant and gave birth to a son that she named Bihyeong. He was born of a mortal and a spirit, so he was unlike any other who’d come before him. He was extraordinary, and the new king, Jinpyeong, recognized this and raised him at the palace. But despite his royal heritage, Bihyeong much preferred to spend his nights on the hills by the river west of the city, in the company of ghosts instead of humans. These ghosts served as friends and confidants of Bihyeong. When the king ordered Bihyeong to build a bridge, he did so with the help of the ghosts and finished it in one night. Once they’d finished, they named it Gwigyo—Ghost Bridge.

But despite his unwavering friendship, Bihyeong’s ghost friends did not stay by his side. They left him eventually and he was alone in the world of mortals, not quite human and not quite spirit. A new breed of creature that came to be known as dokkaebi.

41

MIYOUNG RAN AROUNDthe back of the old building that Jihoon used to call home. Her heart hadn’t stopped racing since she’d received the call from Hwang Halmeoni.

He was acting so weird. And I could tell Somin was afraid of something. It seemed to me like she might have even been afraid of Jihoon,Hwang Halmeoni had said. She’d always been such a perceptive woman.

Miyoung said a small prayer that Somin and Jihoon were both okay.

And that prayer was dashed as she pushed into the back room and found Somin sprawled across the floor, a smear of blood leading into the kitchen. Like she’d crawled out here to get help.

“Somin-ah!” Miyoung shouted, kneeling beside her friend. When she turned Somin onto her back, Somin groaned and Miyoung thanked all the gods in the heavens for that. At least Somin wasn’t dead.

“Don’t move, I’m here. I’m going to get you help.” But before Miyoung could take out her phone, Somin grabbed her wrist.

“Stop her,” Somin said. “She’ll kill him.”

Then she passed out again. Miyoung picked up Somin, carrying her outside. Junu rushed up to her. “What happened?” he gasped out.

“Watch after her,” Miyoung said.

“No,” Junu said. “I’m not letting you face Sinhye alone.”

Miyoung started to argue when Hwang Halmeoni spoke behind her. “Leave Somin with me.”

She followed Hwang Halmeoni and gently laid Somin on the wooden deck. “We’ll come back for her,” Miyoung promised.

“Just go help Jihoon,” Hwang Halmeoni said.

“Come on,” she said to Junu, and moved into the restaurant and toward the kitchen. This place was the site of one of the darkest days of her life. Second only to the day she’d lost her mother. She hated this room. But it seemed she couldn’t escape its horrors as she watched Jihoon rip into his father’s unconscious form.

“Jihoon-ah!”

He didn’t even look up.

“Jihoon,” she shouted, trying to get him to stop. “Ahn Jihoon!”

“Sinhye,” Junu said.

Sinhye looked up, her face splattered with blood, and the grin she gave was one of malice and hunger.

“Stop this.” Junu added command to his voice that Miyoung had never heard before.

“Do I look like I take orders from you?” Sinhye asked. And Miyoung realized that even though she spoke with Jihoon’s voice, she sounded different. It was the cadence of her words and a slight accent that Miyoung couldn’t place.

“I’m hoping that you’ll see it as a request. A plea,” Junu said. “If you’re here to punish me, then punishme. Not anyone else.”

“It seems that your immortality hasn’t done much good for you.” Sinhye sneered. “You’re still soft and weak. Letting yourself become attached to these humans.” Mr. Ahn lay at Sinhye’s feet, but Miyoung could finally make out his chest rising and fallingin shallow breaths. He was alive, but Miyoung wasn’t sure how long that would last.

“I’m not attached to anyone,” Junu said, and Miyoung recognized something in his words. He was parroting things she used to say. Things she said when she was lying to herself about being able to live with no connections. How had she not realized that before?

“I’m alone,” Junu said, and now the words made Miyoung sad. “So don’t punish anyone else for my mistakes.”

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