Page 61 of King Foretold
“And I will love you in this life and the next,” she vowed.
In a union of earth and the heavens, Ungnyeo and Hwanung became wife and husband. Their love remained true, and they were blessed with the birth of their son, Dangun.
Dangun became the first king of Korea and ruled for nearly two thousand years until he ascended to Shinsi as the god of Mountains.
Chapter Sixteen
I shift into my gumiho form just outside the Suhoshin headquarters and run into the streets. The seonnams and seonnyeos shriek and clutch their chests as they scramble out of my way, their exquisite, glowing faces twisted into caricatures of terror. But I’m too busy to give a fuck.
I need to find Shim Duna. If I were a spy from the Kingdom of Mountains, where would I run when the shit hits the fan? To the portal to the Kingdom of Mountains, of course. I speed up and become a white blur in the streets, which seems to calm the seraphim’s fragile sensibilities.An unidentifiable white blur is fine. But a nine-tailed fox spirit? Heavens forbid, she might give us cooties.Damn bigots.
When I reach the busy main street, I slow down to take a sweeping glance around me. The merchants sell their wares in stalls on either side of the wide street. The nobles strolling by stop to peruse the tempting array of colorful silk, baubles, and trinkets. The commoners walk swiftly with purpose, heading for their favorite produce stalls to buy what they need rather than what they want.
The females already finished with their shopping hurry home, with round, low-rimmed baskets filled with fresh vegetables on their heads. But those vegetables go flying in the air with shrill screams from their bearers as this new batch of shinbiins, commoners and nobles alike, notice the nine-tailed fox standing in the middle of the street.Shit.Where the hell is the portal? A shadow falls over me, and I glance up at the sky.
“Follow me,” Captain Seo says and flies off.
“Thank fucking gods,” I say into her mind as I take off running. “I almost caused a stampede.”
The captain is too high up to answer me, but she doesn’t have to say it.What did we learn about thinking before acting, Cadet Cho?My gumiho can’t make theyeah, whateverface, so I settle for an annoyed huff.
Even in the air, Captain Seo can’t keep up with my gumiho, and I slow down to keep pace.Faster. We need to go faster.Shim Duna might get away if we don’t hurry, but I don’t know where I’m going, so I meekly follow the captain into a small forest.
Captain Seo lands behind a stand of trees and presses up against the wide trunk of the nearest one. When I skid to a stop beside her and shift back to my human form, she turns to me with a finger on her lips. I nod and back close into the tree. Then I steal a quick glance around the trunk, only one eye peeping out.
Duna stands beneath an open pagoda, holding the hands of a handsome seonnam wearing a shimmering silver robe, with silky black hair that falls halfway down his back. Honestly, he’s even prettier than Duna.
“Who is he?” I whisper to Captain Seo.
“Keeper Choe,” she says, keeping her eyes trained on the couple. “And that’s Shim Duna, right? I’ve never seen her smile that sweetly to anyone.”
“That’s because she’s pretending to be her twin sister. Hana tried to take the fall for her sister, sayingsheseduced Keeper Choe to open the portal, but it had been Duna all along.” I grit my teeth. “Duna framed her own sister to save her neck, and Hanastilldied to protect that lying bitch. Leave Shim Duna to me.”
Captain Seo holds my gaze for a second, then nods curtly. “I’m going to have my hands full with Keeper Choe. The portal keepers are formidable warriors.”
“I have a feeling you can take him.” I give her a wry smile. Before she can respond, I step around the tree and charge toward the pagoda, bellowing at the top of my lungs, “Shim Duna. Your ass is mine.”
“Hell and damnation,” Captain Seo curses as she rounds the tree and sprints alongside me. “Think, Sunny. Don’t forget tothink.”
Keeper Choe throws off Duna’s hands and leaps over the railing of the pagoda. With another curse, Captain Seo changes course to pursue the pretty keeper. I close in on the pagoda, and Duna backs into one of the pillars with a hand pressed to her chest. I climb up the steps and stop in the middle of the platform. I don’t dare get any closer, because I might choke the life out of her before I get my answers.
“Hana is dead,” I say bluntly, aiming to rattle her. Even though she framed and betrayed her twin sister, Duna must have some feelings left for poor Hana.
She goes deathly still, all the blood leeching out of her face. “You killed her?”
“Me?” My laugh is cold and jagged. “No,youkilled her. Even though you betrayed her, Hana confessed to being the spy to protect you, then she took the sayak in your handkerchief. She gave her life for you.”
“No.” Duna shakes her head and begins sobbing into her palm. Just as the sharpest edge of my anger dulls with sympathy, she drops her hand, and an ugly, hateful smile twists her face, even as tears continue to streak down her cheeks. “Hana was astupidbitch. She tried so hard to be sweet and likable, always showing me up. Now look, she’s making me look bad even in death.”
Shock leaves me speechless for a heartbeat, then a low growl rumbles in my chest, heat flaring from the rune. “Hana didn’t need to make you look bad. That’s one thing you do well on your own.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up,” Duna shrieks, her eyes bulging. “You didn’t know her like I did. Hana thought the world revolved around her and monopolized everyone’s attention. She even fooled our parents into loving her more than me. She trickedeveryoneinto loving her more.
“Hana always put up a kind and caring front, never losing her smile. What a fucking phony.” Spittle gathers at the corners of her lips, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “She made mesick.”
My stomach roils with nausea. Shim Duna isn’t sullen and reclusive. She’s insane. She is literally foaming at the mouth.
“Hana tookeverythingfrom me. I wanted to become a suhoshin for as long as I can remember, butshewas chosen instead. It wasn’t fair. I’m stronger and smarter than her. It should’ve been me. But she wouldn’t even let me have the one thing I wanted more than anything. She couldn’t stand the thought ofmebeing the special one for once.
