Page 32 of Gumiho Kiss
“I apologize for the inconvenience, agasshi.”
“I-it’s no problem.”She bowed in response, doing her best not to look him in the eye.Maybe the superstitions about direct eye contact with a grim reaper were wrong, or maybe they didn’t apply to gumiho, but she wasn’t going to risk it.Especially not after seeing how easily he’d dispatched the goblin.
When he didn’t leave, she hesitantly asked, “Was there something else you needed?”
Had she broken some law she didn’t know about?Was he going to take her next?
“Per regulations, I have to ask: how much more lifeforce do you intend to collect before you retrieve your bead?”
Chin Sun’s mouth fell open.“You mean”—she glanced at her bodyguard and back at the reaper, completely forgetting not to make eye contact—“you can sense my fox bead?”
“Do you think I’m a novice?”The reaper scoffed.“I’ve been in this position for four years now.I know a beaded human when I see one.”
“A beaded human ...”she echoed.Not because she was confused—the term was completely self-explanatory—but because it drove home the feelings of ignorance brought on by the grim reaper’s arrival.It seemed he knew more about her kind than she did.
“Nauri, may I ask you something?”When he didn’t say anything, she continued, “That goblin—he was after my bead.What would he have done if he’d gotten hold of it?”
“He was?”His brow furrowed.“Hmm, perhaps he intended to sell it to another gumiho in need of one.They go for quite a high price on the black market.But stealing a gumiho’s bead is a serious offense.I’ll make sure that gets added to his list of crimes when he stands trial.If he pleads innocent, I may need to call on you to testify.”
Chin Sun paled.“Me, testify?”
“I doubt you’ll need to.If he’s smart, he’ll admit to everything in the hopes of reducing his sentence.”
She nodded woodenly.“That’s a relief.But if I do get called in, where?—”
The reaper held up his hand.“I answered your question, but you’ve yet to answer mine.How much longer are you going to wait before you collect your bead?”
Mr.Park was beginning to stir.Chin Sun needed to finish this conversation quickly.“Oh, not much longer.I promise.”
The reaper hummed.“I hope so, for your sake.The goblins have been unruly of late, making more and more problems in the human realm.Best keep your bead close.And remember, the punishment for needless killing of humans is execution or imprisonment.So it would be wise to retrieve the bead in the next eighteen days.Otherwise”—his voice rippled with cruelty—“you’ll be the one getting dragged off to Jeoseung.”
Eighteen days?That was all the time she had left?
The reaper must have noticed the surprise in her eyes, for his brow wrinkled in suspicion.Chin Sun dropped her gaze to his black boots.“You don’t need to worry.I’ll be sure to retrieve it in time.”
“We shall see.I’ll be back to check very soon,” the reaper whispered, then vanished like the apparition he was.
Chapter12
The Interrogation
“Lady Lee!”Hyun Soo shouted as he came to, fingers grasping at the air in a vain effort to lift a hwando that was no longer in his hand.He groaned at the throbbing pain in his back; it felt like the ghost’s fire was still blazing under his skin.He swiveled his head, taking in the empty courtyard.
Panic rose in his chest.What had happened to the ghost?And where was?—
His breath caught at the sight of a burgundy skirt.Lady Lee stood under a maple tree a few yards away.Her face was whiter than bone, and the dagger she’d wielded earlier was clenched in her fist, shining with silver blood.
Hyun Soo pulled himself up and bounded over to her, eyes peeled for any trace of their ghostly foe.“Lady Lee, are you all right?”He grabbed her wrist when she didn’t respond.“Lady Lee?”
She blinked as though coming out of a daze, then peered up at him with a soft smile.“Mr.Park, I’m glad to see you’re awake.”
Her gentle response threw him off.Again, she hadn’t reacted the way he’d expected her to after a fight.Why wasn’t she crying or screaming like any other woman would be?
He released her wrist, a line forming between his brows.“What happened?Where’s the ghost?”
Lady Lee shuddered as though recalling something painful, then shook her head.“He’s gone.”
“Gone?How?Did you—” He broke off.The idea that she could have fended off the ghost seemed laughable, and yet he couldn’t help but remember how fearlessly she’d come to his rescue.And her voice when she’d confronted the spirit—it hadn’t been the voice of a helpless noblewoman, but rather, the command of a warrior.
