Page 21 of Reign of the Talon
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Prisoner
I watch through the bars as the empress dies.
It is an ugly death, one that comes after a long duel punctuated by grunts of pain on each side. As she falls, lifeless, I…
Somewhere, deep inside me, I feel…a faint burst of an emotion that is not grief, nor guilt, nor the self-hatred that has torn apart what was left of my soul. It is…a satisfaction that I do not want to look too closely at, for it is the sort of satisfaction that stems from aprotectivenessand a burning anger that this woman would have dared to harm Rui.
“See?” The Aglyeong is standing close to me on the other side of the bars. “Youlikewatching people die. You always have. Isn’t that right, my scrumptious?”
Hurting its hand was a mistake. It has become crueler since then, if such a thing is even possible.
Now, the Prophecy is pulling back her forces. Enough damage has been done for the night. Becoming aware of my presence, she shoves me away from the bars. I’m thrown backward, hitting the ground hard.
Lying there, I know that I should not, but…
I think of Rui.
The Rui that I thought I knew. Not the cruel Dokkaebi he became, bringing my sister to a bloodbath. But the kind boy who wove me a crown of flowers and called me his underneath the light of many moons. I have not thought about that boy in so long.
How long? I do not know. Time passes differently in here; I know that much. A minute in here may be an hour in the real world, or perhaps the opposite.
Before I can stop myself, I wish for him.
The boy I loved. Rui, my Rui.
The one from before everything went so godsdamned wrong.
I wish for it, so much, that my heart hurts. It feels as if it is being pulled in every direction, straining, stretching. My breath escapes me as I lurch to my feet, pulled by—pulled by—
Pulled by the red string curling out of my chest.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Rui
He is walking, slowly, through the abandoned battlefield of the dead and dying, when he feels it, as much a force of nature as gravity itself.
A beckoning.
A call.
The Dokkaebi emperor drops to his knees amidst blood and bone.
Trembling, he closes his eyes.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Prisoner
My fingers spasm as they wrap around the scarlet ribbon protruding from the cloth of my simple, ratty tunic. I scrabble to pull the fabric down. The string emerges just where my heart beats.
If I still spoke, I would whisper a soft curse. I have not seen the red thread of fate like this since the night…since the night…
C R A C K.
It twists from my chest, leading to one of my cell’s stone walls. On trembling legs I walk forward, placing a hand against the cold, slick stone. What does this mean?
