Page 25 of Reign of the Talon
“No,” he growls, fire flashing in his glare. “Not now, notever, not when I know you are still in here and that there is hope.” As my hands rise back into the air, he cuts me off—voice harsh. “I will not do it, Lina. This, it is the one thing I will never do for you. No matter how much you beg, no matter how much you plead. Iwill not kill you.”
I clench my jaw, glaring furiously at him.
He glowers back. And I know that there is no swaying him.
Haneul Rui has always been a stubborn bastard.
The red thread of fate between us ripples with a dark and churning mixture of emotions. He follows my gaze to the string connecting our souls.
“I wonder,” he rasps, “if we’re both.”
Confused, I blink.What?I ask.
He smiles bitterly, curling a finger around the scarlet manifestation of fate. “Love and hate. The thread diverged. One leads to the Prophecy. One leads to you. What if I am soul-stitched to the Prophecy in hatred, but soul-stitched to you in love?” Rui raises his gaze to mine. “You are not going to stay in here forever, little thief. I know that you are hurting. But this war needs you.Ineed you.” He swallows hard. “I am not leaving you here. I am going to be back. I failed you once; I will not fail you again. Not at the end of all this. Because therewillbe an end, Lina.” He looks again at the Aglyeong. “And…I hope to the gods that it’s a happy one.”
Behind him, the door once again appears. He lays his hand flat against it.
Wait.His eyes, still on mine, flicker as I rapidly sign the words.The empress. Did she…did she touch you?
My stomach aches horrifically at the thought of it. But I have to know. I have to. My breathing turns shallow and my palms begin to sweat. The feelings I harbor toward Rui are as fickle and tumultuous as a heavy storm, but the thought of that—thatwomantouching him without his consent sends a wave of nausea rippling through me as I recall her possessive touch.
Rui hesitates as my feelings crest through the thread. “No,” he says quietly. “She didn’t.”
Relief washes through me, cold and calming. The knot in my stomach slowly disappears, and I suck in a small breath of air. She didn’t touch him. She didn’t hurt him. And now she’s dead.
But what if somethingdoeshappen to him? To Rui? What if something awful—irreversible—happens to him while I rot in here like an old corpse?
I try to push the thought away, but I cannot. The Prophecy is trying to kill him. She won’t stop until she does.
And now that he is before me…
I imagine those silver eyes, dulled as old coins. I imagine him laying still and dead and cold, like so many of the others before him. And for a moment, the pain at the thought of Rui—Rui, who was once my best friend, Rui who was once my lover—dead is enough to have me hesitating, glancing at the bars of the cage. Wondering if there could be an escape route.
This demon can bleed, after all.
But the following thought of existing within that body, that body that has been broken and used like some warhorse, bruised and battered at the whims of another without my consent…
My skin suddenly crawls at the thought of it, and my vision blurs once more. My heart pounds so hard against my chest that I choke, hands raising to my throat.
Rui is a warrior honed by centuries of training. He is an unbreakable column of power. He will survive.
That is what I tell myself as he steps through the door and disappears.
Rui will survive.
Won’t he?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Rui
Wyusan’s capital of Sanyeongto has no time to mourn as the body of their empress, missing a head, is teleported into the city limits by war-weary Dokkaebi. The remaining Wyusan soldiers are brought through the shadowed portals as well, screaming all the while, their mortal minds unable to comprehend the impossibility of what they just saw. What they just experienced.
Sanyeongto’s land is enclosed by a wall of granite. The Beast Wall keeps the creatures of the wilderness from entering the crammed capital, but now it will be used for another purpose. For war.
Children are evacuated, Dokkaebi shouting orders in the narrow streets between jumaks and shops. They will claim refuge in Gyeulcheon, carried through the shadowed corridors by the warriors. It is the one place that the self-proclaimed “Goddess of Wrath” cannot reach. They are not given time to pack anything more than clothing.
Adult men and women will stay. They must stay. Wyusan’s forces have been severely impacted. Their only comfort is that the Imugi have been reduced in number as well. Wyusan’s tradition of educating its citizens in combat from an early age means that the commonfolk can serve as a makeshift army until Bonseyo responds to the distress call.
