Page 6 of Reign of the Talon
Suddenly spent, Hana collapsed back onto the pillows.
She did not speak again.
Two nights later, Park Hana died, the Imugi venom overtaking her body. She screamed in her final moments before falling still, dark eyes wide and empty.
That same night, Rui and Kang had to hold Chan down as he roared, had to sedate him as he attempted to portal into Sunpo, to kill Lina where she stood. They had just lost one friend. They could not survive losing another so soon.
Now, in the mindscape, Rui opens his eyes and swallows hard, trying his best to step around the vision of the Prophecy. It is a foolish yearning, he knows, to wish that his Lina is still in here somewhere. She is as good as dead, but he cannot—Rui cannotacceptthat. Still, he looks for her, begging the red thread to lead him to his love. But it only ever leads him to the Prophecy. For so long, he has hoped that Lina issomewhere, only hidden from him.
Yet as he returns to his body in the throne room, Rui admits with a flood of nausea that if Linaisthere, she is…hidden. Shrouded forever, never to emerge. As much as he attempts to coax her out like this, or through the Dokkaebi fire on the battlefield, a part of him knows that his Lina is gone forever.
And he knows that he must be the one to kill her body.
If not him, it will be Chan. Chan, mad with grief, consumed by his furious oath to avenge Hana. His supreme commander, who speaks of cutting up the Prophecy like a slab of raw meat. For his Lina, Rui will not allow that to happen. This body was once hers. It must be painless. It must be quick. For the girl he loved and loves still.
She, too, deserves an honorable death.
“Little thief,” Rui whispers, holding his head in his hands, “I am sorry. I am so sorry.”
…
As Rui strides into the ballroom, his eyes snap immediately to his mad Supreme Commander.Chan is gritting his teeth against Kang’s needle as it weaves in and out of the wound dripping from his side and glaring at Rui, who pretends not to see. Unfortunately, Chan’s war-crazed glower is rather hard to ignore. It cuts through him like the sharpest knife as he slowly walks through the cots of the injured, his heart heavy as the Dokkaebi servants now trained in basic medicinal skills rush back and forth with panicked expressions.
Dokkaebi healing is typically quick, but fighting Imugi venom is a slower process—and one that can be futile. Hana died from it. These soldiers, the ones with the deeper wounds, will also be dead in two nights. Maybe less. Suppressing a grimace, Rui passes Ryu Seojin. The human boy—brother to one of Lina’s old gang members—has quickly become one of the most skilled healers in the Dokkaebi army. They are fortunate to have him. Without him, their death count would be much higher.
As Rui nears Chan, he listens as the Supreme Commander’s breaths come sharper, quickening in time with Kang’s ministrations. The emperor hides a grimace as Chan grunts in pain, eyeing the gouge in his side. The sight of the gore is almost a relief. Chan’s wound is not as bad as Rui had feared—the Gumiho’s claws gouged into the warrior’s flesh, but not deep enough to scrape bone.
Small mercies mean everything these days.
With the combination of Kang’s treatment and his natural healing, Chan will be able to return to the field tomorrow. Rui lingers near the foot of his cot, watching Kang work with narrowed eyes.
“Stay still,” he warns his Supreme Commander. Quietly, almost gently, but it’s still an order from an emperor. It is to be obeyed. “I daresay that jerking around like a fish on a string will only make it hurt more.”
Chan snarls.
Rui sighs.
These days, talking to Chan is like speaking to a wounded, rabid beast. The Supreme Commander of the Dokkaebi army is liable to be reticent one moment, and flying into a rage the next, raving about what he will do to Shin Lina when he is given the chance. It is exhausting yet understandable. They have lost their loves, the two of them. And they suffer.
“It’ll heal itself,” the warrior snaps, glaring at everyone and everything in sight.
“Not if you keep moving,” Kang retorts sharply before turning toward Rui. As it always does now, Rui’s stomach drops as their eyes meet. They do not have much of a friendship anymore.
Attempting to murder a friend does that, apparently. Who would have thought?
Rui flattens his lips before they can curl into a cold, sardonic smile. It’s an effort for him to incline his head into a chilly nod. It hurts to look at his advisor, at the dark circles underneath his wise eyes and the way his once-sleek, dark auburn hair is now matted and limp. Rui wills his mask not to crack as he turns his gaze to Chan, unable to meet Kang’s eyes for a moment longer.
What do you say after you try to kill your friend?
What do you say after he nearlyletsyou?
Rui’s notoriously silver tongue simply has no words for this situation. He glances back toward Chan. The white-haired general still sits on the cot, his dark chest bare. The wound in his side has been cleaned and is in the process of being stitched. Chan glowers up at Rui, blame simmering in his eyes, and the emperor is bitter at the truth of it: his inner circle is fractured and broken. Blame and loss has pulled them apart, drawing an irreversible line in the sand between the three remaining Gaksi Dokkaebi of Gyeulcheon’s inner court.
“We keepretreating,” Chan snarls up at Rui, clearly itching for a fight. “We need to stand our ground. We’ve fought this war before, and never once did we retreat.”
“Circumstances are different,” Rui replies stiffly, measuring his breaths. “There is a Prophecy. These retreats have saved the lives of the army. It would be foolhardy to stay when our own carnage surrounds us.”
“Or,” Chan growls, gnashing his teeth together, “you don’t want to kill her just yet. You’re holding back. My soldiers and I know it.”
