Page 102 of Reign of the Talon
The lump in my throat is painful.Do you want to come in?the words ask, forming in smoke before me. Eunbi reads them before jerking her head in a tiny nod. My heart rams in my chest as she wanders in, looking around with a glimmer of her old curiosity.
“I don’t really understand where this is,” she says, more to herself than me as she stands in front of the fire, small hands outstretched. “It’s not…Jeoseung.”
It’s part of my mind, I think.The letters waver hesitantly in the air.
“Oh.” Eunbi glances at me only to read the words before averting her gaze again. “Your mind? Or the…the Prophecy’s?”
I’ve given some thought to this.Mine. The Prophecy breached it, somehow, but it’s mine. Just like my body is.This time, I float the words to her so she does not need to look at me. I shift awkwardly on my feet, unsure of what to do. The cottage is so small…
A slight thump to my right, and I turn to see a tiny wooden table, with two chairs across from each other, appear from nowhere. In the middle is a heaping plate of mandu, the very same sort Eunbi and I stole from her academy’s kitchen and ate in the closet. The smell of pork and scallions is mouthwatering, and it captures my little sister’s attention. Her eyes widen.
“You have food here?” she asks warily, but she doesn’t wait for my answer before walking to the table and stuffing one of the dumplings into her mouth. I want to tell her not to, that it’s impossible that the dumplings are really food and not some sort of mentalideaof food, but what’s the point? Eunbi is dead. Nothing can harm her anymore.
The thought is so hideously relieving and yet so nauseatingly disgusting that I stumble back. Eunbi frowns at me as she settles into her chair, picking up the chopsticks that also appeared and beginning to eat. Cautiously, as if approaching a wounded animal, I slide into the seat across from her. Eunbi stiffens but continues to eat.
Are they good?I ask hesitantly. Eunbi pauses mid-chew for a long moment before slowly plucking one of the mandu between her chopsticks and stretching it across the table toward me.
My heart breaks in my chest.
“Here,” Eunbi said through a big mouthful of kimchi, scallions, and pork. “You can have my last one, Lili.” She pressed the mandu into my hand, ignoring my gentle protests—it was Eunbi’s favorite food. But my little sister shook her head stubbornly, dark curls bouncing. “It’s a present,” she insisted. “Take it! Take it, take it, take it!”
It was a silly thing, just a dumpling, but her generosity filled me with a love and happiness so potent, I pulled her into my arms and smothered her with hugs as she squirmed and giggled in delight.
“Take it,” Eunbi says impatiently, and I quickly oblige, letting her plop the dumpling into my palm. “You should eat something,” she adds after a moment passes, and I do not raise the mandu to my lips. “You look…” She shifts uncomfortably in her seat and lapses into silence.
Although my throat is painfully tight, I take a small bite just to please her.
Eunbi nods in satisfaction as I chew. The mandu tastes real enough, with the chewy dumpling dough and salty pork. Under Eunbi’s watchful stare, I eat the whole thing before picking up my chopsticks and reaching for another one myself.
We eat in silence for a long while.
How do you come here?I finally ask, and Eunbi shrugs, reaching for the last mandu. As soon as it disappears from the plate, two bowls of steaming seaweed soup appear before us. Eunbi blinks in surprise before answering my question around a large mouthful.
“Yeomra isn’t in Jeoseung,” she says. “So the underworld has no ruler.”
It is similar to what Sang said to me, all those months ago, after he visited me as a Gwisin in the Gyeulcheon Forest.
“I can’t visit Iseung. That’s harder to do,” my sister continues, and I remember that Sang mentioned that, too—being unable to stay for long in the mortal realm. “But I feel… I don’t know… I feel drawn to this place. Your mind,” she corrects, staring down at her bowl of soup. “Like a rope tied around my waist yanked me back and—and dragged me here. Not in a bad way, but in a…strong way. The Talons, too. Eomma and Appa didn’t feel it, but maybe that’s good. I think they’d be sad to see you like this.”
Do Eomma and Appa…I clench my chopsticks hard, knuckles turning white with fear.Do they hate me?
For a moment, Eunbi looks very sad. “No,” she says, finally meeting my eye. “I didn’t… I didn’t really tell them about what happened.”
My lips tremble, and I raise my bowl of soup to my lips in order to hide my face.
“I just…” Eunbi sighs. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell them, but it seemed like the right thing to do. I’m still angry,” she adds, voice hard. “At you and what you did. But I didn’t tell them.”
Thank you, I say to her. It means more to me than she could ever possibly know. My eomma and appa don’t know me like this. Who I became after they drowned. And I never want them to.
Eunbi scowls, but then her face crumples. “I didn’t need those dolls,” she whispers, voice breaking. “You shouldn’t have killed someone to give me a present. That’s so—that’s soawful.”
I know. I regret it.My fingers tremble around my chopsticks. I set them down and fold my hands into my lap.I do, Eunbi. I know it doesn’t change anything, but I…I was only trying to make you happy. I was—misguided.And despite my infinite love for Yoonho and the Talons, I can realize that now. Yoonho took a vulnerable, desperate orphan and turned her into a honed weapon.
And I let him.
Eagerly.
I…I was trying to give you everything you deserved, in the only way I knew how. That doesn’t make it right. It’s not an excuse.My lungs pull in a shallow, shaky breath.When Eomma and Appa died, I felt like I was drowning with them. I didn’t know how to care for you like I should have. I got desperate, and I was so frightened that I would lose you: to hunger, or illness, all because I couldn’t provide. So I—I took the easy way out. The quickest way out. But the most willing money is illegal, and when the yeokun started coming in, it was because I was…I was an assassin, yes. For Yoonho and the Talons. I…I killed, Eunbi. I spilled blood.
