Chosen

Luck

The Goddess of Fate & Destiny

Book 4

Serenity Ackles & J. S. Lee

Chosen Luck

Copyright © July 2024 Serenity Ackles & J. S. Lee

All rights reserved.

First edition, July 2024

Published by Axellia Publishing

Print ISBN: 978-1-912644-57-5

eBook ASIN: B0CDNDFNFX

Cover design by Natasha Snow Designs;

www.natashasnowdesigns.com

Edited by Natasha Larry at Natasha’s Book Polish

Proofread by S. Harvell

Without limiting the author’s and publisher’s exclusive rights, anu unauthorized use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is expressly prohibited.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval systems, in any forms or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, unless for the purpose of a review which may quote brief passages for a review purpose.

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locations are used fictitiously. Other characters, names, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events, locations, or persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ALSO BY SERENITY ACKLES & J. S. LEE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

NEWSLETTERS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

WAYS TO CONNECT

DEDICATION

Ji Soo

To Kia, Jae, Song, Gun, and Rok

Serenity

You can’t dedicate a book to fictional characters…

Ji Soo

To Chloe Bennett, Park Hyungsik, Hong Jonghyun, Lee Sunghoon, and Lee Joongi – thank you for being our visual inspirations for our characters!

ALSO BY SERENITY ACKLES & J. S. LEE

Serenity Ackles & J. S. Lee

Paranormal Reverse Harem

The Goddess of Fate & Destiny

Cursed Luck

Stolen Luck

Twisted Luck

Chosen Luck

Serenity Ackles

Paranormal Reverse Harem

Elemental Magic Unleashed

Grounded

Charged

Shocked

Dark Contemporary Reverse Harem

XXXVII

XXXVII: The Elite

XXXVII: The Initiation

XXXVII: The Revenge

J. S. Lee

Reverse Harem

H3RO

Idol Thoughts

Idol Worship

Idol Gossip

Idol Threats

Idol Reputation

Idol Lives

Onyx

Onyx: Truth

Onyx: Heart

Onyx: Love

Onyx: Unity

Onyx: Forever

Young Adult Contemporary Romance

(As Ji Soo Lee)

Zodiac

The Idol Who Became Her World

The Girl Who Gave Him The Moon

The Dancer Who Saved Her Soul

The Leader Who Fell From The Sky

CHAPTER ONE

Having a washboard stomach and an ass you could bounce a quarter off has always felt like something I could achieve provided I spent enough hours in the gym and ate the right food. And seeing as though I spent more time working than I did working out—never mind the studying, a diet fueled by caffeine is probably what kept me slim.

But after looking in Rok’s empty refrigerator and finding nothing but food that had been so over processed that it could sit in a cupboard and not go off, I doubt diet and exercise are the key elements to a six-pack. It’s probably as much to do with genetics.

Although, in Rok’s case, he does have genes of a god. Literally.

After the last couple of weeks that have included going to hell and back—also literally—I’m craving a homecooked meal with lots of vegetables. Or maybe it’s just the normality that comes with it.

“Even if you used magic, I don’t think you’re going to be able to put food in that thing,” Jae said.

I shut the door and turned to look at my guardian. “It has been three days of ramyun, and I’m bored of it. What’s more, with six of us, Rok’s supplies aren’t going to last much longer.”

“You can’t go out. It’s not safe.”

You can’t leave Rok’s apartment.

Hwanung and Mara will have sent all their ilhoeyong to look for you.

It’s not safe.

That’s all I’d heard, and they might be right, but after boredom led me to searching every inch of Rok’s kitchen, we were going to run out of food by the end of next week.

At this point, I was starting to wonder if starvation or the world ending was what would kill us first.

“Is Hwanin awake yet?” I asked.

Jae hesitated and then shook his head. “Song said your grandfather woke briefly during the night, but he passed out almost as soon as he’d taken the elixir.”

Elixirs. Another item we were going to run out of soon.

Grandfather…

I wasn’t sure what constitutes as the “average” life of a college student these days, but until Jae, Song, and Gun appeared in my life, I was pretty sure mine qualified as pretty mundane.

Raised by a single mom, who, because she was an army nurse, moved us around the country a few times when I was younger before settling down in mid-west before I started high school. I’d gotten good grades—good enough to get into veterinary college—run track, had plenty of friends, been caught drinking underage but never acquired any form of record…

In the last few weeks, I’d discovered I was anything but average.

According to my mom, she’d had a one-night stand when she’d been stationed in Hawaii, and then, nine months later, I’d been born. The only thing she’d ever really told me was that he had been Asian—Japanese. Although, that was probably kind of obvious when you see my Asian features and her very white ones.

Except, that guy hadn’t been some random Japanese or Japanese-American tourist. He’d been Korean.

More specifically, a Korean god.

And, not your average Korean god. My father was Hwanung, Prince of the Gods. Hwanin, the man lying unconscious in one of Rok’s spare bedrooms, was the King of the Gods.

Which apparently made me some kind of princess god?

And because the universe didn’t think that was enough, I was also able to control the magic of Luck. The very magic which happened to have the ability to turn the war raging in heaven either towards the gods or the demons of the hell—also known as the Dark World.

The very war which my father had started because he wanted to control everything.

What I wouldn’t give to be able to go take back-to-back genetics classes right now.

“Jae, what happens if he doesn't wake up?”

Jae took a couple of steps towards me so that he could place a hand on my shoulder. The gesture didn't seem to match the stubborn determination in his eyes. “He will wake up.”

After all that we’d been through, going to the Dark World and rescuing Hwanin, no one wanted that to be in vain. But it seemed like I was the only one wanting to even discuss the possibility of what we could do next if something happened to Hwanin.

“Please try not to worry, Kiaria,” Jae said as he moved his hand from my shoulder to cup my cheek. “The hard part is done. We just need to wait a little longer, so take the time to relax.”

As Jae’s thumb gently brushed back and forth across my skin, I closed my eyes. Much as I enjoyed his touch, and my skin seemed to tingle every time he touched me, I was trying to hide my irritation.

Even if I wasn’t completely human, I still felt human. I’d obtained enough cuts, scratches, and even broken bones over the past few weeks that, especially with an elixir or two to heal me quickly, I was still very aware of my mortality. I’d not been brought up with the gods, and I’d had some basic self-defense classes before moving to New York for college.

Since we’d escaped from Hwanung in the Heavenly Realm, Jae was doing his best to keep me protected. Considering my god of a father wanted me dead, and actual demons were hunting me down, I appreciated that.

But Jae’s bubble of protection was becoming more and more stifling. It wasn’t just not being able to leave the apartment, nor the constant reminder to just stay where I was…

It was the implication that I needed to accept this situation and be happy about it.

“Would something to eat cheer you up? Something that hasn’t been made from the contents of Rok’s cupboards?” Jae suggested, making me open my eyes.

“I would love to go grab some tacos,” I said.

Almost at once, Jae shook his head. “I will go. You need to stay here, in Song’s wards.” With bright eyes, like he’d just discovered the secret to my happiness, he gave me a wide smile before hurrying out of the kitchen.

With a long sigh, I leaned against the counter, counting slowly to twenty. From the depths of the apartment, I could hear Jae talking to Song. Although I couldn’t hear what was being said, I assumed he was telling him where he was going. Then, a few moments later, Jae was calling my name.

There was no way he was about to ask me to come…

I darted to the door, just as Jae arrived. “King Hwanin is awake,” he said.

Those few words were enough to make me feel like an invisible strap had been removed from around my ribcage and, suddenly, I felt like I could breathe again.

I followed Jae to the master bedroom. The door was still open from when Jae had been in, and as we got close, I could see Hwanin sitting up in the bed. His dark eyes were locked on me as I walked into the room.

Even though we’d been locked in the same dungeon, our interactions had been limited, and given how ill he’d been, I wasn’t even sure if he remembered who I was.

How did one greet the guy who was both your grandfather and the King of the Gods?

King Hwanin stared at me, then his gaze softened. “Sonnyeo.”

Did he call me Sonya?

“I’m Kia,” I told him. “I don’t know what you remember, but I’m your granddaughter. Apparently.”

With a nod, Hwanin gave me a smile. “You have my blood in you. I can sense it.”

Before I could ask him how that was possible, he burst out coughing. Raw, hacking noises which sounded like he was about to cough up a lung.

Song moved from the side of the room to the side of the bed, picking up one of the three vials of silver liquid from the bedside table. Elixir. By the time he’d uncorked it and held it out to Hwanin, the coughing had subsided and Hwanin was laid against the pillows, trying to catch his breath.

“Please, drink this,” Song said.

I tried not to frown as I watched the king sip at the liquid. I was a veterinarian—or I was two semesters away from being one if I hadn’t completely screwed up my everything with my absence—but even to me, the cough was concerning. If it wasn’t from experiencing first-hand how amazing those elixirs were, I’d be insisting on getting Hwanin to an ER to be checked out.

Hwanin handed Song the empty bottle and then relaxed back into the pillows, closing his eyes. For a moment, I thought he was going back to sleep, but he inhaled deeply and then opened his eyes to look at me.

“Do you know how to get back into the Heavenly Realm?” I asked him.

“Kiaria, I don’t think this is the time—”

I turned, narrowing my eyes as I looked at Jae. “Then when is the time? Because the last I checked, time is one thing we don’t have much of.”

“Sonnyeo is right, but this is a conversation which requires everyone. Allow me to bathe and dress, and we can discuss it together.” Hwanin gave me a smile. “Forgive me, but I haven’t been able to clean myself for some time.”

One of the first things I had done when we’d gotten back from the Dark World was shower, so I couldn’t begrudge Hwanin of that. He must have spent a few weeks, at least, trapped in a dungeon.

Song had done his best to clean him while he’d been looking after him the last few days, even getting him into a pair of Rok’s pajamas. But a sponge bath was nothing like a real bath, and despite Song’s best efforts, there was a smell in the room which could only be attributed to the king.

With a small bob of my head, I left the room and walked down the hall to the living room. From outside, I could hear a rhythmic beat of dull thuds.

Property prices in New York—never mind Manhattan—were astronomical. I lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Long Island with a roommate. The place was cozy, and while we shared a bathroom, there was enough room for a double bed in each bedroom. The only reason I could afford the rent was because Eloá’s dad owned the place.

Rok’s apartment, by comparison, was a four-bedroom place in front of Central Park. The monthly rent on this place was probably the same as how much I was supposed to pay in a year to Eloá’s dad.

Taking a deep breath, I wrapped my hand around the ornate handle and opened the door. The living room had a high ceiling, enormous windows which led out to a balcony, and was big enough for none of the three couches to touch a wall. There was a casual elegance about the décor in all the rooms. Pale walls and white woodwork. Most of the floors were covered in cream carpets which had seemed like new until the six of us had returned.

It was a nice place, but there was little that made me think Rok had any say in how it was decorated. Then again, the strange cave-like home he had in the Dark World didn’t have much in the way of personal touches either.

As I walked in, the thuds instantly stopped. A canvas painting of Rok which had once hung in the master bedroom—one of the few personalized pieces of anything in the place—was propped up on a chair against the wall. There were a few tears in the picture, but most of the damage was on the wall and floors around it.

The thuds were the sound of the throwing knives as they bounced off the wall or fell to the floor, the bangs muffled by the carpet.

Almost since we got here, Gun had spent most of the time in this room. If he wasn’t standing in front of one of the large windows, watching the park, he was at the opposite end of the room to Rok’s portrait, throwing the same six knives over and over again.

As soon as he saw me, Gun lowered the last knife in his hand. “Do you need something?”

“Hwanin is awake. He’s going to shower and get dressed, then he’s coming in here for us to talk.” I walked over stopping a few feet in front of him. “How are you doing?” I asked, softly.

Almost automatically, Gun reached up and touched the eyepatch covering his right eye. Yesterday, Jae had presented him with the gift. He’d taken one of Rok’s leather belts and used it to make the eyepatch. Although it was a basic design, the cuts and stiches were incredibly neat.

“My close-range abilities have barely been affected. Don’t worry about me being able to protect you because my strength has always been with my sword. When we get back to the Heavenly Realm, we’ll be able to restore my sight.”

The demon that had attacked Gun had practically ripped his eyeball out. I’d done my best with the little I had, but the elixir I’d used then had only been able to restore the socket and put the eye back in place. It had been days since, and although Gun would never give anyone a definitive answer on how his sight was, I was almost certain he still couldn’t see anything.

Because he seemed so sure an elixir created in the Heavenly Realm fix it, and because I really didn’t want to say anything that could crush his hope, I just gave him a small smile and nodded.

When I’d taken my first shower when I’d come back here, I’d spent about an hour under the hot water. Hwanin, however, must have rushed through his because it wasn’t long before Song was helping him walk over to one of the couches.

Now clean, he looked like a different person.

I’d assumed his beard was gray, but it was dirt and grime that was hiding the stark white. Hwanung might not have looked that much older than me, but Hwanin seemed ancient. Although the majority of his wrinkles were gathered at the corner of his eyes, his body seemed frail and withered—like his muscles were shriveling up. I got the impression he had been as tall as the other gods who towered above me, but Rok’s clothing hung off him.

Even so, when he sat down, Hwanin sat upright, his eyes scanning the room. “This is a conversation for all of Luck’s guardians.”

“I’m here,” Jae said, stepping out from the side of the room.

“And what about the other one?”

The implication seemed to register with Jae when it did me.

“Rok is a traitor, not a guardian,” Jae snapped. “There’s no need for him to be anywhere near Kiaria.”

CHAPTER TWO

How we got out of the Dark World remains a mystery to me. Considering Jae, Song and Gun share one working braincell, we should be dead.

But that wasn’t what happened.

Me.

I’m the reason we’re all safe in my luxury apartment. I’m the reason that King Hwanin wasn’t executed weeks ago. And I’m the reason Hwanung doesn’t have Luck.

Yet the collective braincell decided that the appropriate course of action was to treat me like the enemy and lock me up in one of my spare bedrooms…

Locked in with the flimsy bedroom lock, for fuck’s sake.

I could sneeze and knock that thing down. If they really wanted to lock me up, they should have used the secret room in the back of the closet in the entrance hall, but they’ve not found it yet, and I have no desire to share any of the apartment’s secrets with them.

If I wanted to leave, I could. Easily. And in a number of ways.

Do they really think that I don’t have a dozen escape routes from this place, not least using my own masulsa powers? Absently, I reached up and rubbed my hand over the key tattooed on my side.

The fact I was still here was nothing to do with their pathetic attempts to keep me prisoner. And it was abso-fuckin’-lutely nothing to do with that blue-eyed temptress the braincell collective had claimed as their own.

Why would she be?

Kia was nothing but a means to an end—the way to get my masulsa powers back from that bitch Mara, and to get me back into the Heavenly Realm.

I mean, sure, she was okay looking… but who wouldn’t be after a decade of being surrounded by agmas? It was only natural that thinking about her made my dick hard because demon anatomy was enough to have half-decent sex, but it was nothing compared to the thought alone of being able to bury myself in her pussy.

Like my hand was controlled by someone else, it moved down my body, slid under the waistband of the pair of shorts I was wearing, and wrapped itself around my already hard cock.

Without any warning, the door burst open. “King Hwanin is awake and what the fuck are you doing, Traitor?”

“Well, I was imagining riding your ass, but as you’re here now, why don’t you be a good little guardian and come over here and bend over?” Still holding my dick, I rolled over and onto my knees.

Jae rolled his eyes. “If I had time to waste, I’d get a chopstick and stick it up my ass, because at least I’d feel that. Get yourself together and get your ass to the living room.” He turned, leaving the door open as he walked out of the room, completely missing me flipping him off.

Being called a traitor didn’t surprise me considering I was locked up in this room, but it sure as hell did irritate me. Jae was more than aware that I’d figured out what Hwanung was doing a long time ago, and that it was the prince who’d labeled me as that to protect his own ass.

But the reason I was still here was because I wanted back into the Heavenly Realm and unless I got a pardon from King Hwanin, that wasn’t happening. Most of my clothes were in the master bedroom, but there was overspill stored in this room. Maybe a suit was overkill, but it was either that or my shorts, and one was going to create a better impression with the King than the other.

Not wanting to keep him waiting, I hurried down the hall to my living room. From the moment I walked in, my attention was drawn to Kia, and not to the king. She was sitting on the couch opposite Hwanin, Jae and Gun on either side of her like bodyguards, but her gaze was locked on the floor in front of her feet.

I forced myself to focus on the King, bowing so low that I could see my reflection in the shine of my shoes. “I’m glad to see you up, your majesty.”

“Considering you’re the reason I was in that dungeon, that surprises me.”

“Respectfully,” I said as I straightened. “They wanted to kill you, so being in that dungeon might have been a tad inconvenient, but at least you were alive.”

Before I could see him, Jae was on his feet and his fist was bouncing off the side of my head as he knocked me to the floor. “You should be executed for treason.”

My jaw felt like it was barely attached to my face—hadn’t expected that from Jae—but I refused to touch it as I rose to my feet. The last thing that was going to happen was my execution, and I had three escape routes from this room alone to choose from.

But I wasn’t going anywhere without kicking Jae’s ass into next week.

Before I could get close, my body slammed into an invisible wall. From the looks of things, Jae was trapped behind the same thing.

“I swear upon all the magic that’s left in the three realms, that if you two don’t sit down and shut, I will remove each of your limbs one by one.”

Song was tall and weedy. He was also a mage whose magic was defensive—the guardian probably cried if he walked over an ant. I’d put money on either Kia or even Hwanin being able to beat him in an arm wrestle, but when I turned to scowl at him and saw the murderous look in his eyes, I hesitated.

“No, you won’t” Kia said with a sigh. “Because Jae and Rok are going to calm down, and if they can’t manage that, they’re going to stand at the other end of the room so that you can’t feed on their emotions.”

She glared at me until I held my hands up. “Jae hit me first.”

“And that’s the least of what you deserve,” Jae sniped at me.

“Enough.” Hwanin didn’t yell, but his word was enough to make Jae stop. “Regardless of what’s happened, this isn’t the behavior I expect of any of the Heavenly Realm’s gods, much less the guardians of my granddaughter.”

And that was enough to make me turn to the King, smiling smugly at Jae being reprimanded.

“It’s the demon toxin,” Kia said. “At least for Song. There’s demon toxin in his blood and it’s affecting his empath abilities. There’s really not much magic left to strengthen his barriers, so until we can get back into the Heavenly Realm for you to get one of your super-potent elixirs, we’re all going to need to really work on keeping our emotions in control.”

Jae looked at me, but instead of saying whatever he was desperate to say, he sucked in a deep breath and instead turned to the king. “Returning to the Heavenly Realm needs to be our priority. Most importantly, we need to return Luck to its home and tip the battle in our favor, but I think all of us are in need of a magic infused elixir to bring us to our original strength and help you defeat Prince Hwanung to regain your place on the throne.”

Hwanin stared at Jae but didn’t say anything. Instead, he looked at each one of us before he settled his attention back on Jae. “You think that’s something I can do?”

“You can’t?” Jae asked, before shooting Song a panicked look.

“Not like this,” Hwanin said.

“Get us back to the Heavenly Realm, or defeat Hwanung?” I asked.

“Both.”

“Well, good luck to you then,” I said, giving Jae a bright smile before I turned on my heel.

“My body is as riddled with toxins as anyone else in this room,” Hwanin wheezed before bursting into a coughing fit.

Although I’d reached the door, I paused, turning back to see Song offer the king one of my elixirs. Instead of drinking it, he pushed the bottle away.

“Please drink this, your majesty.” Song tried to give him the bottle again.

“That will do me no good,” Hwanin said as the cough subsided.

“Then there’s no hope,” said Gun. He slumped forward, his head in his hands. “We can’t return to the Heavenly Realm without King Hwanin, and King Hwanin can’t be healed without an elixir from the Heavenly Realm.”

Shaking her head, Kia got to her feet. “I refuse to stay here—”

“You’re safe in this apartment,” Jae cut her off, either ignoring or oblivious to her glare. “If you step outside of the wards Song has put up, the ilhoeyong will sense you.”

“Judging from how well Song’s holding it together, those barriers won’t stay up for much longer,” I muttered.

Jae whirled around and narrowed his eyes. “Weren’t you leaving?”

Instead of responding, I turned to Kia and held my hand out. “What do you say, Princess? Want to bail with me?”

“We’re all leaving,” she said firmly, planting her hands on her hips. “Rok’s right: Song’s getting weaker, and it won’t be long before the barriers fail. So let’s get out of here before they do and go somewhere the ilhoeyong won’t think to look.”

“And where do you propose we go?” Jae asked.

“Florida.”

I laughed. “And recruit the mouse or the Florida Man? I don’t think dreams or lunatics are going to help win this battle.”

“No, but I’d be happy to leave your body in a swamp,” Jae muttered.

“I want to see my mom,” Kia said before I could respond.

I’d overhead Hwanung and Kia when they were talking about her mother. Apparently, she was a mu, though I couldn’t see how a shaman was going to help—no elixir they could concoct was every going to be as strong as one created in the Heavenly Realm.

Hwanin nodded. “Florida sounds like a wonderful idea.” Then he started coughing again.

“Your majesty, are you sure you’re well enough to leave here?” I asked.

Jae took half a step towards me before he looked at Song and stopped abruptly. “This doesn’t concern you anymore. You should be thankful that you’re not being tried for your crimes. We’re in this mess because of you.”

“You seem to have misunderstood me.” Hwanin’s voice was quiet and weak. “Just because I’m not able to return us to the Heavenly Realm doesn’t mean that all is lost. You need Luck. And the goddess needs her guardians—all four of them.”

Four?

“I’m not a guardian.” As I spoke, I looked at Kia. Her attention was back on the floor and her arms were wrapped around her waist like she was trying to hug herself.

But she didn’t need to look at me to know that my words felt like lies.

“That’s not possible. I wasn’t Luck’s guardian. I was Hwanung’s.”

CHAPTER THREE

For all of my independence, it had been a long time since I’d seen my mom, and with everything that had happened, there was a huge part of me that wanted nothing more than to go home and have my mom hug me and tell me everything was going to be alright.

Getting somewhere that was out of the ilhoeyong’s search area didn’t require us heading to Florida, and anywhere in the world would have worked, but once I’d gotten my hug, I wanted answers.

Hwanung had said my mom was a mu I’d never heard of the word until I’d met Hana in Busan. With everything I’d been through, there wasn’t anything that seemed to spark a vague memory from my childhood. Mom was a nurse, but that was a huge leap to get from ex-army healthcare professional to a shaman with magical powers.

And I was absolutely certain that my mom had zero clue that my… that Hwanung was a god.

Hell, I’d been brought up believing I was half-Japanese, not Korean. She’d been stationed in Hawaii at the time. Despite the history, there is a large Japanese population on the islands… which was another open can of worms that I needed to talk to my mom about.

But the real reason I wanted to see her was because the last place I wanted to go was anywhere near her.

Goddess still felt like a stretch, even though it was getting harder to provide reasons as to why it wasn’t possible. Regardless of whether I felt godly, I could see magic, and I’d been able to control it. More importantly, Luck was drawn to me. Which meant Jae was right, and leaving Song’s barrier would bring the ilhoeyong after me.

If I went to my mom, they’d follow, and I’d be putting her in danger.

But Hwanung had specifically mentioned my mom, and if there was a chance he was looking for her, I was going to do what I needed to protect her. I had to hope that he was expecting her to be somewhere in Hawaii and not at the opposite end of the US.

“Which means you can’t hide in here anymore,” I told myself.

Without a phone or a watch, I had no idea how long I’d been in the bathroom for. No one had come knocking yet, so maybe not as long as I thought, but then again, everyone was probably still arguing over whether or not Rok was one of my guardians.

After listening to them—mainly Jae and Rok—I excused myself to use the bathroom, though that was just an excuse to get some space.

Slowly, I got up from the floor and the side of the bathtub I’d been leaning against, and finally forced myself to look at my reflection… and the real reason I was hiding in here.

While I wasn’t model material, I wasn’t unattractive. Admittedly, I looked a whole lot better when I wore makeup, but generally speaking, I was pretty enough. Most of the time, my makeup was minimal. Enough to feel confident, but not too much considering my time was either spent in a classroom or at the shelter.

But the scars which marred my cheek had been a direct hit at my self-confidence. The one elixir we’d had, I’d given to Gun in an attempt to save his eye—and I’d do the same thing again without thinking. It meant that when I had been able to take an elixir, the cut had healed almost instantly, but it had left a scar. A scar tinted with black from a demon’s toxin.

Jae had toxins in him that were strong enough to stop him from being able to shift into anything other than a squirrel—a black squirrel, at that. And the toxins surging through Song meant he was struggling to control his empathic abilities…

As for me, I didn’t really have any special ability other than controlling Luck, and that magic was still safely bottled up so I couldn’t taint it, but I had a feeling they were affecting me.

Because back in the living room, that was the first time we’d all been in the same room together since we’d escaped the Dark World. I’d not noticed it at first, but after a while, there was a pull. Something which made me want to kick Hwanin out of the room so I could be alone with Jae, Song, Gun, and Rok. Preferably without clothes on…

I’d checked the magic and seen nothing, and yet it felt like there was something rope-like linking us together.

Only, the longer I was there, I had the overwhelming feeling that dark shadows—long and sharp like the scars on my cheek—were leaving me and trying to shred the invisible ropes.

I raised my hand and gently ran my fingers over my cheek. Coming into the bathroom and forcing myself to focus on my mom had been enough to shake the unease, but I was still worried… Because, what if these feelings were just how the toxins were affecting me?

Lowering my hand, I reached for the faucet and let the cold water run for a moment before I splashed some on my face. With water dripping from my chin, I looked at my reflection, staring into my own bright blue eyes. “Mom first, then Hwanin.”

I turned the water off, dried my face, and then returned to the living room. Only Song and Hwanin were there.

“Kia, are you okay?” Song asked me.

“A little worried.” I knew Song’s abilities could pick up the emotion, but hopefully not the cause. “Where are the others?”

Thankfully, he just gave me a sympathetic smile. “We plan to leave soon. They’re gathering what supplies Rok has hidden in this place. Do you need anything?”

“I’ll be right back,” I said with a nod.

There was only one thing I needed to get—the only thing I had. Before I’d gone to the Dark World, the apartment I’d been living in had been destroyed. According to the news, the authorities were calling it terrorism although no one had claimed responsibility. In reality, it was more likely that ilhoeyong had attacked. Everything I owned in New York was gone.

Under the pillow of the bed I’d been using was the small bottle Luck was trapped in. I’d seen no point in hiding it in the back of a cupboard or somewhere hard to find in case the ilhoeyong tracked us down here and we needed to leave quickly.

After grabbing the bottle and sticking it in my pocket, by the time I returned to the living room again, everyone, including Rok, was there. Jae, Gun and Rok all had large backpacks on. While there might have been some clothes amongst them, from the way Jae’s clinked when he moved, I was willing to be there were some elixirs and weapons in there too. Which seemed almost comical when I saw the various designer labels on the bags.

At least they’d made a decision as to whether Rok was coming or not—although, judging from his scowl, I wasn’t sure how willing he was.

His presence made something burn inside of me. Quickly, I attempted to dampen whatever it was before Song, who was busy helping Hwanin to his feet, could notice.

Jae stepped in front of me and held his hand out. “Shall we?”

I stared at his hand but didn’t take it. “Shall we do what?”

“I can only create a portal to a place I’ve been before, and you saw what happened in Busan. I need you to do whatever you did last time because I’ve never been to Florida before.” He gave me a sheepish smile, still holding his hand out.

Getting to my mom was the plan, but I’d not thought about how. Honestly, I was still defaulting to more “human” ways than magical ones, so I’d assumed Rok would be able to get us a plane ticket or something.

When I took Jae’s hand, he sank down on one knee beside me and closed his eyes. As he did, I started to focus on the magic in the room around us.

To the naked eye, magic is invisible. From what I could tell, none of the others could see it like I could. Dust-sized bubbles in dozens of different colors drifted through the air. They lingered everywhere, but in thin patches. In this room, the majority swarmed around each person, almost like an aura.

Song’s was pearlescent green, but the closer to his body the magic was, the darker it became like he was outlined in black. Gun was a warrior and not a magic user, so there wasn’t as an intense gathering of magic. It was more multicolored than the others, although it too seemed to create a shadow around him.

Of the four, the magic around Rok was the strongest. Mostly orange, and although it seemed burnt in color, he didn’t have the darkness outlining him. The magic Jae used to create portals was a vibrant blue, like the sea on a sunny day. Instead of swirling around him, he was focusing it in the area in front of him. Streaks of black like the scars on my face ran through the blue.

Until recently, Luck gravitated to me, giving me a golden glow. Now, like with Gun, there was no real color to the magic that was drawn to me, though there was much more of it.

I was taking that as a good sign that Luck was still safely trapped in the bottle in my pocket, because I could also see the faint darkness that surrounded me. My suspicions about the toxins were right…

Before I could dwell on that long enough for Song to realize something was wrong, I focused on the blue of Jae’s magic, finding the last few golden orbs in the air to join them as I sent them to join the growing outline of a portal. Closing my eyes, I imagined my home as best as I could.

I’d not lived there long before I’d moved for college, and the only room I could remember clearly was my bedroom. The way the sunlight, mottled from the palm trees outside of the window fell onto the white bedding with dainty daisies. The shelves opposite my windows, lined with books, medals and trophies from the track competitions, and photos of me and my high school friends.

When I opened my eyes, the scene on the other side of the portal mirrored my thoughts.

Home.

Before I could stop him, Gun moved through first, sword drawn. Muttering something under his breath that I didn’t catch, Rok followed. “Stay in the bedroom,” I hissed at them as Song helped Hwanin through the portal.

Still holding Jae’s hand, I stepped through. Before the portal had closed behind us, a loud scream filled the air.

CHAPTER FOUR

“It’s okay,” I yelled, pushing my way to the front of my crowded room where I found my mom clutching the door handle. As soon as she saw me, she stopped screaming. “Hi, Mom.” I gave her an awkward finger wave.

“Kia? When the hell did you get here? Why haven’t you answered your phone? I’ve been so worried about you. What happened to your face?” Before I could answer, she pulled me to her, wrapping her arms around me as she squeezed tightly.

I closed my eyes and hugged her back, breathing in her familiar and reassuring scent of the coconut body moisturizer she always put on before she dressed.

The hug seemed to end far too quickly as my mom stepped back. Her hand grabbed mine and she started to tug me behind her. “Kia, do you want to explain why there are so many men in your bedroom.”

“They’re…” I sucked in a deep breath. At no point had I ever actually considered how I’d begin to explain everything to my mom. Jae, Song, Gun and Rok were standing in front of King Hwanin so that we couldn’t see him from where we were. Most likely for his protection. “Maybe we should go and sit down.”

To look at her, Mom seems dainty. She’s an inch shorter than me, with a slim frame. She’s got blue eyes, though hers are paler than mine, and blonde hair that sits just above her shoulders.

But Mom is an ex-navy nurse and currently works in an emergency department. The Keys are hardly a hotbed of gang activity and gun crime, but I’ve visited her at work before and she won’t back down to any patient who causes trouble. Considering Gun and Rok still had their weapons out, I wasn’t surprised to see she was eyeing each of them as though she was prepared to fight all of them at once.

I moved more to her side so that she could see me. “So, funny story, but it turns out my father is actually a Korean god—the Prince of the Gods—and magic exists. And these guys are the Guardians of Luck, which is a magic, by the way. And by default, they’re my guardians for a while because I also seem to be able to control it…” I trailed off.

There was a full minute of my mom staring at me before she let go of my hand and folded her arms. “Are you doing drugs?”

“Jae?” I half turned and held up my hand opening and closing it. “Can you…?”

Jae glanced at my mom before he lifted his hand and created a small ball of fire. It hovered over his palm.

Mom ran her hand through her hair, watching the flames flicker. Then she glanced at me. “Korean gods and magic?”

I nodded.

She scanned our faces once more before she turned, shaking her head as she did. Muttering something under her breath, she walked out of the room.

“Kiaria? Is she okay?” Jae joined my side.

Considering she’d worked in hospitals and been in the navy, I was sure she’d seen some things in her life. I wasn’t convinced there was anything that would top this, but I wasn’t worrying yet.

“We should go downstairs.” I took a step towards the door and then stopped before turning back. “King Hwanin?” I asked, trying to peer around the others to see him. “Would you prefer to stay up here and lie down for a while?”

Gun and Rok moved to the side so that I could see the king. He looked pale and I was about to insist that he stayed upstairs anyway, but he nodded. “I think for now, I will stay here and rest.”

“I’ll stay with him,” Song told me. “And I’ll make sure there’s a barrier in place.”

“I’ll introduce you to my mom later. Do you need anything? Water?”

Song glanced at Hwanin before shaking his head. “We have elixirs for now. I’ll find you if I need anything.”

Turning my attention to Gun and Rok, I frowned. “The swords stay in this room.”

“Not a chance,” Jae told me. “Until Song has the barrier up, weapons stay with us. We have an advantage at the moment, but there’s every chance Hwanung could unleash all the ilhoeyong to find you.”

For the short time I’d been in the Dark World, I’d seen swarms of demons in all shapes and sizes. The idea of them being unleashed on Earth sent a shiver down my spine, but I also didn’t think the five of us were enough to stop them all even if we had two gods armed with swords.

“Then sheathe them and try not to look like you’re ready to go all stabby on my mom.” I folded my arms and didn’t move until they’d done as I’d told them. Behind them, Song was helping Hwanin towards my bed. “Not my bed,” I told him. “Follow me.”

When I was a kid, we moved around a bit because of my mom’s job, but by the time I was halfway through middle-school, we were living in Florida. My grandfather—my mom’s dad—had died when I was six or seven, but my gran had a stroke a few years later and we moved in with her.

Gran had lived in the house since she’d married granddad in the 1950s but in 2005 it was completely destroyed by a hurricane. Thankfully, granddad had made sure to get the best insurance and the whole house was rebuilt. Now on stilts, the place was completely unrecognizable compared to how it had been. With a blank slate, my mom had made sure the house was suitable for my gran. There was a long ramp up to the front door, a stair lift inside, and my gran’s bedroom had a special bed and an ensuite wet room.

Gran had died the year before I went to college. I’d expected my mom to redecorate her bedroom while I’d been away, but every time I’d come back, it was still the same. Even now, as I stood in the doorway and stared at the pink floral bedsheets my gran had made when she was pregnant with my mom, it felt like nothing had changed.

I moved over to the bed and made sure it was plugged in. It was just like a hospital bed with sides that could go up, and a base which could be controlled into a dozen different positions with a remote control.

“That door leads to a wet room if you need it,” I said, pointing to a door in the corner. And this controls the position of the bed if you want to sit up,” I explained to Song and Hwanin.

“Thank you, sonnyeo.” Hwanin gave me a smile.

“Kia,” I told him.

Conscious that I’d left my mom alone too long, I left him and Song and returned to the landing where Jae, Gun, and Rok were waiting.

The shape of the house was a near perfect square but had quite an open design. There was enough space in the landing for my mom to put a sofa. The wall beside it was lined with books, but unless it was cold—rare, but not impossible here—she preferred to read out on the porch.

To the side, stairs curved down to the front door and the living room. The sofas were empty and as I got to the bottom of the stairs and turned back on myself, I could see my mom in the kitchen, her back to me.

“I’ll check the perimeter,” Gun said before heading for the door.

I took a deep breath. “I’ll be a minute,” I muttered before heading past the table to the kitchen at the back of the house.

Mom had wanted an open plan design so that she could be anywhere downstairs and still be able to see her mom easily if she needed her. Now it felt like the house was too big and empty, and a wave of guilt hit me for deciding to go to college so far away.

“Mom?”

She turned, frowning. “I made a fresh pitcher of tea yesterday, but do gods drink tea?”

Iced tea was Mom’s favorite drink. She usually brewed enough to fill a large dispenser that she kept in the fridge. “That will be fine.”

Mom moved over to a cupboard and started pulling glasses out of it. When three were standing on the worktop, she turned to face me. “Gods? Korean gods, Kia?”

“In my defense, I had no ability to stop you hooking up with a god.” I shrugged.

At once, my mom’s lips thinned, and she scowled at me. “Kia.” Then her gaze softened as she stared at my face. She quickly moved over and grabbed my chin, gently angling my face towards the window. “What happened? It looks infected.”

“It will be fine—”

“Kia, I saw the news. When I realized it was your apartment building, I called you, I called college. I called the damn police. Where the hell have you been and why didn’t you return my calls?”

CHAPTER FIVE

I shouldn’t be here.

Hwanin’s clearly too screwed to be able to get us back into the Heavenly Realm and that was the only reason I stayed before.

Kia had been a means to an end.

After I’d been banished by Hwanung, I’d been pissed. I had the ability to go to the Mortal Realm whenever I wanted, but to be banished from my home… I wanted to go back and I wanted to take Hwanung down in the process. You couldn’t call it treason if you were protecting the kingdom, and you had the evidence to back it up.

Which I didn’t. So, I’d gone looking for it. Somehow, I’d ended up in Mara’s bed before I’d realized who she was and who she was fucking behind my back. Not that I cared about that. Mara was supposed to be evidence not the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

She’d wanted to make sure her little fuck-toy didn’t stray and tricked me into letting her bind my powers. I had no idea what was happening in the Heavenly Realm until she told me she’d return my masulsa.

Retrieve Luck—which coincidentally happened to be linked to Kia—give it to Mara and in exchange, have the masulsa she stole from me returned.

When Kia literally walked into me, I was half convinced I already had Luck because the chances of that happening had to be near impossible.

I didn’t know Kia and I sure as hell didn’t owe her anything. I could have just walked out of the Dark World as soon as I had my masulsa back.

Only, I didn’t.

When I realized she was Hwanung’s daughter, I knew I couldn’t leave her there. That made sense—save the granddaughter and get a full pardon.

What didn’t make sense was that I knew Hwanin was fucked, and we weren’t getting back into the Heavenly Realm.

What also didn’t make sense was that Hwanin seemed to think I was one of her guardians.

And the other thing which didn’t make sense was the fact I was still here.

I groaned, instantly earning a glower from Jae.

Okay, no. Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest were the part that didn’t make sense.

Hwanin had several gods who served as his guardians. Although the chances were that they were dead considering he’d been dethroned and left to rot in a dungeon. I wasn’t the only one who had been Hwanung’s guardian either. Kia needing more than one guardian made sense. Having more than just us four would too.

Being a guardian didn’t mean that you had to be in a relationship with them. It also didn’t have the requirement of any form of sexual behavior. I sure as hell had never fucked Hwanung.

But Jae, Song and Gun weren’t just Kia’s guardians. Whatever mortal label Kia had given them, it was clear the four of them were together and fucking each other.

“Kia said she wasn’t sure if you like iced tea, but I have coffee and juice if you’d prefer something else.” Kia’s mother walked over carrying a tray with empty glasses and a full jug of brown liquid.

“Tea is fine, thank you…” Jae trailed off.

“Mom, this is Jae.” Kia joined her mother’s side. “Gun, and Rok. Guys, this is my mom, Linda.”

Having spent time living in the mortal realm, I knew a little of how humans thought, and I was willing to bet most people would never pick Linda out if asked to guess Kia’s mother. But I’d also spent a lifetime with Hwanung, and there might have been more obvious similarities to who her father was, but I could see her mother in her.

Including her toughness.

Kia and Linda had been in the kitchen for a while, talking. Not once had Linda raised her voice or lost her shit. I’d not missed the multiple side-eyes in our direction, but she’d still never come charging at us with a knife, telling us to get out.

There was still time for a meltdown, but Linda seemed to be handling everything as well as Kia had when we’d gone to the Dark World.

I wasn’t thirsty, but I took the glass of iced tea when Linda offered it to me. “So you really had no idea Kia’s father was a god?” I asked.

“Rok!” Jae snapped.

Glancing at Kia, Linda sighed. “It’s okay.” She sank into the other couch and patted the spare seat beside her until Kia sat down.

Interestingly, Kia wasn’t objecting to my question…

“You wouldn’t think it to look at it now, but this house was a lot different when I was a kid. I didn’t grow up poor, but this place was my whole world. Even going onto the mainland was a rare experience for me, and going to college wouldn’t have happened for me if the army navy hadn’t paid for it. I stayed in Florida to study because even back then, and even with a scholarship, it was still the cheapest option, and for whatever reason, my campus wasn’t one which had a large Asian community.”

Normally, I couldn’t have cared less about someone’s sob story, and even now I wasn’t that bothered with Linda’s childhood. But Kia’s eyes were fixed on her mom. Blue eyes—probably the one feature that most mortals would have linked to her mother. But her mother’s were pale and Kia’s shone in deep blue that only now I realized was likely because of her father’s bloodline.

“When I graduated, the navy sent me to Hawaii, and I thought I’d won the lottery. Florida has gorgeous beaches, and I grew up swimming in that sea, but Hawaii—O’ahu—was a paradise. I was young and I was away from home, earning money. Maybe this isn’t what a kid wants to hear about their parents, but I was having fun.” Linda turned in her seat and took both of Kia’s hands in hers. “One night, I went to a club, had something to drink, and met a guy. There wasn’t much in the way of conversation, and the following morning I was alone. We’d used protection, but there’s a reason why they say the only guaranteed way to not get pregnant is to not have sex. By the time I found out I was pregnant with you, it was weeks later. I never saw him again.”

“Mom, I’m not mad. I never have been,” Kia said. “I just…”

“Want to know how I never guessed he was a Korean god?” Linda asked. She gave Kia a small smile and reached for her face, pressing her palm against her cheek. “Your friends here are just as good looking as your father was, but when I look at them, I wouldn’t think they were gods. Even if there had been a moment when he could have mentioned it, I wouldn’t have believed him. And when it came to him being Korean…” Linda sighed. “Despite what some people may think given the history of Hawaii, there is a very large number of Japanese and Japanese-Americans living there. I just assumed… We moved around a lot before coming back here, and when I did try to get you more interested in your heritage—or what I thought was your heritage…” Linda sighed. “You told me that if your father hadn’t wanted anything to do with you, you didn’t want anything to do with him. Then my mom got sick and we moved back here…”

Kia sat silently, eventually nodding.

“You said that there were two other gods here,” Linda said, when it was clear Kia wasn’t going to say anything else.

Like she’d been pulled out of a trance, Kia looked towards the stairs. “My… my grandfather. King Hwanin. He’s in gran’s room with Song.”

“Mom’s room?” Linda asked, surprised.

“He was held prisoner, and he’s ill. We rescued him but I’m not sure…” Kia glanced at Jae before looking back at her mother. “He’s really ill.”

Linda’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I’ll go check on him and let your other friend have a break.” She stood and walked upstairs.

I set the untouched glass of iced tea down on the table and then sat back in the chair, resting my arm over the back. “Mortal families are so dramatic.”

“Why don’t you go for a walk?” Jae asked. “But just keep walking.”

Before I could fully stand, a hand was clamped on my shoulder, pushing me down. Then Gun released me as he walked past and sat down beside Kia. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

“I never fully explained what happened to my mom.” Kia rubbed the back of her neck, frowning. “I started to explain this,” she gestured to the lines on her cheek. “Then…” She trailed off as Song walked down the stairs, frowning. “What’s the matter? Is my mom freaking out?”

Song shook his head. “Quite the opposite. She took one look at King Hwanin before pulling out a box of what looked like medical supplies and started to examine him. She was unexpectedly calm.”

Kia smiled. “I think the world could be falling down around her and my mom would be calm. Hwanin will be alright. My mom won’t hurt him.”

The empath was staying close to the stairs, and I seemed to be the only one who was watching his eyes dart around the room. I glanced at Kia who was chewing her lip, Gun watching her with a frown. And opposite Jae was glowering at me still.

“Then why didn’t you stay up there?” I asked. “If she’s so calm, you could have siphoned a little of that off on you.”

“That’s not how it works,” Jae said, rolling his eyes.

“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” Kia asked Song.

He nodded.

CHAPTER SIX

Mom came downstairs a while later, and from the way Song moved out of the way, I knew something was wrong. “Mom?”

She walked closer, standing behind the sofa as she gripped the back and looked at us. “Korean gods and demons? What aren’t you telling me, Kia? That man up there is very ill—I really think we should get him to a hospital.”

“That man is the king of the Gods. Mortals don’t have the ability to cure him,” Song snapped before wincing. “Forgive me,” he muttered as he moved further away from Jae.

“The one who caused all of this is Prince Hwanung. King Hwanin’s son and… and my father. He had Hwanin locked away in the Dark World and we managed to rescue him. Hwanin is probably looking for us and right now, we’re hoping he thinks we’re still in New York. But if we take Hwanin to a hospital, what’s going to happen? I don’t know if god’s blood is like human blood or so completely different that it’s going to bring a whole lot of attention down here. And the demon toxin? That could set off a worldwide panic,” I told Mom, bracing myself as I did.

Song was right and she was taking everything surprisingly well, but that didn’t mean that the more I shared, the more likely she was to hold it together.

But Mom’s brow furrowed as she folded her arms and seemed to run her tongue back and forth behind her lips. Finally, she nodded. “Then what was your plan by coming here?”

My eyes widened, but then I let out a long sigh as my shoulders slumped forward. “I don’t know. Hwanung said that you were a mu, and I couldn’t tell if that was because he was trying to mess with me, or if he knew you, but I told him I was probably adopted—”

“Kia, you are not adopted. I spent seventeen hours in labor before pushing you out of my own body. I know you’ve never really looked like me, but you’ve seen all the photos from me holding you before the nurses were able to clean you, right through your childhood.”

“Mom, I never thought I was adopted. I just wanted him to think I didn’t have a connection to you in case he decided to come after you.” I’d questioned it once, when I was kid, and Mom had pulled the photo albums out. “Are you a mu?”

“I have no idea what a mu is.”

“It’s the Korean term for a shaman,” Jae explained. “They are individuals from specific bloodlines who have connections to the other realms. It could explain why Hwanung found you.”

“That night was nothing more than a one-night stand, fueled by too much beer and dancing. I don’t think he ever asked my name. As for being a shaman, or a mu, as you put it,” my mom shook her head. “I was raised in a Christian home.”

Her words had me rubbing my face in relief. I’d had no reason to believe Hwanung, and nothing had ever happened that could have caused me to think my mom had been hiding things from me all my life…

She wasn’t overtly religious, and she hadn’t raised me to be either. Sometimes medicine and science seemed to work against faith, and I couldn’t imagine her trying to hide a whole other side of her which would likely contradict both of these things as well.

“You’ve never been really ill as a child, and maybe that’s due to your father’s bloodline, but you’ve never had reactions to any medicine or vaccinations, and didn’t you tell me you’d donated blood when you were a freshman?” Mom asked.

“I try to go every two or three months.”

“If there was something different about your blood, we’d have known before now. But even if we assume the blood of gods is the same as human blood, you’re right about the toxin.” Mom frowned and glanced up towards gran’s bedroom. “There’s a possibility it’s the same or similar as something that exists already, like a snake venom.”

“Ilhoeyong toxin won’t kill you,” Rok said. “If the ilhoeyong kill you, they’ll do it with their claws or weapons. The toxin affects a god’s abilities.”

“The toxin is stopping King Hwanin from healing. It stops wounds from healing without leaving scars unless an elixir is used,” Jae said, looking at Rok like he was an idiot.

“An elixir is made with magic. Magic is not a part of a god—it’s an element in the world that a god can use. Healing, albeit faster and better than a mortal, is something a body does naturally.” Rok rolled his eyes. “We use elixirs—magic—to speed up the process of healing.”

“Then why aren’t the elixirs working?” Jae snapped.

“Because King Hwanin is really sick,” Song said, quietly.

“You’re saying the thing killing him isn’t the toxin?” Jae scoffed and then quickly shook his head. “Gods are immortal, and he’s the King of the Gods.”

“You know as well as I that being blessed with immortality doesn’t mean we can’t be killed.”

Jae folded his arms. “But it does mean we don’t get ill or die.”

“No, but it does explain how you’ve survived this long, because it sure as hell isn’t due to your intelligence,” Rok muttered under his breath.

“Rok said Hwanung planned to kill Hwanin before he was convinced to throw him in that dungeon,” I quickly said before another argument broke out. “I think it’s obvious from how we found Hwanin that no effort was made to give him nourishment, and if he’s as old as you say he is, in those conditions, it’s not surprising he’s ill.”

“Jae, King Hwanin’s body is covered in barely healed wounds,” Song added. “Just a small amount of toxin would be devastating, and our king looks like he was subjected to a lot of it. We were always taught to take an elixir immediately after an attack, and I assume that’s because the primary function isn’t to heal the wound, but to stop the toxin from taking hold.”

“Ding, ding, ding.” Rok gave Jae a smug look. “My bad, seems like your shared braincell is in the empath today.”

“Once again we’re reminded of how Hwanin is this way because of you, so give me one good reason why I shouldn’t execute you now, traitor.” Jae raised his arm and a fireball appeared, hovering above his palm.

“Because I’ve already had this house rebuilt, and I’d rather not have to do that again,” my mom said, surprisingly calmly, before I could fully get to my feet.

Eyes going wide as he looked at Mom, Jae instantly extinguished the flame. “I am sorry.”

My mom looked at me. “Kiaria, a word, please.” She didn’t wait for me as she walked into the kitchen area.

Feeling like I was a child again, I winced and then followed after her. “Mom, I know there’s a lot going on and I’ve barely had chance to explain anything to you, I’m sorry—”

Mom held her hand up before crossing her arms. “Kia, I desperately want to stand here and say that none of this is possible, and that you, or I, or both of us, are having some kind of mental break. Maybe this is some vivid dream, or there’s been a gas leak and I’m hallucinating, but until I can prove that’s the case, I’m going to believe everything I see and hear is completely real, despite how crazy it sounds.”

Maybe I’d not given her much choice, but my mom was handling this one a lot better than I ever imagined. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. Gods, demons, toxins, and now guys who can conjure fire and who knows what else? Real or not, both options seem like they’re putting the most precious thing in this world to me in danger, so tell me now why I shouldn’t just get you and me in a car and drive. I have connections—”

I glanced back towards the living room. My mom was keeping her voice low and from the way Jae seemed to be leaning towards us with his eyes narrowed, I didn’t think he could hear us—I was certain if he had heard my mom’s suggestion, he would have vaulted over the couch to stop her.

“It’s a lot to explain—”

“Then talk quickly.”

“I told you magic exists, and that magic mainly lives with the gods in the Heavenly Realm, but when my father attacked, one particular magic escaped. Luck—Luck is real and it’s a magic. And maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe it’s because I’m a half-goddess, but it found me, and it keeps coming back to me. I can see it, and I can control it,” I said, my words feeling like they were tumbling on top of each other as I hurried to explain. “And Jae, Song, and Gun were Luck’s guardians. Their job is to protect Luck, and by default, it means protecting me. Which I know sounds crazy, and scary, but I’ve seen the ilhoeyong and it’s only going to be so long before we can run away from them or the others. But they’re not really acting themselves because they’ve all been wounded trying to protect me or Luck, and the elixirs they have haven’t been able to fully cure the toxin.”

Staring at me in silence, my mom slowly tilted her head one way, then the other way as she examined me. “Are you dating one of them?”

I glanced back at the others again. Jae was still watching with narrowed eyes, like he was trying to read our lips or something. “Honestly, Mom, so much has happened that I don’t really think I could say I’m dating them, but I guess. Sort of?”

Once again, my mom just stared at me. “Them?” she asked, after a moment.

Had I said that?

I opened my mouth, ready to defer that conversation to another time, but instead I found myself confirming what I’d said. “It’s a little complicated, but yes.”

“Four men?” My mom’s eyes went wide.

“Three,” I said, quickly, keeping my voice low. “Jae, Song, and Gun. Rok’s… I don’t know what Rok is, but he’s not my… I mean… I… Just three. I think.” I frowned at my mom’s barely outraged reaction. “It’s probably just because of the magic—they’re Luck’s guardians and I have Luck…”

Mom sucked in a deep breath. “I know I’m not the most qualified to give relationship advice, but if this is a result of magic, you’re giving me more reason to get us both out of here.”

“I know it’s not the most conventional—”

“Kiaria, I couldn’t give a hoot if it’s conventional.” My mom frowned before reaching for my upper arm and gently tugging me closer to the window, like the extra foot distance was going to do something. “It’s one thing to be a half-goddess and have magic, but if magic is being used to control you by praying on your emotions and making you feel like you need to be with them, that’s another. I won’t let you be manipulated, especially when it’s putting your life in danger.”

Turning, I wrapped my arms around my mom and hugged her tightly. “Thank you for worrying, Mom. I’m not sure if what I’m feeling is real or not, but I’m not here because of that.” I stepped back, releasing her. “Hwanung is somehow stopping us from getting back into the Heavenly Realm. We need Hwanin to be able to get us in so that we can return Luck and they can win back the Heavenly Realm. If I run, Luck will come with me, and my father will just hunt me down. He doesn’t care about me, or this world. We need to get Luck back where it belongs, and maybe, when that happens, Luck will leave me too. Then I can see if what I’m feeling is real.”

Reaching up, Mom cupped my face in her palm. “I think I did too good of a job raising you. But I’m not sure I can let you go like this.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Mom, even if I wanted to, I don’t think running away will do any good. You’ve not seen the ilhoeyong, and there are thousands of them. What they did to my apartment block they will do to the world just to find Luck, and I can’t just give Luck to the others because it keeps coming back to me.”

With a sad smile, Mom shook her head as she let go of my face. She took my hand and led me back to the others. “I’m not sure I fully understand everything, but I do realize that you don’t have enough time to make that happen right now, so let me be clear. This right here—” She raised the hand still holding onto mine. “—is the most important thing in my life, which means she is now the most important thing in your life. Not your heaven, your king, your magic, or even your own life. It’s Kia. And so help me, if you don’t keep her safe, you’ll end up wishing it was just these demons you have to deal with. Do you understand?”

My mouth dropped open, but it was Gun who stood and turned to face us. “We cannot protect all of those things without protecting Kia, but I promise you that if they were separate, I would use my last breath protecting her.”

The intensity in Gun’s words had my face heating up. I understood my mom’s concerns, but I had been about to tell her that she needed to be a little more forgiving with those priorities. There was only so much they could protect me from…

Although his words had me stunned, they seemed to appease my mom. “If what Mr. Rok was saying is correct, then these demon toxins in Mr. Hwanin are making him more human-like. I have some supplies left over from my mom, and I’ll head to the pharmacy now to pick up what I think might help, and I’ll do my best to treat him here. I’m not a doctor, and even if I was, there’s only so much I can do without being in a hospital.”

“Mom, I don’t think it’s safe to leave the house,” I told her.

Mom shook her head. “You said that man wouldn’t know you’re here, and if you plan on staying here for a little while, not only do I need some medical supplies, but we’re also going to need groceries.”

“Mom—”

“I’ll accompany her.” Song stepped forward. “I can make sure we’re under a barrier at all times, and the one on the house should hold for a few hours until we return.”

“They will be alright,” Gun assured me.

Logically, I knew the chances of Hwanung or any ilhoeyong finding them so soon was almost impossible, but it didn’t make me feel any less worried as I watched my mom grab her purse and car keys. Even with Song going with her.

Once the door closed behind them, I moved back to the couch, grabbed a glass of iced tea that I’d yet to drink, and sank into the couch. The room was silent for a while, before Rok let out a loud sigh.

“Seeing as no one else seems to want to, I’m going to ask it. We’re relying on Hwanin getting well enough to get us back into the Heavenly Realm, but what are we going to do if that doesn’t happen?”

“You seem confident that King Hwanin is going to die. What the hell did you do to him?” Jae snapped.

Rok arched an eyebrow as he relaxed back into the chair. “Clearly, it serves me right to have asked the question when the shared braincell went grocery shopping, so let me try to dumb this down for you. King Hwanin is in a bad way. Really bad. Honestly, it’s a fucking miracle that he’s hanging on this long, so I want to know what plan B is.”

“He’s like that because of you,” Jae cried out.

I’d been concerned for Song when he went with my mom because he was going to be surrounded by countless people in various stores, but honestly, now I could see why he volunteered so quickly. I wasn’t an empath but even I was exhausted with these two.

“Is it possible to go five minutes without you two fighting?” I asked, cutting off the insult Rok was directing at Jae.

“Kiaria, I am trying to protect us—protect you. Rok is a traitor. He turned on the god he was chosen to serve, and I refuse to let him turn on you.”

“How many times do I need to fucking tell you that Hwanung was the traitor and he banished me and twisted everyone against me?” Rok cried, leaping to his feet.

“You took Kiaria to the Dark World and handed her over to Hwanung!” Jae yelled. With no warning, he lunged at Rok, punching his jaw hard enough to send Rok flying over the back of the couch.

“Stop it!” I shouted as Gun grabbed Jae before he could continue his attack. With Gun holding Jae back, I hurried over to Rok, helping him up. “Are you okay?”

Rok glared at Jae, rubbing his jaw. “Okay? I’m just fucking peachy, Princess. For a moment there, I thought Jae had turned into a squirrel to hit me.”

“I’m going to kill you, traitor.”

Abandoning Rok, I turned to face Jae, my eyes narrowing. “Enough,” I snapped. “This ends now. Sit down and shut up.”

Jae glared at me, his nostrils flaring. “Kiaria, he cannot be trusted.”

“I said sit down and shut up.” I folded my arms and glared back.

Finally, Jae’s expression softened, and he stopped struggling against Gun. Gun released him but kept himself between Jae and me until Jae took a seat in the armchair.

With a deep breath, I glanced back at Rok. He was standing behind the couch scowling at Jae, but I didn’t think he was going to charge at him. I moved to the side of the television so that I could see everyone without having to keep turning around.

Since I’d met Jae, I’d had a feeling. It was hard to describe, but it was like my body—maybe even my soul—was repeatedly telling me two things when I looked at him. Lust and trust.

I was attracted to him. I wasn’t going to attempt to deny that. He was a god and he was gorgeous. Others might have said it was love, not lust, but I didn’t believe in love at first sight. Lust, on the other hand, was a physical attraction, and I most definitely had that.

Trust was a little harder to justify.

How could you inherently trust someone you didn’t know? Especially when your first interactions had been based upon lies and deception. I was sure this was coming from Luck, but either way, my gut was telling me Jae should be trusted.

The same applied to Song and Gun, although the lust part had come a little later with Gun.

But, as crazy as it sounded, when I looked at Rok, that same thing was yelling trust and lust.

At the same time as wanting to listen to it, the logical scientist part of my brain was giving me two very good reasons not to. If Luck knew these gods and wanted me to trust them, then ultimately, Luck was the source of my lust, which meant my attraction wasn’t my own. And equally, I had been attacked by an ilhoeyong and there were toxins in my blood which could also be affecting my better judgement.

I had no idea what the relationship between Rok and the others had been like before my father had banished him, but I was willing to bet that, even if they hadn’t been the closest friends, this level of animosity didn’t exist. I also suspected that, considering Gun wasn’t acting as badly, and Song only seemed to get angry when he was around Jae, that maybe it was the toxins amplifying Jae’s emotions too.

I moved closer to Jae, making sure that he had to turn to face me and therefore didn’t have Rok in his line of sight. “Can we have a conversation without things getting loud and violent?”

“Kiaria, I would never hurt you,” Jae said, horrified.

“I know, but I’m not talking about me. I’d like to talk with you and I don’t want you to start yelling at Rok. Or worse. Is that okay?”

Jae shot Rok a dark look, but then nodded at me. “Of course.”

“You keep calling Rok a traitor—”

“Because he is!”

I folded my arms and stared at him.

With a sigh, Jae lowered his head. “I apologize.”

“What is it about his story that you don’t believe? Because he’s explained several times what happened.”

“Even if it were true and he was banished before he could reveal Prince Hwanung’s intentions, why didn’t he try to communicate with someone? He might have been banished, but gods move between the Heavenly Realm and the Mortal Realm all the time. And even if he couldn’t find a god, he could have spoken to a mu.” Jae folded his arms and gave Rok a narrow side-eye. “I don’t believe that he’s still not working with Prince Hwanung, and that puts you, and Luck, in danger.”

Rok rolled his eyes. “Don’t waste your breath, Kia. He’s not going to change his mind.”

“It’s a fair question though.” Gun shrugged. “Why didn’t you find a mu?”

Rok looked at me before sighing. “Whatever. Look, I was angry, okay? Maybe I didn’t try hard enough, but the first place I went to is Vegas, because we all know that’s a popular destination for gods in the Mortal Realm. And it’s also the place Hwanung went to a lot. Only, I found Mara before I found a god, and I figured maybe I could find out what Hwanung’s real plan was so that I had some evidence. Only, she stole my masulsa, and then you know the rest of the story.”

Jae turned and scowled at Rok. “You mean the rest of the story where you kidnapped Kiaria, took her to the Dark World, handed her and Luck over to Prince Hwanung, and then had us all thrown in the dungeon?”

“Firstly, Kia came willingly—she asked me to take her, and secondly, at that point, I wanted my masulsa back. I had a plan to do that, and get her out of the Dark World, but you turned up and fucked everything up.”

“Rok is right, I did ask him to take me,” I said, sensing Jae was about to explode again. Maybe he had done so without taking the others with us, but if I was trying to be fair, I also hadn’t expressly said that either. “And he was trying to look out for me. He did give me an elixir after I had been injured—”

“You should never have been injured in the first place, Kiaria.”

I folded my arms, trying to keep myself calm. Jae hadn’t been this stubborn, or even childish, when I’d first met him, so I was really hoping this was the toxin.

“Jae, Rok helped us escape, and if I hadn’t gone back for him, he would probably be dead now. And he did keep me safe while I was there,” I admitted, surprising myself. I’d been annoyed at Rok for the same reasons Jae was, but now I wasn’t feeling as angry towards him.

“How do you know it’s not an act?” Jae asked.

I glanced at Rok before looking back to Jae and shrugging. “Because since I’ve met you, something inside me has been telling me constantly that I can trust you. When I look at Rok, I hear the same thing.”

Jae’s lips parted. “What?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

“I’ve been trying to make it make sense for a while now, and I think it could be Luck, but even if it is Luck, surely that’s even more of a reason to listen to it? Time feels like a word at this point, because it feels like you and Song walked into the clinic months ago, but really it has only been a few weeks. But the four of you have been surrounded by magic for a lifetime, and if magic is in any way alive, it knows you.” Kia reached up and ran a hand through her hair. “Don’t you think it would know you best?”

“Magic isn’t alive,” Jae pointed out.

“Isn’t it?” Kia asked with a shrug. “I can see it, even now. Little bubbles in the air of all different colors, and if I ask it to do something, it listens.” She held up her hand and a baseball sized bubble of water appeared out of nowhere. “Maybe it doesn’t need oxygen or food, but if I turned on a tap and asked the water to do this, it’s not going to listen.”

I tilted my head, watching as the bubble turned into a snake and coiled around her outstretched arm. Jae was right in that magic wasn’t alive, but Kia was too. I was surprised that she’d figured that out, but I was more surprised that she was saying this to defend me.

“Hwanung said that all five of us needed to come here, and I think he’s right. But whatever it is we need to do, we can’t do it when you’re fighting all the time.” Kia relaxed and crouched down in front of Jae. “If you messed up and wanted to make things right, you’d want a second chance, right? So why can’t Rok have one? Give him the opportunity to do the right thing.”

“If he’s here because we need him to defeat Prince Hwanung, then fine, but that’s it.” Jae shot me a dark look before he suddenly leaned forward. With one hand reaching for the back of Kia’s head before she could move away, he kissed her.

Leaning forward myself, I clutched the back of the couch, forcing myself to watch like I didn’t care.

I didn’t care.

Just when I thought I was going to snap the couch, I cleared my throat. “And look at that, he’s an ass because he’s jealous.”

Jae pulled away and looked like he was going to charge at me before Kia grabbed his sleeve. “Don’t,” she told him.

“And you want me to trust him? He’s only here because he wants—”

“Jae, don’t. I know what you’re going to say, but don’t.” Kia stood and walked over to me, keeping the couch between us.

“Are you sure you can control yourself around me?” I asked her, smirking. “Or is that why we need furniture between us?”

“You said that you wanted to help because you wanted to be able to go home,” she said, ignoring my questions. “Given Hwanin’s health, it’s possible that won’t happen, so I want to give you the opportunity to leave.”

Maybe Jae’s punch had hurt, but her words had the impact of a slap in the face. “You want me to go?”

Kia shook her head. “I want you to do what you want to do. I think Hwanin was right and we need you if we’re to stand any chance of getting things back to normal, but the possibility of you being able to go back home at the end of it isn’t certain. I don’t want you to stay if you don’t want to.”

“And what if I want to?”

The way her eyes briefly went wide, I knew she didn’t expect me to stay.

“Or is this you saying you want me to go?”

Kia bit her lip, then she rubbed at the back of her neck.

“Just say it,” I told her.

“I’m not trying to trick you or play games with you, Rok,” she said, softly. “I think you’ve been forced to do things where you’ve had no options available to you. That’s why I want to let you choose what you do next. Help because you want to or leave because you want to. Whatever you want.”

Kia’s eyes seemed to get brighter the longer I stared at them—a trick of the light, or a figment or my imagination—but I couldn’t stop staring at them. From several towers in Hwanin’s palace it was possible to see the ocean, and on sunny days, the water looked the color of Kia’s eyes.

“I’ll stay.”

Eye color had nothing to do with my decision. Neither did the fact it was Kia asking me.

“Even though there’s a possibility you might not get home?”

“Well, if I don’t try, none of us are going to have a home in the end,” I said, ignoring the feeling that really, what she was saying was that nothing was guaranteed if we did succeed.

“Then we need to work together, and that starts by you stopping antagonizing Jae all the time.” She folded her arms and stared pointedly at me.

Nothing would ever tempt me to say it out loud, but the way she looked at me was like looking at her father. She had god’s blood in her, but she also had royal blood in her.

“That’s only going to work if he holds his breath and doesn’t let go.” Jae’s muttered words were easy enough to hear from the other side of the room.

Kia whirled on the spot. “And you need to stop it too,” she told him. “We need to work together if we want to stand a scrap of a chance of fixing things, and we can’t do this if you’re fighting all the time. I’m declaring a truce.”

“What?” Jae asked.

“A truce. A ceasefire. A line in the sand.” Kia raked a hand through her hair. “I don’t expect you to be best friends, but this arguing stops everything. Song is close to imploding, and I’m exhausted from it all too. More importantly, it’s distracting us to the point that we can’t even work out a plan for what to do next.”

“Fine,” Jae huffed.

“I mean it, Jae. You can’t just say it. You need to mean it and you need to try to be sincere about it, because you might be able to hide it, but Song will still sense it.”

Did I care that I was winding Jae up? No. Hell, I even enjoyed it. I sure as anything didn’t care that Song was getting whiplash from it either. But the snarky dig I had ready to use died in my throat as I caught the way Kia’s voice was barely able to stop breaking. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists, and she seemed to be vibrating.

Flicking my gaze to Jae before I could feel even the slightest hint of guilt, I cocked my head and shrugged. “Truce?”

Jae scowled back at me, then he finally sighed. “Fine. Truce.”

A very audible sigh escaped Kia as she seemed to deflate like a balloon.

“Kia?” Gun said, watching her closely as she sank onto the couch in front of me.

Kia looked up. “Without anyone thinking I believe it’s all hopeless, Rok raised a good question. Unless I’ve missed something, the only way we can heal King Hwanin fully is with an elixir from the Heavenly Realm, but without the cure, Hwanin isn’t going to be able to open a door or a portal, right?”

Not necessarily…

Before I could speak, Jae answered. “Yes.”

I had no idea how I was going to succeed with this truce when Jae still lacked braincells. “That’s not strictly true.”

Bringing her legs up beneath her, Kia turned so she could look up at me. “You have an idea?”

“Can we just acknowledge it’s a bad idea now and move on already?” Jae asked.

The truce was nearly canceled when Kia looked at Jae like she was about to cry. Instead of saying anything, she just closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

“I think Jae and I should step outside and check the perimeter.” Gun marched over to Jae and grabbed his arm, yanking him up.

“Let go of me. That’s not picking a fight.” Jae attempted to pull free, but Gun held on tight. “You know as well as I do that we’re not getting through the barrier without King Hwanin.”

“And we are going to discuss that as we check the perimeter. Jae, I might be missing an eye, but we both know I can kick your ass.”

Jae resisted until he looked at me. I pointed at Kia, seated below me with her eyes still closed. Then Jae stopped. “Maybe some fresh air would be a good idea—get my brain working.”

I didn’t take my eyes off Kia as Jae followed Gun outside like a well-trained puppy. Even after the door had closed behind them, Kia didn’t stop rubbing her temples.

“Kia?” I moved around to the front of the couch, but hesitated. “Can I sit?”

Her hands didn’t leave her temples, but they did stop the small circular movements they had been making. “Sure.”

She didn’t move as I sat, nor did she open her eyes. “For what it’s worth, Princess, I understand why Jae has his reservations with me. I mean, sure, it’s annoying as fuck that he refuses to believe the truth but…” I sighed.

Finally, Kia lifted her head. Only a short time had passed, but she looked suddenly exhausted. As though she was going to sleep, she leaned to the side and rested her head against the back of the couch, but she didn’t close her eyes this time. “How easy is it to make an elixir?”

“Not particularly difficult, but nothing we make will make a dent on Hwanin like one brewed in the Heavenly Realm. There’s more magic up there. Plus, they’re made by a handful of gods.” I brought a leg up so that I could face her better. “I mean gods who can control the healing magics. Anything we made would be as good as a mu.”

“I don’t mean for Hwanin, although I guess it wouldn’t hurt if we could make something a little more potent for him.”

My gaze drifted to the scars on her face. “Do you need it?”

She pursed her lips as she ran her fingertips over the cheek I was staring at. “You’ve all said that toxins slow the healing and that they affect the ability to use magic, but I think it’s also affecting people’s personalities.”

“Do you think your personality has changed?”

Kia dropped her hand as she shifted her weight a little. “Song is getting the worst of it because he’s feeling everything we’re feeling, but I feel like Jae’s getting more…” She frowned.

“Aggressive? Argumentative? Confrontational? Overall asshole?” I suggested.

Instead of smiling, Kia just shrugged.

“Well, at least you’re not attributing that to me.”

This time, Kia gave me a wry grin. “I mean, I thought that went without saying.” The smile fell from her face. “I know we’ve ended up in a really difficult situation, and that’s not helping either, but he’s gone from being calm—or, at least, calmer—to the slightest thing setting him off, to now barely able to control his anger. And I don’t think he realizes how bad he is. But Gun was injured much worse… I don’t think we’ll survive ourselves, never mind another ilhoeyong attack if we can’t get this under control.”

“And because you went all noble and gave the elixir I gave to you to Gun, you’ve got a nice dose of toxin in you too.”

Kia’s gaze hardened as she glared at me like I’d just called her stupid.

Which, maybe, I had.

Because that small bottle was never going to be enough to heal Gun’s injuries, but it damn well would have fixed her.

“Say what you want, but I’d do it again.”

“First rule of saving others is to make sure you’re not going to end up needing saving,” I told her.

“Someone needs to tell Jae, Song, and Gun, because they skipped that class,” she muttered, bitterly.

“Try again, Princess, because the rules don’t apply with you. You’re a princess and guardians will do whatever we need to in order to protect you.”

Her gaze dropped to the small square of blue couch between us. “When it comes to stopping Hwanung, you’re all more useful than I am. You were brought up with gods and trained to fight or wield magic. And that’s not me feeling sorry for myself. It’s just the facts. Maybe I could control magic a little, but the toxin will just distort that.”

And suddenly, I was reminded, once again, of her father.

Hwanung was arrogant. He would never admit anything was wrong or, if he was angry, why. Instead, he was evasive, and you’d dance around the issue before he’d let something slip.

Of course, I didn’t for one moment believe that Kia’s motives were evil. She’d think that sharing this would upset the others, who she was already concerned were barely able to control their own emotions.

Somehow, I refrained from calling her an idiot.

“As someone who has spent time with various kinds of demons, you’re overthinking it. There’s a very simple solution.”

Kia raised her head, biting her lower lip. She looked at me with wide, hopeful eyes, and instead of simply telling her, I leaned forward and kissed her scar.

And when she turned her head, lips slightly parted, I kissed her properly.

CHAPTER NINE

Rok’s mouth was hot and welcoming. Somehow, he managed to silence all the thoughts running around in my head, and for a brief time, the only thing I could focus on was how good, and how right this felt.

It was Rok who pulled away first. He flopped back against the couch, his body half twisted as he leaned his head against the cushions to watch me.

Fuck.

“What was that?”

“You’ve never heard of healed with a kiss.”

“It’s sealed.”

Rok smirked. “Says who, Princess? Don’t you feel better? Because if not, my tongue has got nothing on the healing powers of my cock.”

So, this was nothing more than a joke to Rok? Fine. “I think I will do once I’ve watched you have sex with Jae, Song, and Gun.”

“You say that like I’m the one that wouldn’t be game.”

With a sigh, I rolled my body so that I was sitting properly in the chair, but kept my head against the cushioned back and stared up at the stark white ceiling.

If Hwanung got his way and the Dark World and all the demons took over this world, at least I was going to be in the place I deserved to be.

More than anything, I wanted to get the worlds back to how they should be. Luck needed to go back to its rightful home in the Heavenly Realm, and Jae, Song, and Gun needed to go with them.

I had my answer.

My attraction to them wasn’t because of Luck, because, if it was, why had I kissed Rok? He wasn’t Luck’s guardian. And maybe I could say that was because of the toxin, but I’d not been infected when I’d slept with Jae or Song.

Which came down to the fact that I was just a selfish asshole.

Did we really need Rok, or was I wanting him to stay because I was collection guys like people collected stamps?

“I hope the reason you look like you’re going to cry is because you’ve realized once you go Rok, you won’t be able to stop, and you’re disappointed you held out this long.”

I didn’t have the energy to roll my eyes.

Of all the magics that could have chosen me, the fact it was Luck was either cruel or ironic. Or both…

My life wasn’t bad, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to complain, because despite the hardships, I’d still managed to get through school and get accepted into a decent veterinary school. But there always seemed to be one inconvenience after another like the occasion where my transcripts had somehow gotten mixed up and I’d nearly been rejected, to the point my accommodation had been assigned to someone else. But that was how I ended up living with Eloá.

Jae had been adamant that Luck wasn’t good or bad, but if that was the case, it was clear the issue was me—and I didn’t need any demon toxin to do that.

“The kiss didn’t change anything because there’s nothing to change. Or nothing that needs to change, at least. Yes, it fucks with things, like your ability to heal or use magic, but look at me. I told you that I’ve been building a resistance to the toxins and I’ve been doing that by purposely infecting myself in small doses. It’s not stopped me from using my magic.”

A glimmer in the corner of my eye had me turning back to face him. In his hand was the small dagger that had moments ago been one of his tattoos.

“You built up that resistance using small doses. We were all given much larger doses after being attacked,” I pointed out. “And I wouldn’t try to treat a shellfish allergy by eating a shrimp every day until I didn’t feel like my throat was going to close up.”

“The only thing a demon has in common with a shrimp is their cock.”

I didn’t have the energy to roll my eyes at that, and I knew it was pointless to ask him not to make everything about sex.

The smile slipped from Rok's face as he grew serious. “Fine. To keep with your water theme, it’s more like learning to swim. You start in shallow waters and build up to something deep.”

“Then we got tossed off a ship into the middle of the ocean instead of starting in a bath.”

“More like off a boat and into the bayou. Which, if you stood up instead of panicking, you’d see the water wasn’t that deep.”

I blew out a long breath. “If that was a reference to us being in Florida, you mean the Everglades, but you’re going to find alligators in both of them.”

“That’s perfect, because I’m like Crocodile Dundee. And there’s one type of demon that’s very crocodile like.”

The only reason I knew about that old film was because my mom had made me watch it a billion years ago, but Rok’s knowledge had me arching an eyebrow. “A crocodile and an alligator aren’t the same thing. The clue is in the name.”

“And both are ageo in my language.” Rok just shrugged at me. “The point is what you’re very clearly missing. Removing the toxin would be perfect, but perfect doesn’t exist. At least not right now. But if instead you all just stopped fighting the toxin and took a moment to work out how it’s really affecting you, not only would you be able to figure out how to make adjustments, you’re also going to have less of an issue if you’re attacked again because your body is already used to having the toxin present.”

All this time, we’d been focused on removing it, but actually, that made sense. Considering there were no elixirs around to help, there wasn’t much else we could do anyway.

At least for the others.

My issue was clearly a me problem and not a toxin problem, which meant that the bottle of magic burning a hole in my pocket would be safer with one of the others.

“I didn’t kiss you to fuck with Jae, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Rok said suddenly.

Somehow, that thought hadn’t crossed my mind, but before I could tell him that, the door opened, and my mom walked in. Behind her was Song, Jae, and Gun, all carrying an abnormally large handful of bags that only a god would be able to accomplish.

“Don’t tell them about the kiss,” I told Rok while everyone was distracted with taking the groceries to the kitchen and there was enough noise to mask my words. “I’ll do it myself. I owe them that.” I got up and followed the others into the kitchen.

“Song was explaining about the barrier around the house, and as it extends to the decking, I think I’ll fire up the grill later,” Mom told me.

With all the people and bags, there wasn’t much space, so I stood to the side. “Did you leave anything in the store?”

“Plenty, although I’m not sure there’s enough room in the cupboards.” Mom reached for a couple of the bags, peering in them before gathering them up. “I got what I could for Mr. Hwanin, although I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to do.”

“You can’t do any more than you’re already doing,” Song assured her. He looked a lot better than he had before they’d gone. A little space had clearly worked wonders. “Which is more than we could ask for.”

Mom gave him a fond smile before she hurried upstairs.

In the rebuild, Mom had insisted on the open-plan design to make the house feel big, but with three gods and the bags, right now, the kitchen seemed chaotic and overcrowded.

“We grabbed some sandwiches which are still in the backseat of Linda’s car,” Song said, catching my eye. “And somewhere there’s soup for King Hwanin. Linda thought it might be easier for him to eat that.”

“We’ll go get the rest of the things,” Jae said. “Then perhaps we could sit down and discuss our options while we eat.” He was clasping his hands together, somehow looking like a little child who had been reprimanded and was suddenly on his best behavior.

Beside him, Gun gave him a brief nod of approval. Hopefully, whatever they’d discussed would sink in and last a little longer than five minutes. He and Jae left to go get the rest of the things, and I glanced down at what remained on the white tiled floor.

“There’s more? How did you get it all in the car?”

“Linda has a strange yet useful skill of being able to organize everything.” Song was looking around the kitchen with a frown.

“Let me.” Song stepped to the side, and I busied myself with trying to fit all the fresh and frozen food into the fridge and freezer compartments. By the time Jae and Gun had returned with even more groceries which I still couldn’t work out how they’d fit in my mom’s small compact, most items were stacked onto the side.

When my mom had said sandwiches, what she’d meant was she’d brought three platters of subs. While I was heating up some of the soup for Hwanin, the others were setting things up on the large table outside on the decking.

I poured the soup into a bowl and turned, ready to take it upstairs, but Song was already waiting with a second plate of sandwiches. “I’ll take these upstairs. You should eat.”

Back in New York, the temperature was warm enough that you didn’t need more than a light jacket at night, but down here, the temperature had to be in the upper nineties. The decking was covered, and the two large fans were swirling overhead.

The house didn’t back onto the ocean but since the hurricane, much over the trees and overgrowth had barely grown back to block the view of the deep blue water, sparkling in the sun in the distance. Demons in New York were hardly normal, but as I sank into the chair and inhaled the humid air, the only sound coming from the bugs, birds, and the road on the other side of house, here, it really did feel like I’d just woken up from a very bad dream.

Clearly not knowing what to get, Mom had gotten several of everything. I reached for the closest sandwich, checked the inside for pickles, and then dug in. Rok, Jae, and Gun were already seated, although they hadn’t started eating, and I was doing my best to ignore the awkward silence we were sitting in.

A few moments later, the door opened, and Song stepped out. “King Hwanin is awake. Your mom has redressed some of his wounds, given him some medicine, and she’s going to sit with him while they eat. She thinks it would be easier for us to talk if she wasn’t worrying about what we were talking about.”

I was grateful, because if Rok’s idea was apparently crazy, anything else we came up with probably wasn’t going to be much better. My mom had handled a lot already today and I didn’t want to end the day with her freaking out.

Song sat down, his back straight. “Everyone is tense.”

“Tense, but not combative?” Gun asked.

Song tilted his head, considering that, before nodding. “Actually, yes. Thank you.”

I picked up another sandwich. “Guys, eat first. Then we’ll talk.”

Rok looked up and caught my eye.

CHAPTER TEN

“Unless the Heavenly Realm has been taken over by a bunch of bugs, nothing I can shift into is of any use.” Jae’s irritated voice carried upstairs to my bedroom. “This idea was stupid.”

“Capybaras eat grass. They’re giant guinea pigs,” Rok informed him. “But with your hard head, you could probably do more damage if you ran at any demon and knocked them down like a bowling ball.”

“You managed a porcupine this morning, and Linda is going to kill you if you don’t get all those spikes out of her curtains before she returns from work,” Song chided him.

“They’re rodents. No one in the history of anyone has gone into battle with a damn glorified rabbit.”

Had I been down there, I would have pointed out that even if a rabbit was a rodent, it wasn’t even close to being the same thing.

“Six days ago, you could only shift into a squirrel, so I’d say you’ve made progress,” Gun informed him. “And Song is able to control his empathic abilities better too. There has been some merit to Rok’s suggestion for some of us.”

I stepped out of Hwanin’s room, pulling the door to without completely closing it behind me. Mom had been able to dress his wounds and give him some medicine, and he seemed a lot more stable than he had when we’d arrived, but he was still spending a lot of time sleeping.

After taking a day of emergency leave, my mom had to go back to work and was currently at hospital. With the others busy trying to figure out how to work with the toxins in them, I had slipped upstairs to give Hwanin his medicine.

Instead of going back down, I went into my room. This time, I closed the door, doing so as quietly as I could.

Avoiding the bedding which took up most of the floor, I moved over to my desk and pulled out the small bottle I’d stashed in there. I sat down on the bed, crossed my legs, and stared down at the bottle.

Over the past few days, there had been several news stories breaking of buildings being destroyed and savage knife attacks. By now, all were saying they were acts of terrorism, even though no one had claimed to be behind them, nor did the authorities have any suspects. Places in New York where I’d spent the most time in were nothing more than piles of rubble that the emergency services were still trying to find survivors in.

Worse was that last night, the first instance had taken place outside of New York in Philadelphia.

The country was starting to panic at these incidents, and it hadn’t taken long for me to find the members of the public claiming that they weren’t caused by terrorists, but by monsters.

They were hunting the bottle that lay in front of me.

And we still didn’t have a plan to get us—and Luck—back in the Heavenly Realm.

Gun was right. They had all made progress. Even he had. Only, Gun was never a heavy magic user, so the toxin wasn’t affecting him in the same way as the others. Instead, he and Rok had moved the furniture to the side in the living room so that they could practice with their weapons.

They had been prepared to practice outside, under the house, but my mom had stopped that when she pointed out that passing traffic could see them and the last thing we needed was the cops turning up on the doorstep.

The only one not making any progress was me.

Jae and Rok were making a really big effort to get along, and even though they would still throw insults at each other, they didn’t have the same venom behind them that they used to. Or so Song assured me, because he was able to stay in the same room as them without having a meltdown.

Although that could also have been a sign of how much he’d been working on regulating his emotions.

The four of them would alternate between sleeping in my room or with Hwanin, but I refused to let any of them share a bed with me. I claimed it was because of my mom, but that was a lie.

I still hadn’t told them about the kiss with Rok, and until I did, I couldn’t allow myself to do anything with the others.

The problem with me was simply me. Not Luck, not the toxin—just me.

Closing my eyes, I sought out the toxin.

With my eyes open, if I focused, I could see what little magic there was in the air. Most of it still congregating around Jae, Song, and Rok; the groups heaviest magic users. But with my eyes closed, I was able to visualize the toxin within me.

Even with my eyes closed, if one of the others was in front of me, I could see it in them too. It seemed to live in blood, but rather than seeing every blood vessel, it was like it was a snake, using arteries and veins to move around the body. Mostly, it seemed to rest in a spot in the center of the forehead.

That was where mine was now. Nesting in a splodge, I didn’t really need to find it. The headache gave it away.

With my eyes still closed, I flopped onto my side, curling my body up into the fetal position.

Barely two months had passed since I was first hit with Luck, but it felt like an eternity. I felt like a different person to who I’d been before everything that had happened. Old Kia wasn’t averse to dating, but college kept her busy enough not to care about a guy.

Old Kia might not have been top of her class, but she was focused and determined to be successful. She wouldn’t have been hiding in her room like this.

I opened my eyes, sat up and picked the bottle of magic up. Instead of returning it to the desk drawer, I held onto it as I left my room and went back downstairs to join the others.

Gun was by the door, swinging his sword as though fighting an imaginary demon. He’d removed his shirt while I’d been upstairs and beads of sweat were running down his back along his spine. They glinted in the light as he moved.

Song was seated on one of the couches that had been pushed to the side. From behind, he looked like he was watching Jae and Rok, but I could feel the little magic in the room swarming around him. By now, I no longer needed to check the color to know he was working with the barrier magic.

Jae was sitting on the floor, glaring up at Rok who was stood over him, arms crossed. They were still bickering, though it seemed to be about the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog—whatever that was.

Rok glanced at me as I walked over. “Just the person,” he said, cutting Jae off. “We have a theory.”

“You have a theory.” Jae narrowed his eyes.

“It does seem reasonable though,” Gun told him. He’d stopped fighting his invisible enemy when Rok had spoken to me. Still holding onto his sword, he moved closer.

“These guys have been trying on their own, but I think what might help is a little luck. I’ve seen how you can amplify their powers, and now that Jae’s managed to work his way through a kid’s petting zoo, perhaps with your help, he can manage something a little more ferocious. Like a bear…” Rok looked Jae up and down. “Cub.”

Jae raised his hand and flipped him off. Before he could say anything, Song stood.

“What’s the matter, Kia?”

I sucked in a deep breath and straightened my back.

And then I just stood there.

The words I needed to say were stuck in my throat.

“Kiaria?” Jae’s gaze dropped to my hand wrapped tightly around the bottle, then he stood, cocking his head. “What’s that?”

He started to walk towards me, and the movement managed to make me spring into life. “I was going to make some food for King Hwanin. Is anyone else hungry?” Ignoring the puzzled looks I was getting, I hurried over to the kitchen, slipping the bottle into my pocket.

I managed to get as far as the fridge, my hands reaching for the tray of sliced fruit my mom had bought before I saw Jae reaching for the fridge door out of the corner of my eye.

“It’s my turn to make dinner, but we’ve only just had lunch.”

“Snacks. I’m just making snacks.” I grabbed the fruit and pulled it out. With Jae still holding the door, I left it and walked over to the side, setting the box on the counter. Then I sighed.

Instead of turning, I gripped at the worktop and stared at the slices of pineapple in front of me. “I know we’re still trying to figure out what we need to do next, but if any of this plan relies on me and using Luck, then you need to come up with something else.”

“Using magic just needs a little practice—”

“Practice isn’t going to help,” I said sharply, cutting Song off. I turned, finding Rok, Song and Gun had all moved to the other side of the island counter which acted as a separator between the kitchen area and the rest of the floor. “Goddess or not, I can’t control Luck. You said Luck is neutral, but I’m not. I’m not good.”

“I know we’re in a tricky position until we can get some elixirs, but Rok wasn’t wrong when he said we’d be able to work with the toxins,” Jae told me. He’d closed the door to the fridge but had remained standing in front of it.

“Even if we do get our hands on an elixir, the toxins aren’t the problem.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “I am.”

“Just because your father turned out to be a bad guy doesn’t mean you are,” Gun said.

Song nodded. “Your mother is wonderful, and your father is still the King of the Gods. Your—”

“I kissed Rok.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

When I’d told Rok I would tell the others, I meant it. Even if I had stayed quiet for several days. While I might not have planned on blurting it out like that, I had imagined that no matter how I told them, there would be shouting and fighting.

Instead, I was greeted to silence.

My eyes scanned each guardian as I wondered if I’d said something else instead. “I said I kissed Rok.”

Rok scratched the back of his head. “I mean, technically, I kissed you.”

I folded my arms and narrowed my eyes at him. “Did you tell them?”

“He hasn’t said anything,” Jae replied instead, his voice strangely calm.

Gun gave me a flash of his rare smile. “I know there’s a lot riding on what we need to do, so we understand if you’re scared, but that doesn’t have any bearing on our relationship.”

When no one else spoke, I dropped my gaze to the floor and hugged myself tighter. If kissing Rok didn’t have any bearing on our relationship, then that was only because whatever this was, it wasn’t a relationship. No one—not even Jae—was angry.

And I wasn’t wanting a fight, but since Rok had joined us, Jae had spent every opportunity looking at a way to jump at him. If anything was going to break their truce, this would have been it.

Only it didn’t.

Which meant… I’d read too much into everything?

“Actually, I think it does,” Song said, causing me to look at him. His silver eyes were fixed on me, but he didn’t look angry.

I walked over to the kitchen island, pulling the bottle out of my pocket and depositing it on the counter in front of them. Quickly, I stepped back. “Then this should stay with you, away from me.”

“Kiaria, I know in the beginning, we were trying to get Luck out of you and return it to the Heavenly Realm, but that changed when we found out who and what you are.” Jae moved closer to me so that he was no longer stood behind me. “When we did try, Luck went back to you. If we open that now, it’s going to do the same thing. Luck belongs with you.”

“It can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “It needs to be with someone good.”

“What makes you think you’re not good?” Gun asked.

“Because I kissed Rok.”

“Technically, I kissed you,” Rok muttered.

“Just because none of you are throwing punches for the first time ever doesn’t mean what I did wasn’t wrong. I’m supposed to be…” I clenched my fists as I closed my eyes. Even saying that out loud felt wrong. “Where you’re from, this might be normal, but it’s not for me. I thought the attraction was because of Luck, but it’s there now when Luck isn’t. and I thought it was maybe the toxins, but they weren’t there before when I started collecting you like Pokémon.” The tight feeling in my chest had me taking a deep breath, but even the long sigh didn’t make me feel better. “That’s all me,” I finished, flatly.

“Kia, why don’t you sit down?” Song said, softly. “There’s something I think I need to tell you.”

My body felt like it was weight down by a crushing pressure and sitting down was a welcome suggestion, but I was sure that if I moved, I’d just crumple where I was. Instead, I opened my eyes, but I kept my gaze locked on the floor in front of my feet. “I’m fine.”

“Rok didn’t tell us that you kissed him—”

“I kissed her.”

“—and while none of us knew it had happened, Jae’s not reacting in the way you perhaps thought, but I think we’ve been expecting it.”

Despite myself, I glanced over, but my attention was caught by Gun who was looking at Song with an arched eyebrow. Of the reactions I’d been expecting, from Gun, I never imagined him to be as dramatic as Jae or Song. Even when he was upset, he was skilled at hiding it and remaining stoic. Disappointment and betrayal that I’d only be able to see in his dark eye. Not the confusion which was currently being aimed at the guardian beside him.

“Two nights ago, King Hwanin spoke with me. I told Jae what he said but not you.” At first I assumed Song was talking to me, but he looked at Gun. “But you can’t tell me you’re surprised this has happened.”

Gun glanced at Rok, then me, before looking back to Song. He shook his head.

“King Hwanin said that Luck would seek out the guardians it needs and it’s clear that is the four of us.”

“And he also agreed with me when I said that a guardian didn’t need to be in a relationship with the god he was protecting.” Rok folded his arms and gave Song a pointed look.

“Then did you kiss Kia because you like her, or not?”

Jae stepped forward. “Be very careful how you answer that,” he said in a low tone.

Rok glanced at me then shrugged. “I didn’t kiss her to fuck with her. I wanted to prove to myself that if I was going to be her guardian, I didn’t need to be with her to do so.”

“And?” Jae asked, or at least, that’s what his growl sounded like.

Rok pulled out the stool he’d been leaning against and sank into it, leaning into the counter. “I don’t know, because being anything with her requires being something with you, which means anything I feel is completely irrelevant.”

“No, it’s not. If you like Kia, you like her. But being something with her is completely up to her, not us. The same applies to any other god.”

“Other god?” I asked, my voice barely louder than a whisper.

Song nodded. “It’s entirely possible that when we return to the Heavenly Realm that other guardians will feel Luck’s call. Whether they become more than Luck’s guardian is down to you.”

Blood rushed to my head, leaving my legs feeling weak and wobbly as it did. I took a couple of steps backwards until I collided with the cupboards then sank down to the floor against them.

“Kiaria?” Jae was at my side as my ass touched the tiled floor.

More guardians for me. to pick and choose from?

“Kiaria?” Jae said again as he cupped my cheek with his palm. “I apologize. When Song spoke to me, we decided to wait before telling you because we didn’t want to overwhelm you. Ultimately, you can choose who you want to be with and we’ll be happy with that decision because we want to be with you—not with the other guardians you choose. Even if one of them happens to be that rock head over there.”

I’m sure he was expecting a response because I would have been in, and I wanted to give him one, but my brain seemed to have stopped. I brought my knees up in front of me, resting my forehead against them as I wrapped my arms around my legs.

“Kiaria?”

Closing my eyes, I wished I could just fall asleep and wake up with the answer there, but even though my brain seemed to have shut down, it wouldn’t let me sleep.

“Just give me a minute,” I muttered as Jae’s hand settled on my head. He hesitated then removed it.

Finally, I raised my head. “If Luck is neutral, it needs to go to someone who isn’t me, because despite what you say, it doesn’t excuse what I’ve done, and it doesn’t change the fact that I’m not a good person.”

A dull shriek echoed around the room as Rok abruptly pushed his stool out to stand up. “I’m not sure how you’re choosing to define good, Princess, but I know bad and I know evil, and you sure as fuck aren’t bad or evil.” He walked around and sat down on the floor in front of me. “Because the fact you’re overthinking this and coming to the wrong conclusions is pretty solid evidence on that part. Someone bad would have just taken Luck and run.”

Before I could respond, a breath of air burst out of Jae’s mouth as he rubbed the back of his head. “Ah, shibal. Look, it pains me for what I’m about to say, but Rok’s right. He’s done some dickish things and while I certainly wouldn’t have done the same things, he didn’t do them because he’s a bad guy. Which means you sure as hell aren’t bad either.”

“You don’t need to be running around killing people to be a bad person,” I told them, glumly.

“Can I ask you something?” Song asked. When I nodded, he moved around to the other side of the island, sitting down beside me. He didn’t speak until his legs were stretched out in front of him, resting against Rok’s thigh. “Do you think we’re good or bad?”

“Good. You’re gods from the Heavenly Realm,” I replied as Gun also joined me on the floor, sitting between Jae and Rok.

“So is Hwanung,” Rok pointed out.

“But none of you are trying to take over and kill everyone in the process.”

“Neither are you.” Rok arched an eyebrow. “Unless your father managed to convince you to join him?”

I shook my head. “That’s not—”

“Love is love,” Gun said, suddenly. “What you’re saying relates to what is shown to be normal to your culture. That doesn’t mean other types of relationships don’t exist in your world, nor does it make the right or wrong. It’s all different and it all depends on the people involved.”

“I’m not saying that at all,” I snapped, horrified. “I’m not judging anyone else with their relationship and I’m sure as hell not defining what’s right or wrong.”

“Based on this world, yes, you are.” Gun reached out, resting his hand on my knee.

“I have gone from you, to you, to you,” I pointed at Jae then Song then Gun, “in the shortest time possible. And I’ve not gone from one of you to the next. I’ve just added you to… to this. It’s not possible to fall in love with a person this quickly, much less three of you. Before I can even figure out how I feel, I’m kissing Rok—”

“I kissed you—”

“And I kissed you back,” I snapped at him. “Who kissed who is irrelevant. You kissed me, I kissed you, and I did it behind the backs of the people I’m supposedly in a relationship with. So how can you possibly say I’m a good person?”

Jae shifted his weight. “For gods and guardians, it’s as normal to be in a relationship with one other as much as it is to be with several. And before you say anything, I mean relationship, not just casual hookups. Some groups are all together, and some groups are held together because of one person. Sometimes a couple can be together for centuries and then one day, another joins the group. We call them yorae. In the Mortal Realm, that’s a relationship, but for us, it’s a connection. When they happen, they happen. If I understand what you’re saying, Kiaria, you think what you did is an act of cheating, but it’s not for us.”

“Are you trying to tell me cheating doesn’t exist in the Heavenly Realm?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yorae is yorae,” Song said. He brought up a knee and rested his forearm on it. “If the other person or persons are connected through yorae, then no. If one of those within the yorae were to be with someone when there was no yorae, then yes, that would be cheating. If you were to walk out of here and head to the nearest bar and hook up with a random guy, then we would be hurt. We are not hurt because of your yorae with Rok.”

“And when I was angry with Song, it wasn’t because of you,” Jae told me. “Yorae’s only exist between those with gods and guardians. We thought you were human and I didn’t recognize the yorae for what it was. And even then, I wasn’t mad about Song. I just wanted you to myself. Even when I found out that you have god’s blood running through you, I didn’t even consider the yorae until King Hwanin spoke to Song. After all this time, I assumed I was a guardian who wasn’t destined to have a yorae.”

“But you’re saying that if this is a special connection, this yorae, that if you meet someone else and have this same connection, you’d just…” I vaguely gestured with my hand, unable to say the word. “And then I’d have to be okay with it.”

Hypocritical as it made me, I wasn’t sure I was someone who could handle that.

Song sighed as he ran a hand through his silver hair. “Technically, yes.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

The way Kia’s face crumpled made me want to throw myself at Song and choke him.

“Kia, there’s a lot of things you’ve had to understand since we’ve met and I think part of what’s making you feel like a bad person is that you only know what we tell you. We’ve lived this life and something which doesn’t seem important to us could give a lot of context for you. I’m saying this because I want you to know the truth.”

“I wouldn’t,” Jae said.

Song’s lips pressed together into a thin line as he shot Jae a look of annoyance. “We haven’t discussed this with Gun… or Rok,” he glanced at me before turning his attention back to Kia. “So I won’t speak on their behalf, but Jae and I had already assumed that, after all this time, we probably weren’t going to meet anyone and have yorae with them. Like Jae said, you took us by surprise. But what is normal for us isn’t necessarily normal for you, so we were happy to let you decide what you want and need.”

“Me too,” Gun added.

No one was looking for me to my opinion—even Kia—so I remained quiet.

Song might have been insistent on being truthful and telling her everything, but while he wasn’t lying, he was simplifying it a lot. Yoraes weren’t common. Gods could do relationships, and they could do casual hookups, sure. And while we were capable of being in committed relationships, if a yorae existed, it was supposedly hard to ignore.

I’d never had a yorae with anyone, and I wasn’t close to anyone who had one either. There was supposed to be an undeniable pull towards another person and if that was the case, how could they ignore it?

The only reason I kept getting pulled towards Kia was our paths kept crossing… I needed her and she needed me—for what we had, not because of a yorae…

“You didn’t expect to meet me, so what happens if you meet someone else?” Kia asked them.

“I choose you,” Jae snorted.

“We’re choosing you,” Song repeated, firmly.

Linda needed educating in alcohol. According to Kia, she didn’t drink much, which explained the lack of options in her cupboards, but everything she had was low quality. The best I’d been able to find was a bottle of Captain Morgan’s rum, which was going down easily enough, but wasn’t close to the quality of liquor I was used to.

The bottle sat next to me on the table, two-thirds already consumed, as I swirled the serving in my glass around the melting ice. Florida reminded me of the Dark World because even at three in the morning, it was too warm and humid as hell. Down below the decking every bug was loudly yelling fuck me in whatever bug language their mating call was. Just like some of the lower-level demons.

And just like when I was in the Dark World, I was trapped.

Sure, it looked like I could jump down off this porch, walk away and never come back… but I couldn’t.

The door opened and Kia stepped out. Unaware I was there, sitting in the shadows to avoid the mosquitos which swarmed around the porch light, Kia walked over to the railings and rested her forearms against them.

She was wearing a pair of pajama shorts that were almost hidden beneath the bottom of the oversized hoodie she’d put on.

After a few more assurances from dumb, dumber, and dumbest, she’d seemed to have perked up. She didn’t open the bottle of Luck, although she did put it back in her pocket, and then she disappeared to take Hwanin some fruit.

When she’d returned, everything seemed to just carry on as normal.

Normal, in the sense I was continuing to try to help the others work with the toxins in them like before. And Kia really did seem calmer than she had before.

But she seemed to have forgotten that I’d suggested using Luck to help the others and no one else was willing to bring it up again.

“Can’t sleep, Princess?”

My question made her jump, and she whirled around. “Rok? What are you doing out here?”

Holding on to my glass, I got up and walked over to her, leaning against the railing as I stared out at the sea, glinting in the moonlight in the distance. Despite the neighbors and the road at the front of the house, from here, there was very little between the back of the house to the sea, other than a whole bunch of plants and wildlife.

Kia turned back around, looking in the same general direction I was. “When I moved to college, my friends back home said that I’d never be able to sleep because New York was too noisy, but I’d take the noise of the traffic than these stupid cicadas,” she said, eventually.

“You can’t sleep because of the insects?”

She sighed, lowering her head. “Do you think we can win the Heavenly Realm back from my… from Hwanung?”

I took a sip of my drink before answering her. “We have to, don’t we?”

“That’s reassuring.”

“Did you want reassuring?” I arched an eyebrow. “Not sure I can do that considering the only way we really stand a chance is with a whole lot of luck.”

Another, heavier, sigh escaped her lips.

“You’re hung up on good and bad when you shouldn’t be. People aren’t good or bad.”

Kia glanced up at me. “Then should I give Luck back to Hwanung?”

“Fine, maybe people are good and bad, but it’s kind of irrelevant. Good and bad come down to the point of view. I mean, yeah, Hwanung is an evil dick,” I said before she could object. “But to him, he’s not bad. He’s not going to want bad luck. He’s going to want good luck. And luck isn’t always one big action so much as a series of events.”

“I guess.”

Turning, I leant my hip against the railing. “All those medals in your room are from running, right?”

Kia nodded. “I ran track in high school.”

“Right, so if you wanted to have a little luck to win that race, it’s not just you. You have all the people you’re running against, and the weather, and whether or not your breakfast didn’t give you the shits.”

“Nice.” Kia wrinkled her nose. “You never did sports, did you? Races aren’t won because of luck. It’s hours of practice and dedication.”

“We might not have sports like you, but something like fighting takes practice and dedication. And you can spend your whole life training for battle, but if the demons manage to get in without you noticing, they are still the ones with the advantage. But if I’ve got someone who can make a freak gust of wind blow some dust in a demon’s eye just as I swing my blade, then I’ve got a better chance.”

“Dust?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t control Luck. I don’t know what opportunities I’d see. But you’ve been using luck to amplify the abilities of the other guardians. I’ve seen you with Song and his barriers.”

Kia glanced at the glass in my hand then back over to the table I’d been sitting at. She walked over, grabbing the bottle, drinking straight from it as she walked back to me. She winced and shuddered as she rejoined me. “I wasn’t controlling Luck. I saw the magic Song was using and just urged it along.”

“Not many guardians can see magic, and of the gods that can, none can control all types. That’s you and Luck.”

Resting her forearms on the railing, Kia stared at the bottle in her hands for a while before she took another few gulps of the liquid.

“Luck which isn’t good or bad until you give it a point of view,” I added. “And I can see that you get this, but you’re still hesitating which means your issue isn’t the magic but your relationship preferences.”

“I don’t have a problem with people being in relationships with multiple people,” Kia said without looking at me. “I don’t believe in love at first sight. Lust is a thing you get at first sight, and if that’s what drives you to hook up with someone, that’s fine, but if you’re still trying to figure out what that relationship is, and if you’re in love with someone, is it fair to bring more people into the equation?”

“By people, you mean gods, and for us, yes.”

“Because of this yorae.”

I shrugged.

“I had a friend who was obsessed with fantasy novels where the heroine discovered she was destined to be with the hero. Maybe something like that does exist, but how can I tell if it’s a yorae? It’s not like I happened to fall onto their dicks and we accidentally had sex. That’s not even possible.”

“Give me two seconds and we can test that theory.” I set the nearly empty glass down on the top of the railing and reached for the button on my pants.

“What are you doing?” Kia asked.

“I’m gonna get naked, lie down on the floor, and we can see if you accidentally end up riding my dick.”

“Rok, I was trying to say sex was a conscious decision. Nothing felt fated or whatever Song said.”

Even in the dim light on the porch I could see the pink of Kia’s cheeks.

I couldn’t tell her if this was yorae, or if this was lust, but in that moment, as I stared at her wide eyes and parted lips, something in me snapped.

In a swift movement she didn’t have time to react to, I grabbed her hip, twisted her around and pressed up against her.

“Ro—”

As the liquor bottle hit the ground below, I cut off her words with my mouth, crushing my lips against hers. There was no hesitation as she kissed me back.

When she clutched at my side, I pulled away. Somehow, I took a small step back—not too far, but enough that she didn’t think I was trapping her. “I’m going to fuck you. If you stay here, I’m going to fuck you, right here on this porch. Your other guardians seem to be fine with that, so the only one who could have a problem with that is you, and if you do, you need to head to bed before I turn you around and fuck you so hard you—”

Kia grabbed my shirt and pulled me to her, pressing her lips against mine.

I didn’t need to be told twice.

Pushing her backwards against the railing, I kissed her hot lips, finding little resistance as I claimed her mouth with my tongue. Again and again, I dominated her mouth with mine until there were no lingering traces of that cheap rum lingering and all that I could taste was her.

Her fingers weaved through my hair while mine slid under the bottom of her hoodie and shoved her shorts down to her ankles. Then I grabbed the hoodie and pulled away just long enough to get the thing off her.

With swollen lips, she stood silently in front of me, not flinching as I examined every inch of her body until my gaze came back to her face. Only then did she raise a hand to cover her cheek.

Instantly, I grabbed her hand and pulled it away. “There isn’t a single inch of your body that you need to fucking hide from me.”

Turn her around…

The words had been automatic. Even with Mara, sex had just been sex, and I figured I just had a preference.

Until now.

Now, I didn’t want to take my eyes off her face.

“It’s okay,” she said quietly as she tried to pull her hand free from my grip. “They are what they are. I know they’re not nice to look at.”

“Your scars don’t make you any less beautiful,” I snapped before kissing her angrily. She should never have gotten in the first place if she’d only taken the elixir when I’d given it to her.

Hungrily, she kissed me back until I couldn’t take her naked body being pressed up against me any longer. Hooking my hand behind her knee, I raised her leg until I was able to rest it against one of the wooden slats of the porch railing then I dropped to my knees.

“Rok, maybe… out here…”

“Too late,” I told her. Her pussy was damp, but I was going to feast on her juices before I fucked her. Zeroing in on her clit, I wrapped my mouth around it, sucking hard.

“Fuck,” Kia hissed, wobbling. As I grabbed her leg, she steadied, also holding onto the railing and the beam which supported the roof above us.

With my mouth and tongue, I explored every inch of her, savoring her taste as her moans filled my ears, until her body tensed. I glanced up, catching her gaze as she stared down at me, lower lip caught between her teeth.

Then she came, her body trembling beneath my mouth.

Satisfied, but far from finished, I stood and shimmied out of my pant, never taking my eyes off Kia. Her own eyes were closed, breathing heavily.

I guided the head of my dick to her entrance, then grabbed her chin. “Eyes open, Princess.” That was the only warning she got before I thrust my dick into her.

“Rok!” Kai cried as she grabbed my shoulders.

Before she could drop her leg, I moved my hand under her knee, keeping it up as I gripped the railing. My other hand took a firm hold of her waist. Then, I brought my hips back, pulling my dick almost all the way out of her.

Her pussy was tight as she was still riding her orgasm, and the sensation almost had me coming right there. Then I plunged back in, watching her eyes widen as the angle allowed me to go much deeper than she expected.

“Oh, fuck, Rok… I don’t think…”

I wasn’t going to give her chance to think.

With our gazes locked, I thrust into her, over and over.

Another time, I’d use all the tricks, toys, and the magic of my masulsa to make her come over my dick again and again, but today, I was going to make sure she remembered every last inch of me. That every thrust was made as though I was trying to her with no doubt that I was hers.

Hers…

“Tell me you’re mine, Princess,” I said, through gritted teeth, refusing to slow.

“Yours,” she cried, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body clamped down around me as she orgasmed again.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The room was empty when I woke. Normally, I couldn’t sleep through whoever else was in the room waking up, but Rok had worn me out. From downstairs, I could hear the muffled sounds of someone making breakfast, accompanying the scent of something which, although it smelled delicious, seemed far too spicy for breakfast.

Last night, I had sex with Rok…

On my mom’s porch, no less.

Thankfully, she lived where she did.

He’d stayed out on the porch, and I’d actually wanted to stay with him, but my body wasn’t letting me do anything until I’d showered. Then, instead of heading back down to see if he was still there, I’d chickened out and gone to bed instead.

Whether it made me good or bad, the fact was, I was attracted to Rok.

And Jae, and Song, and Gun.

Maybe it wasn’t Luck, and maybe it wasn’t the toxins.

And maybe, it was just the world is ending and the current situation is the only reason this is a thing, and once everything goes back to normal, all attraction would disappear too kind of thing…

But it was also entirely possible that everything I had been thinking, and all the doubts I had, only existed because I was brought up in a society which celebrated couples. This was the same society which, even now, was still split on whether those couples could be the same sex.

I still wasn’t convinced the feelings I had for these four guardians was love, but I did care for them.

Time was going to be the only thing that would answer how we really felt for each other, and right now, a future—even a lonely, single one—wasn’t certain.

Having taken a shower so late, I’d gone to bed with towel-dried hair, and I had to fight to brush it back into a braid before I went downstairs to join the others.

The atmosphere was suspiciously calm and cheerful. Song and Jae were in the kitchen, busy making what looked like a feast—not from the amount of food, as with so many of us, there was always a lot of dishes at mealtimes, but from the sheer number of different dishes.

“What’s all this?” I asked, joining Gun and Rok who were seated at the island. I’d assumed they were watching, but as I grew close, I realized both men were armed with knives and were busy cutting vegetables.

“King Hwanin will be joining us for breakfast, and as a thank you to your mother, we also wanted to prepare a special breakfast,” Song told me.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly nine. Mom had worked the nightshift and was due home shortly.

For a breakfast feast, I was expecting bacon, eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, waffles—even grits—but there was nothing breakfast like about the food I could see. On the tables, dozens of small dishes had already been placed, full of what looked like vegetables.

On the stove top, mom’s largest soup pot was full, almost to the brim, with bubbling liquid which was a vibrant red-orange in color and the main source of the spicy aroma which filled the air.

“It’s a feast fit for gods,” Jae assured me as I watched him pull a tray of grilled fish from the oven.

I’d eaten in Korean restaurants many times, so I recognized some of the food. The dishes on the table were types of banchan, or side dishes. I wasn’t sure which type exactly, but there was kimchi, bean sprouts, spinach… And the fish was most likely mackerel.

This type of food for breakfast wasn’t normal…

Wasn’t normal, or wasn’t what I was used to…

“It smells incredible,” I said, without lying. “When did you get up to make all this?”

“I came down a few hours ago,” Song replied, busying himself with taking the carrots Rok had been shredding and adding them to a bowl. “Rok was already up and he gave me a hand.”

A few hours?

Rok winked at me.

“I was planning to prepare the banchan for dinner, but when I took the medicine into King Hwanin and he said he felt he was able to join us for breakfast, I thought it would be nice to eat well now.” Song finished mixing the ingredients together in the bowl and then looked at Gun. “Would you mind helping King Hwanin downstairs?”

“Can I do anything?” I asked as Gun headed upstairs.

“We’re all—”

Before Song could finish his sentence, my mom burst in through the door. “Kia? Are you up?” she yelled.

I darted out of the kitchen. The door was still open, but my mom was in front of the television, remote in her hand. “Mom? What’s wrong?”

Mom pointed at the television.

At first, I thought she was showing me a movie. Plumes of thick, black smoke littered across the New York City skyline, then a similar scene in Washington D.C. which took me a minute to recognize before I saw the stark white Capitol Building. After that were the same burning ruins but in Philadelphia.

“What happened?” I asked, trying to process everything I was seeing, the text running across the screen, and listening to what the news anchor was saying.

“Ilhoeyong,” Jae muttered.

I glanced at him; my eyes wide. “You can tell?”

“They’ve been repeating footage of—there!” My mom pointed at the television.

On screen, a TikTok appeared. The person who was filming was focused on two girls who didn’t look old enough to have graduated high school. They were busy doing some dance trend when giant winged creature flew at one of them.

The thing had the body of a man, if the man was twelve feet tall. In place of arms, there were large bat-like wings. From the footage, the head looked almost human, but it didn’t do any justice to the crocodile-like snout lined with teeth.

Jeongchalbyeong.

Demon seekers.

The girls were oblivious as the jeongchalbyeong swooped in from behind, grabbing one with its long, sharp claws, and ripping her off the ground. The phone must have been on a tripod because the jeongchalbyeong flew up out of view. The video was cut seconds before the body of the girl smashed into the pavement.

“… As with the previous video, the next one contains some traumatic and sensitive images,” the news anchor said before the next image came on screen.

I couldn’t tell which city the last video had been shot in, but this one was in Philadelphia. The person was filming the inside of a completely empty apartment. “This is a seventh-floor unit in Chinatown,” the voiceover was saying. “One bed, one bath, and almost a thousand square feet of space. We walk into the open plan kitchen with all appliances, including dishwasher.”

As the guy walked into the building, there was a loud explosion, and the phone was dropped to the ground. “What the beep was that?” the guy yelled in a panic, scooping the phone up. He ran to the windows, trying to get a good angle at something down the street. From where he was, it was almost impossible to see anything other than a lot of smoke. “Was that a gas explosion?”

Then, something flew out of the smoke.

The guy filming didn’t notice, too busy trying to see what was happening. And at first glance, it probably seemed like a trick of the light.

“What the beep?”

The camera swung around to the building opposite, just as the floor a few stories above exploded. Almost simultaneously, the glass in the window shattered and the camera seemed to fly backwards before the screen went black.

“That breaking footage filmed by Frank Rolo, realtor with Center City Realtors, only an hour ago. Frank uploaded the video to his social media accounts claiming he saw a monster destroy the building opposite,” the news anchor explained. “We were able to confirm that Frank uploaded the video in an ambulance and is currently being treated for minor injuries at the ER.”

“What’s going on?”

All of us turned, finding King Hwanin at the top of the stairs. Gun stood a few steps behind him, dwarfing the god as they both stared down at us.

“Ilhoeyong are attacking,” Song said.

“Should you be out of bed, Mr. Hwanin?” Mom asked, hurrying over.

“I am quite fine,” Hwanin told her as he clung to the handrail and slowly started to descend, placing both feet onto each step before moving down another.

Despite everything, my mom put her hands on her hips. “Then at least use the stair lift. It’s much safer and will save your energy.”

“Nonsense. I’m almost there.”

I wasn’t even sure if this god even knew what a stair lift was, but I was taking his refusal as a good sign. Until now, he’d been relying on mainly Song or Gun to help move around.

While he continued downstairs and made his way to one of the couches, I continued watching the news.

The first “attacks” had started in New York in the middle of the night. Just before dawn, they’d started in Philadelphia, then less than an hour ago, in D.C. At first, in each city, officials had assumed they were tragic accidents—gas explosions, fires, and currently unexplained occurrences. Then as more buildings and people were affected, combined with the new cities, most were blaming terrorists.

Even I couldn’t fault anyone for believing humans were behind this.

Until clips were starting to emerge of unexplainable shadows being the cause.

“Kia?” Song’s hand settled on my shoulder. “You’ve gone pale.”

“It’s Hwanung and Mara,” I said, not taking my eyes off the television.

“Looking for Luck,” Jae agreed with a nod of his head. His lips pressed together in a thin line.

“Looking for Luck. Looking for me…” I shook my head. “Maybe that’s part of it, but Mara said she wanted to control this world too. Maybe this is the start of it? They could be seeing how humans respond.”

“Doubt it,” Rok told me, folding his arms. “The seeing how humans respond part, I mean. Hwanung and Mara are no strangers to this world. Hwanung was a Prince and a leader. If they were trying to take over, their targets would be those which would help them. They’d be destroying your police precincts and military bases. Probably go after hospitals too.”

I closed my eyes, unable to stop myself from imagining my mom being at work and the hospital being attacked.

“We need to stop them,” I said.

“You can stop right there, Kiaria,” Jae told me, the anger in his voice making me open my eyes to look at him. “You are not handing yourself and Luck over to Hwanung. Even if you did, it won’t stop them now.”

Glancing around the room, I was surprised to see Rok, Song, and Gun were also staring at me with stern, disapproving eyes. My mom was clutching her throat, her complexion almost white. Even Hwanin was staring at me like I’d suggested something awful.

“Did those words leave my mouth?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at Jae.

Jae cocked his head. “No, but—"

“But nothing.” I was several inches shorter than Jae, but I stood so that we were closer to being eye level. “I didn’t say that, and I wasn’t going to. We’re going to stop Hwanung and Mara from destroying this world, and we’re going to get your world back from them too.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“How?” my mom asked, drawing our attention to her. “You’ve been here nearly two weeks and in that time, I know you’ve been preparing as best you can, but I haven’t heard any of you say how you’re going to beat Hwanung. I know you go quiet about these things when I’m around, and I understand that, but as far as I can tell, you’ve got now idea how to get into the Heavenly Realm, and respectfully, no matter how skilled you are or how much power you have, there are five of you and thousands of those demon things.”

Five?

Mom was right. When she was home, the house felt more like we were family visiting, complete with family tension between members. We’d never said it out loud, but I guess none of us wanted to be seen training in front of her.

There was much to not talk about when it came to a plan, because every day when we did discuss it, we got no closer to figuring anything out. As for me, I’d spent more time thinking about my relationship with the guys and with magic—neither of which were things I really wanted to talk about with my mom.

But also, even though she was letting us stay here, and knew what we were doing, I guess I’d assumed that when it came to it, she’d try to stop me. I didn’t feel like I was part god, and I hadn’t been brought up with them to really know how to fight.

Mom drew a deep breath as she folded her arms. “Don’t look at me like that, Kiaria. I may not have been front line, but I was a military nurse. I understand the importance of needing to protect the people and things you love better than you think. While I might not be thrilled at the idea of you going into battle against demons, I know I can’t stop you. but before I let you put yourself at risk—before I let any of you put my daughter at risk—I need to know you have a plan.”

Ignoring the pointed look my mom was giving me, I turned to Hwanin. “Are you feeling strong enough to get us into the Heavenly Realm now?”

Hwanin had eased himself into the armchair. He did look better than he had, but he also looked more like a grandpa than the King of the Gods. “I am no more capable of creating a doorway between this realm and Heavenly Realm than Jae is. When the realm is sealed off, the only way to open it is from the inside.”

“Then how the fuck are we supposed to get in?” Rok asked.

“Rok,” Jae said in a warning tone as he shot the guardian a dark look. “Use some damn respect when addressing the king.”

Rok rolled his eyes. “Unless we can get back into the Heavenly Realm and get help from the other gods and guardians—assuming they’re still even alive—the last thing we’re going to be worrying about are titles.”

“That’s not how it works.”

Coming here, my plan had been to talk to my mom, and then make sure she was safe. I’d not considered how long we would be here, but I had figured that the more time we had for Hwanin to heal and become stronger, the better our chances would be for him to get us into the Heavenly Realm.

“Then what do we need to do to make you strong enough to get us in?” I asked Hwanin. I pointed at the television. “Because that’s telling me our time’s up.”

“After all this time, I'm not sure that I will ever recover fully, even with all of the elixirs from the heavenly realm. I wish I could say the problem is me, but unfortunately, like I said, the heavenly realm has been sealed from the inside.”

“Then how are we ever going to stop Hwanung?” I asked. “There are five of us…” Five beings, yes. But when it came to strength and ability?

I hadn't realized how much I had been relying on Hwanin to have the solution.

“My son is a God, but that doesn't mean you aren't capable stopping him.”

Rok opened his mouth but instead of speaking, seemed to think better of it. Whatever he was going to say, I doubt even Jae would have told him off. Jae, like song and gun, we're all just staring at the king like he had just announced our defeat, despite what he had just said.

“Then I guess you're staying here,” my mom said. “If you're going to fight, you might as well do so here. It seems like it won't be long before this country is going to have to start fighting back anyway.”

I stared at my mom as she sat down. Something didn't feel right. I knew our chances weren't great, but when had they been? Mom's attention drifted back to the news. My guardian seemed to be in a four-way staring battle, like they were waiting for one of the others to speak first.

But when I glanced at Hwanin, I found his eyes locked on me. They were round, shiny, and alert—like he was not just waiting for me to say something, but that he knew I was the one with the solution.

If this was some kind of test, not only was his timing terrible, it was also unfair.

How could I have the answer? I had been brought up as a human and my knowledge of the other realms was severely limited. Did he really expect me to figure out a way to get into the Heavenly Realm?

“And this just in, but we have reports of explosions occurring in Pittsburg,” the news reporter said, grabbing my attention back to the television. Video a new skyline I barely recognized filled the screen. Like what we’d seen previously, plumes of smoke were reaching up to the sky.

“It’s not going to be long before the White House will start deploying troops,” Mom muttered.

“Then we do as Linda says and we fight Hwanung here,” Song said.

Instantly, Jae, Rok, Gun and Song seemed to snap into life, talking over each other as they tried to come up with way to do that. I’d been about to agree, but when I tried to say something, I couldn’t.

Not because the others were talking too loudly, but because I wasn’t sure that really was the right thing to do.

Hwanin’s attention was still locked on me.

With everyone distracted, I moved to the edge of the room, trying to get out of the middle of the conversation so that I could think.

Humans might not have magic abilities or god-like strength, but they had evolved past the point of swords for weapons. Even so, I’d been in the Dark World and I’d seen all the different demons. Human weapons might be effective against them, but we weren’t going to know until it was too late.

We needed to stop Hwanung and Mara before they fully focused their efforts in taking over this world.

Which meant, if we couldn’t get into the Heavenly Realm, and Earth couldn’t be the battlefield…

“We need to go back to the Dark World,” I announced.

My words fell on distracted ears.

“Guys,” I said, loudly.

Gun looked over and caught my eye before he nudged Jae. “Kia wants us.”

“We need to go back to the Dark World,” I said, again.

“You’re not turning yourself over,” Jae informed me.

The way he kept saying that had me wondering if the solution was for me to just that, but it didn’t stop my irritation. “I hate to break it to you, but I’m far less noble than you seem to think I am. We can’t fight this battle on Earth because too many innocent people are going to get hurt. And if we can’t get in the Heavenly Realm…”

“We take the battle to the Dark World,” Rok finished for me.

I’d stopped speaking because a strange idea had started to form in my head. “Are you sure we can’t get into the Heavenly Realm?” I asked, slowly.

Jae gave me a sympathetic look. “Kiaria, as King Hwanin said, if the Heavenly Realm is sealed off, we can’t get in until it’s unsealed from the inside.”

“From here.”

Song cocked his head. “Here?”

I nodded. “We can’t get in from here. But what about from the Dark World?”

“Sealed is sealed,” Jae told me.

“But is it?” Absently, I reached for the end of my braid, twirling it in my hands. “When I went to the Dark World with Rok, I saw a lot of demons. Not just ilhoeyong, but agmas, jeongchalbyeong, ilhweyonggyon, and a whole other host of monsters that I don’t know the names of. But you have them split into low, medium, and high-level categories. The high-level ones seem to be the most human-like.”

Gun tilted his head, though it seemed to be more from confusion rather than trying to see me better around his eyepatch. “The Heavenly Realm is not what some humans refer to as Heaven, nor is the Dark World Hell. These realms are more like other worlds, where, just like on earth, there are different types of lifeforms. There are demons which are more animal-like, and there are demons that are more human-like. But it doesn’t make them human, either.”

“Even if you find one that you might be able to make a deal with, I wouldn’t trust them,” Song added.

“But if you can’t trust them, then surely, nor can Hwanung. He’s going to want to me able to move freely between the Dark World and the Heavenly Realm to keep control. I’d like to think that, even if they’re trapped and outnumbered, the reason Hwanung and Mara haven’t fully started to attack Earth is because the other gods and guardians are still fighting. Which means Hwanung also needs more soldiers, and the only place he’s going to get the numbers he needs is direct from the Dark World.” The way the four guardians fell silent had me thinking I was suggesting something impossible, but from the corner of my eye, I could see the smile on Hwanin’s face.

“Hwanung is arrogant. He’d never consider the possibility that we’d try to get back into the Heavenly Realm through the Dark World,” Rok told the others.

“You want us to walk back into that nest of nightmares? We wouldn’t get close to that gateway before we were caught.” Gun frowned, rubbing at his chin. “Even with you as a guide, there’s no way we could walk through without being caught.”

“I don’t think we’d need to,” Jae said, slowly. “Try to use the same entrance point, I mean. We’d probably have to be close to make sure we’d be able to use that gap, but with a little bit of luck, I should be able to create our own entrance.”

“Hwanung wouldn’t be expecting it, so we with the element of surprise, we’d be able to…” I bit my lip, unable to say kill him.

One of the hardest parts of being a veterinarian was to euthanize an animal. As I was still a student, I hadn’t done that yet. But I had been in the same room while the qualified vet did what he had to, and even though these were animals in pain, I wasn’t able to completely turn my emotions off.

If the fate of two worlds depended on it, I would do what I needed to.

Or I hoped I would be able to.

But Hwanung was someone’s son—the god sitting in my mom’s living room. And, even if there was no real relationship, and he’d kill me without any remorse, he was technically my father.

Assuming we succeeded, there was a therapist out there who was going to have a field day with this.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Yorae or not—and I still wasn’t convinced such a thing existed between Kia and I—I was going to do whatever I needed to, in order to protect Kia.

And that included killing her father.

Before anyone else could say anything, I walked across the room, stopping in front of Kia. She didn’t flinch as I reached up to cup her cheek. “If it comes to it, I will be the one to kill Hwanung. I’ve already been branded a traitor.”

“I’ll do what I have to do,” Kia said, softly.

“If anyone is going to deal with Hwanung, it will be me. He is my son, and he is my responsibility.”

Hwanin’s voice had us all turning to look at him. While his words were firm, he still looked like a little old man, too frail and too weak.

“Your majesty?” Kia’s mom said, horrified. “One of the world's greatest tragedies is a parent burying their child. You cannot possibly be considering putting yourself into a position where you would be the reason for that?”

“He is my responsibility.”

“Respectfully, your majesty, Linda is right. We will do what we need to,” Song told him. “But you wouldn't have that situation placed upon you anyway. We can’t possibly bring you to the Dark World with us. It's not safe, and we only just got you out of there last time.”

“I appreciate the concern, but from the moment my son locked me in that dungeon, I have been aware of the only way this could truly end. However, my plan is not to accompany you to the Dark World, though not because of my health, but because I am not as strong, physically, as I used to be.”

That wasn't a lie. Hwanin was the oldest god. He looked like an old man, but it had taken millennia to do so. Some time ago, I had witnessed him spar in a friendly competition, though after seeing him fight, I wasn't sure it was fair to class it as a competition. He had defeated multiple opponents and made it look like none of them had more than a week's worth of practice.

Hwanung was just as skilled as his father.

As one of four of Hwanung’s guardians, my duty had been to protect the prince with my life, however, had the situation ever arisen, Hwanung would have been able to protect himself. Like Hwanin, he was strong, skilled, and confident.

For as long as I could remember the Heavenly Realm had been peaceful. Over the centuries, there had, of course, been attempts from the Dark World to pass through our barriers and take control of the Heavenly Realm. Until Hwanung, I wasn't aware of a single occasion where the demons had been successful.

Protecting Hwanung had been my duty, and I had done it, but the reality was that the most danger we had faced had come from men in this realm. Had they gotten the chance to get within a few feet of Hwanung, he would have annihilated them without spilling a single drop of blood on himself.

In his prime, in battle, Hwanin would easily have defeated his son.

Now, the idea seemed laughable.

“Once you have successfully entered the Heavenly Realm, from within the palace, you should be able to fully unlock the barrier,” Hwanin continued. “That should give you enough time to create a portal to here so that I can join you. We should be able to close the portal behind me before Hwanung notices. I will need a couple of elixirs and then this can all be over.”

I tuned out as Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest started peppering the king with the backhanded compliments. They had to be lying when they said they were sure that he was perfectly capable of handling things, because king or not, Hwanin could barely handle standing unaided.

“You don't look convinced,” Kia murmured in a low voice. Her bright blue eyes were narrowed as she stared at her grandfather.

“He’s still the king. We're still going to follow his orders,” I told her, quietly. “Don't worry, Princess. I said I would do what needed to be done, and I will. That's a promise.”

“I'm not sure what you have is the best plan, but there are more reports coming in from Pittsburgh,” Linda said as she rose to her feet. “Which means we're running out of time, and so is the opportunity for the element of surprise. We should go soon.”

“We?” Kia repeated loudly. “I think the fuck not.”

“Kia! Do not use that tone of voice with me,” Linda snapped.

“Sorry, Mom. It sounded like you wanted to come with us for a moment there.” Kia folded her arms and glared at her mother.

“Of course I'm coming with you. Do you think I'm going to let you do this alone?”

“Actually,” Jae said before I could speak. He moved over to Linda and gave her a bright smile, which had me arching an eyebrow. “Your presence would be most welcome. I certainly don't want to be the one to turn down any help.”

Beside her, Kia's hand curled into a fist. I took a step to the side.

Would stopping her have been the correct thing to do?

Probably.

But an opportunity to witness Kia punching Jae?

Before I could discover whether or not she really would have hit him, Jae continued. “But the thing is, Linda, it's going to take five of us to get into the Heavenly Realm, and if we all go, King Hwanin will be left here alone, unprotected. We need you to stay here, and then we can bring the both of you to the Heavenly Realm once we're in a safe location.”

Linda looked first at her daughter, then to King Hwanin who nodded at her. “Fine. We will join you in the Heavenly Realm.”

“No, you won’t, because you’re human.” She gave Jae a pointed stare until his mouth formed into a silent ‘oh’. “Humans can’t leave the Heavenly Realm. If you go, you won’t come back.”

Linda crossed her arms. “Really, Kia.”

“She’s right,” Hwanin told her. “I’m sorry. If you come, you wouldn’t be able to leave.”

“But Kia can?”

Kia threw a hand in the air as she sighed. “Half-goddess, remember.”

As her expression softened, Linda walked over and wrapped her arms around Kia. “You need to come back to me, Kia.”

Over her mom’s shoulder, Kia locked eyes with me. “We should leave. Now. Let's gather our things and go before it's too late.”

“I'll get them. Kia, do you have anything you need to bring?” Gun asked as he started to walk towards the stairs.

Pulling away, Kia gave her mom a smile. “I need to grab my things.” She flashed me a grateful smile as she walked past me to follow Gun.

As the two went up, I turned to Jae, my eyes narrowed. Before I could ask him what the fuck he was thinking, he gave me a small, subtle shake of his head.

He may have escaped Kia’s punch, but the only thing stopping me from wrath now was both the promise I had made to Kia, and the fact I didn't want to get blood on Linda’s white sofas.

It didn't take long for Gun and Kia to return. Gun was carrying the two large bags of weapons and supplies we’d taken from my apartment, and Kia was clutching tightly to something in her hands.

“You still haven't released that?” I asked as I spotted the glass vial in between Kia's fingers.

“I just...” Kia sucked in a deep breath as she shook her head. Instead of continuing, she just uncorked the vial and tipped it upside down above her other hand.

To me, the other guardians, and Linda, it looked like the bottle was empty. Humans and guardians couldn't see magic. Kia could, but as she was only half goddess, I was sure she could see magic because of her bloodline.

I couldn't tell if Luck poured out of the bottle like liquid, or if it escaped like smoke and swirled around her body in a way that was strangely making me jealous, but I didn't miss the way Kia started to relax.

“You are ready,” said King Hwanin.

Kia walked to the side, placing what I was hoping was a now empty vial onto the side.

“Hang on, are you saying that Luck has stayed in that bottle the whole time?” Jae asked, wrinkling his nose. “Because we tried to capture Luck before, and it broke free.”

“And Luck would have done so again, if that was what Kia wanted,” Hwanin told him.

Kia shook her head. “I don’t think that was me. I wanted Luck to return to the Heavenly Realm before.”

“To leave Luck behind when Luck belongs with you.” Hwanin stood, and in an instant, Song was at his side, even though the King waved him away. “In that bottle, Luck has still stayed close to you. Opening the lid was nothing more than theatrics, sonnyeo.”

Kia pressed her lips together, her body tensing, and then she just gently shook her head. Instead, she walked over to Linda and hugged her tightly. “Don’t worry about me, Mom.”

Linda didn’t speak until they broke their embrace. “I’ll look after Mr. Hwanin until you’re ready for him to join you.”

From where I was standing, I couldn’t see Kia’s face, but her body tensed. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Kia. Stay safe.”

Kia nodded and then quickly turned to face us, her expression dark. “Let’s go,” she said, in a clipped tone. She moved over to Jae and held out her hand to him.

Instead of taking it, Jae pouted. Then he rolled his eyes. “Dark World means portals won’t work.”

Tilting her head, Kia looked at me. Once I nodded, she folded her arms. “Do you think you can get us a little closer to where we need to be this time?”

When I’d taken her to the Dark World last time, I’d done so without my masulsa. My abilities, my masulsa, were locked in the drawings on my skin. Mara had taken the masulsa away, but it hadn’t completely stripped me of everything. But it had meant that my key wasn’t accurate.

Now, I could take us to anywhere in the Dark World that I wanted…

I held out my hand. “Only with a little bit of luck.”

Strangely, Kia didn’t hesitate. She simply walked over and took my outstretched hand. “Everyone ready?” she asked the room.

Without waiting for an answer, I summoned my key. Like it was stuck onto my skin, I felt it peel away and then it appeared in my other hand. A door appeared in front of me, plain and simple in design, though large and with an arched top. It remained opaque until I pushed the key into the lock, then thinking of the Dark World, I unlocked and opened the door.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Even before we walked through, I could smell the familiar stench of sulfur leaking into my mom’s living room. When I’d first walked into the Dark World with Rok, I remembered how it felt like the air was slowly burning the hairs in my nose as I breathed. At some point, I’d gotten used to it while being there, but the smell had me wincing.

Seeing as the only way to escape it was to not go, I took one last breath of fresh air and followed Rok through the doorway.

This time, thankfully, Rok hadn’t taken us to the middle of a demonic desert. We walked straight into his cave apartment. Little seemed to have changed from the last time we were there.

I waited for Rok to close the door behind Song, the last one through, and then whirled on the spot so I could punch Jae’s arm.

“Ow! Kiaria, what’s that for?”

“What’s that for?” I snapped. I’d been fighting to keep my anger back in from of my mom, but now I wasn’t holding back. “I don’t know. Maybe telling my mom you’d love for her to join us in a war against a million demons? Or perhaps inviting her to join us in a world she can’t escape from?”

“Kiara, that’s not what I was trying to do.”

“Sounded like it to me.”

Jae stepped in front of me and placed his hands gently on my shoulders. “Are we going to be outnumbered? Yes. Do we need all the help we can get? Yes. Honestly, if there was a way to do this without you being there too, I’d choose that option, but I know better than to let your mom come along. And I also know that the more we said no, the more she would resist. I forgot about mortals not being able to leave the Heavenly Realm, but you have to believe me when I say I never intended to bring her along.”

I looked up at him, frowning. “So, you lied to my mom?”

“Yes.” Jae shrugged at me and didn’t look the least bit guilty.

The anger which had flooded my body seemed to leave at the same speed. “Thank you,” I said, softly. “And I’m sorry.”

It seemed pointless to tell him that my temper had a short fuse. That was pretty obvious. But saying I was like this only since the ilhoeyong attack just felt like I was making excuses.

Song joined my side, slipping his hand into mine. Almost at once I started to feel better. With a sigh, I looked at him. “Are you doing the thing?”

“Of course not. You asked me not to, and I promised I wouldn’t. Why?” he asked.

Song’s empathic abilities allowed him to be able to manipulate people’s emotions. When I'd realized he'd been doing that to me, I had asked him to stop. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, but the relief that came at his touch was so noticeable that I couldn’t stop myself from checking the magic.

When I last looked at the magic back in my mom’s house there hadn’t been much at all. From what I could understand of what the others have told me, any magic that I could see in the mortal realm had seeped through from the heavenly realm. Since Hwanung had closed off the heavenly realm, I’d been able to see less and less magic over time.

While the vast majority of magic I could see now was the familiar gold of Luck, there were definitely more glowing orbs of different colors.

But there were no more than usual of the magic Song used…

“You’re frowning. You don’t believe me?” Song asked.

I stared at his hand holding mine, before looking at him, and shook my head. “It’s not that… I mean, I do, but there's more magic here.” Forgetting that I was the only one who could see it clearly, I held up my free hand.

“That's not really good news,” Rok muttered. “If there's one realm that shouldn't have any magic, it's this one. Even if most ilhoeyong lack the ability to use it.”

“Then why have they always been trying to get it?” I asked.

The door that Rok’s magic key had opened, had led us straight to Rok’s apartment in the Dark World. It was far from the luxurious apartment he had in New York, and seemed to have been carved into the near-black stone caves that so many of the demons lived in. Furniture was limited, and very basic.

We were in the kitchen area, and there wasn't much space. In recesses up near the ceiling, a strange, orange light glowed. It wasn't much brighter than a nightlight, but it was enough to be able to see.

Rok moved past us, heading towards the large stone door in the corner. A moment later the light grew a little brighter. He turned back to us, looking at Jae, Song, and Gun before folding his arms and tilting his head. “The Dark World has always been inhabited by demons. It's not a world that humans are familiar with, and while I understand how easy it is for them to think this place is hell, it's not. According to our histories, the Heavenly Realm existed peacefully, until one day, one god—one who was supposedly a friend of Hwanin—disappeared. Eodum. Centuries later, he reappeared, leading an army of demons into the Heavenly Realm.”

“That's not right,” Jae said, although he didn't sound confident.

“Then if you know better, do share.”

Jae shared a look with Song and Gun, before looking back to Rok with a frown. “I thought Eodum was banished?”

“Only after he tried to take control of the Heavenly Realm.” Rok shrugged. “Or at least, that's what Mara told me. She isn't exactly the most truthful source, but I can't see what the benefit would be for this to be a lie.”

“Mara? Didn't she say she was Eodum's daughter?” Despite Rok’s apartment being almost uncomfortably too warm, I rubbed at my upper arms as a chill ran through me.

“She is. And yes, she's half-demon. Don't forget there are some demons, the agma, who are more human-esque than others.”

“You'd be the expert there,” Jae muttered under his breath.

“So,” Song said, quickly. “Who was running this place before Eodum?”

Rok ran his tongue over his lower lip, glaring at Jae, before answering. “The fuck I know. But whoever that demon was, they’re probably dead.”

“Then what you're saying, is that the demons have no interest in magic?” I asked.

“I mean, they can sense it, but I've not met any who can wield it.” Rok shrugged. He walked past us, through the kitchen we were still standing around it, and under the open arch into what I would call his living room.

Realizing there was more space there, I followed him, the others right behind me. His living room had an uncomfortable looking stone bench pressed up against one wall which Rok had taken a seat on, but on the other side was an enormous hole.

“What the fuck is that?” Jae asked hurrying over to the missing wall.

I'd forgotten it existed from the last time I'd been here. There were no windows or panes of glass, but there was some form of invisible barrier. I wasn't exactly sure how it worked, because there was no wind blowing into the cave apartment, but it wasn't something I wanted to test by touching. While I wasn't exactly scared of heights, if you looked down there were maybe fifty or sixty stories between us and the ground, and you could see hundreds of other cave openings.

“The rent is extortionate, but worth it for the view,” Rok said, dryly. “Though I'm not sure the location makes up for the neighbors.”

Jae raised an arm, pointing at something in the distance. “No, I mean that.”

Rok got up off his stone sofa and walked over to join Jae’s side. “I guess that would be the door that Hwanung and Mara are using to get between here and the Heavenly Realm.”

Quickly, I hurried over, Song and Gun following. The last time I had looked at this hellscape, there had been nothing but barren ground. Just beyond that, not too far away, were the walls of a black, jagged castle which looked like a thing of nightmares.

Now, just in front of the castle doors were a stream of ilhoeyong of all shapes and sizes, walking back and forth between the castle and a giant hole in the sky. I’d not spent long enough in this place to know what it was like during the daytime—or if there even was a daytime—but the sky was an inky purple covered in thick smog.

From here I could just about make out blue skies on the other side of that doorway.

“Shibal,” Gun muttered. “Is there going to be any god left to save?”

“It's not going to work,” I said, my voice barely louder than a whisper.

Instantly, Jae turned to face me. “Don't speak like that,” he said, sternly. “We can't give up.”

I moved away from the window and sank onto rock sofa. It was as uncomfortable as it looked. “I'm not giving up.” I rubbed at my temples.

Gun came and sat down next to me. “Don’t forget, right now, all we need to do is get close enough to open a doorway to the Heavenly Realm for ourselves. The other gods and guardians... They're alive. We have to find them.”

“You might not know how to fight, but we do,” Rok assured me. “All we need from you is a little bit of Luck.”

Taking a deep breath, ignoring the sulfuric burn in the air as I did, I looked up at the four guardians surrounding me. “I don't think there's enough luck. And I'm not trying to be pessimistic, so just hear me out.”

Song knelt down in front of me. He reached out and placed his hand on my knee. “Okay,” he said softly. “Tell us what your concern is.”

“It's the after,” I said before biting my lip in frustration. I shook my head. “Let's say we do it. We open the portal, get into the Heavenly Realm, find enough elixirs to heal Hwanin, and he’s able to defeats Hwanung and Mara... Let's say, somehow, the other gods and guardians are safe and able to fight... Look at how many demons there are.”

Jae, still at the window, fixed his attention on the open portal below, before looking back to me. He raked a hand through his hair before sighing. “Kiaria’s right. It's the worst-case scenario, but it's something we need to consider. We don't know how many demons Hwanung took through, and even if we close that portal behind us, there could still be a lot on the other side. It might not be much different from trying to defeat the demons here, and even at full strength with an army of gods, we're no match.”

“I feel everybody's concern.” Song gently squeezed my knee as he gave me a supportive smile. “But if it's that bad and we lose, that's one thing. To give up without ever knowing? We can't.”

“If I'm going to die, I want to die trying,” Gun declared.

“What we need is a plan B.” Jae folded his arms.

“I think at this point, we're long past plan B,” Rok told him.

Jae shrugged. “Then call this plan J. And it's not a new plan. It's more like a diversion to the plan. We need to find somebody who can control the ilhoeyong so that they can order them all back here.”

Rok rolled his eyes. “Oh yes, because there is such a big supply of demon whisperers.”

“You seemed pretty cozy with them.”

“How many times do we need to go over this?” Rok demanded. “I'm not working with the demons.” He threw his hands in the air. “Fine, if you need me to do this to prove this to you, I will. But you're going to need a plan K because there isn't a single demon who will listen to me, and your stupid plan is going to fail.”

“What about Eodum?” I asked.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Eodum? What about him?” Gun shifted his weight to look at me, a frown on his face.

“You said he'd been here for centuries, right? If he has survived in this place that long, surely, he has some form of respect, I guess, from the demons? You said he'd attempted to take over the Heavenly Realm, with an army of demons, so if it’s not respect, they still listened to him at least.”

Seven eyes stared at me in silence.

Was it really that crazy of an idea?

“I mean, obviously we should try to reason with Hwanung and Mara, but at this point, I don't think that's going to be successful. You said that the ilhoeyong won’t talk with you Rok, but honestly, I'm not sure they could be trusted either. But if Eodum’s a God, and he's been wronged by his own daughter too, maybe...”

Maybe I was crazy.

Song’s gray eyes, level with mine, stared at me, unblinking. Then, wrinkling his nose, he turned and looked up at Jae. “You think Eodum would go for it?”

“Maybe? But how are we going to find him in this place?”

“If he's still alive.” Guns lips flattened into a thin line. “We've seen how Hwanung was prepared to kill his daughter, and that's without him knowing how much of a threat to him she is.”

Despite the compliment I wasn't sure I deserved, I felt myself deflate again. Mara was ruthless. If she thought her father posed a breath of a threat, of course she'd have him killed.

She probably killed him herself.

“Eodum would most likely have lost the confidence of any demon loyal to him,” Rok muttered.

Jae let out a short, dry bark of a laugh. “I'm not sure how many people would trust the dead to lead them.”

“If he's dead.”

With narrowed eyes I looked at Rok. “Do you know where Eodum is?”

“Not exactly.”

Jae started to walk towards Rok, but Song stood, putting himself between the two of them. “What does that mean?”

“It means I know where he isn't.”

“Is anyone really going to be mad at me if I punch him?” Jae growled.

Rok rolled his eyes but then sighed. “Instead of killing him, Mara had him thrown in the dungeons.”

“After all that, she couldn't kill her father?” Song asked.

“How big are the dungeons? Would we be able to search them without being spotted?” When Rok had thrown me in the dungeon, the only other person in there had been Hwanin until Jae, Song, and Gun had joined us.

“Big,” Rok replied. “But that’s the problem. When I…” he frowned. “When I threw you in there, I realized Eodum wasn’t there. I looked around and couldn’t find him. But I did ask Agma 508.”

“And what did Agma 508 say?” Gun asked him.

“Not much. Said he didn’t know anything. But he must have thought I’d left because I heard ask another Agma if I was finding him for Mara, because he was screwed if so. Which, reading between the lines, I’m guessing means he escaped.”

I rubbed my temples. “So, he’s not in the dungeon. He’s somewhere else in this hell?”

“I hope not,” Rok muttered, glancing towards the window. “We’ll never find him here.”

I settled back into the couch, sighing more from frustration than the uncomfortable piece of furniture. The room fell into silence, and even though nothing was said, I had the sense that everyone was starting to lose hope.

That wasn’t my intention.

Getting into veterinary school wasn’t easy, but I’d never really been an overthinker. I’d never worried about what was or wasn’t going to happen—I’d always just put my head down and studied and got the grades I needed to. Until the accommodation mix-up, I’d never really had contingency plans.

But this was bigger than my future.

This was everyone’s future.

This was everyone’s lives.

Even with Luck on our side, this was still five people up against what seemed like an endless army.

I’d spent the last few weeks worrying about something which was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things when I should have been asking all the “what if” questions.

I wasn’t giving up.

Closing my eyes, I started working backwards, trying to remember everything I’d done, seen, or heard that related to gods, demons, and magic. After a while, the others would have short conversations, but I tuned them out.

“Eodum was—is—a god, right?” I asked, suddenly opening my eyes. “As opposed to a guardian?”

Rok was still by the window, but Song had since joined him. The two stopped their conversation at my outburst and looked over. “Yes,” Song replied.

“And you said that the main difference was that guardians borrow and wield the magic, but gods control it. Does that mean each god has a specific magic?” I frowned. “I’m sorry, I’m still struggling with this a little because you all seem to be able to control magic, but you are guardians and not gods.”

Frowning, Song sucked in a deep breath. “Think of magic as a living entity. They can be broken down into five or six different groups, but each group can be split more.” Song placed a hand on his chest. “My abilities are very narrowed. I’m able to create barriers—some are as solid as a wall, but they remain invisible. Barrier magic is just one part of shield magic, which is part of protection magic. But while it seems like I can create barriers easily, I can’t. I have spent a lot of my life working with the magic for it to work with me.”

Rok wrinkled his nose. “No wonder she’s having trouble understanding it.”

“Then, by all means, you explain,” Song told him.

“The problem is when you call magic a living entity, humans are going to compare it to humans or animals—”

“Magic is a living entity,” Jae snapped, cutting him off.

“Yes, but Kia is human—or at least, she’s been raised human,” he added before Jae could voice his objection. “There isn’t really anything like magic in the Mortal Realm which you can really compare magic to. Magic bonds with a god. Not like a human in a relationship, or even a loyal pet dog. It’s more than that. Magic will do what it is told to do, so long as it’s in its possibility. If I controlled fire, I could get it to turn this room into an inferno. I wouldn’t be able to make it dial up humidity, because that’s going to need water magic. Magic doesn’t see good or bad, so if you compare magic to a human, no matter how much that human loves the person giving the command, if the human is told to set itself on fire, it’s probably not going to.”

Somehow, that made more sense to me than anything else.

“Then what magic does Eodum have?” I asked.

“Shadows,” Gun said, shortly.

Briefly, I closed my eyes and counted to five. Not because of Gun’s response, but because I had a million questions all of a sudden as to what shadow magic was, when really, that wasn’t the important thing right now.

“Kiaria?”

“How did you track magic?” I asked.

Jae shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

I pointed to myself. “How did you find me? Back when you first arrived in New York, you were able to find me at my college, my job, and my home. How did were you able to see Luck?” I held my hand up and looked at the magic flowing over my skin. “I know you guys can’t see magic, but you must have tracked Luck somehow, right? Can’t you track shadow magic the same way?”

“We didn’t…” Song trailed off as he looked at Jae. “Chuseok.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I said.

Jae beamed proudly. “It means you’re the smartest person in this room.”

Even though I knew that wasn’t the case, my cheeks still heated up. “I still don’t understand.”

“Chuseok magic is tracking magic, but it’s used to track a person, not a magic,” Song explained. “But the problem is that it requires a lot of magic to use, and for Jae, who’s the only one who can do this, a lot of energy. Especially as we don’t know where Eodum is.”

Jae paced back and forth, before he stopped, turned to face Song and shrugged. “What Kiaria is saying makes sense. We all know it. Unless we have a way to get the demons under control, it’s a losing battle.”

“What happens if Eodum’s already dead?” Gun rubbed the back of his neck before standing. “I agree with what Kia said, but what if we look and we can’t find him anyway?”

“Then we deal with that then. We might find him, and this conversation would be a waste of air.” Jae moved over to me, perching on the couch beside me. “I’m going to need your help.”

I held out my hand. “Whatever I can.”

Instead of taking my hand, Jae leaned forward, kissing me. Although that wasn’t the kind of help I was expecting to give, I kissed him back, enjoying his taste.

“If I said get a room, would you let me come?” Rok asked, loudly.

With a low growl, Jae pulled away and flipped Rok off.

“Maybe I meant watching.”

Jae narrowed his eyes. “The answer is still the same, however you meant it.”

“The sooner we do this, the sooner we can all get a room,” Gun said.

“Yes, please,” I muttered, before I could stop myself.

Jae cocked his head. Then he puffed out his chest as he straightened his back. With a wide grin on his face, he reached for my hand. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

Until now, I’d spent a lot of time worrying that there wasn’t going to be a future for all of us. Not the impending battle, but that all this was some side effect of the magic or the demon toxin…

Before that negative voice could start to repeat any of it in my head, I focused on that idea. The five of us. Together. After all of this.

Just like when Song had taken my hand before, a calmness washed over me.

“Kiaria?” Jae gently squeezed my hand. “Are you ready, or would you like a little more time?”

I shook my head. “Let’s do this.”

Holding one hand in each of his, Jae closed his eyes. I wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing, but I summoned Luck to me, allowing the magic to pass to Jae. As I did, I looked for the magic in the air.

The gold bubbles of Luck were thick, and here, there wasn’t much other magic. The biggest concentration around Jae was purple—whatever this magic was, it wasn’t one I’d seen him use before, so I focused on it, urging Luck to help it as I asked the few purple bubbles to do its best to help Jae.

Suddenly, breathing heavily, Jae opened his eyes. Instantly, he shook his head.

“Nothing?” Song asked.

“He’s not in the Dark World,” Jae told us, panting.

Biting my lip, I watched Jae. It hadn’t felt like we’d been working with the magic for long, but Jae had sweat pouring down the side of his face like he’d just finished a marathon.

“So, he’s dead?” Gun asked, before I had chance to ask Jae if he was okay. “No matter what we do, we’re going to fail anyway.”

“Maybe,” Rok muttered. “Or maybe not…”

“What does that mean?” Song asked.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Since Hwanin had decided I was to be included in all this, there had been several moments where I’d been convinced this was going to be a suicide mission. Despite the opportunities to leave that I’d been given—intentional or otherwise—I’d stayed.

The odds were getting worse and worse, but somehow, despite Jae’s inability to locate Eodum, something was telling me we weren’t done yet.

Even if Gun was ready to admit defeat.

“Ya! Rock-head?”

The most I did to acknowledge Jae was roll my eyes. “The Human Realm—Earth.”

My eyes were locked on Kia, who was frowning slightly. Before I could ask her what was concerning her, she nodded. “It wouldn’t take too much to head back and check, would it?”

“It’s still a big place,” Jae said, frowning. “This world isn’t like yours. Even with Luck, I don’t think the chusoek would cover everywhere. We’d probably have to go to many locations to be able to truly cover everywhere. Plus, there’s a lot more oceans.”

“He’s a god, not a fucking mermaid,” I informed him.

Jae’s lip curled up into a sneer. “No, but there are these things called boats.”

“Let’s take a vote.” Kia stood, moving so she was between me and Jae. “Either we head back to Earth and look for Eodum, or we press on with the original plan.”

Instantly, Jae was shaking his head, walking over to her. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t go to Earth. I think we need to know exactly what we’re up against either way. I just…” He sighed.

“Do we need to go back to my mom’s? I mean, how far will that spell stretch if we perhaps went back to New York. Or is that too risky?” Kia bit her lip.

She was worried that if we went back to her mother’s house, we’d have to bring her with us when we came back here again.

“I think we should start in Korea,” I told the group. “I’m not sure how much of a lead it is, but I do remember Mara once saying something about her father missing jjimjilbangs.”

Kia looked at the others before fixing her attention on me. “Is that food? Or is that something like a brothel? Because while I’d miss food, Eudom’s the bad guy, and either could be possible.”

Unable to stop my smile, I shook my head. “How do you describe it in English? It translates to a bathhouse, but that doesn’t seem to do them justice. They are communal bathing areas, but there are saunas too.”

“Of all the things that Eodum could do, you think he’s going to a jjimjilbang?” Gun scoffed. “They’re not that special. And the last time I was in Korea—the time before, anyway—there was one on ever other street.”

I shrugged. “Mara never said much about Eodum, and we could probably go see Hwanin first and see if he can remember anything that could give us a clue, but if he’s missing things that remind him of home, he might seek them out on Earth, in the country we helped create.”

“If we weren’t ready to come here, we shouldn’t have done,” Gun said, giving me a one-eyed glare. “And you should have shared this information earlier.”

Because this was my fault?

“If anyone is at fault, it’s me.” Kia’s gaze dropped to a spot in front of her feet. “I’m sorry.”

“How the fuck do you figure that?” I asked.

Jae moved closer to Kia and took her hand. “You didn’t know anything about Eodum’s whereabouts. You don’t even know much about the Heavenly Realm or this one.”

Kia let out a soft sigh, shaking her hand free of Jae’s so that she could move across to the window. She stood staring in the direction of Hwanung’s doorway to the Heavenly Realm before she turned back to us.

“I’ve spent the past weeks caught up in my own thoughts, when I could have been thinking about this.”

“You’ve been through a lot, and you’ve had just as much thrown at you in that time,” Song said, softly. “None of us expected you to think about things you don’t know about.”

Kia shrugged. “I could have asked these questions before we came here. If I’d have pulled myself out of my head for long enough, I could have just sat down with you and asked all the what-ifs then. We’ve wasted time.”

As the others started talking over each other to assure her that she’d done nothing wrong, I rolled my eyes then strode across to her, grabbing her and pinning her against the wall beside the window.

Then I kissed her.

Her eyes went wide as I forced my tongue into her mouth, but instead of resisting, she parted her lips and kissed me back just as fiercely.

Tempted as I was to keep claiming that hot mouth all night long, I pulled back, keeping close to her. “To come here, we needed Luck. Which meant you needed to accept everything that was going on. So did I, and so did they. Luck belongs with you, but you’ve kept it in a bottle—you made it stay in there,” I told her before she could object. “You call it wasting time, but that took as long as it needed to. Maybe your father attacking New York and those other cities was that final push you needed, but you don’t get to be mad at yourself for wasting time.”

Kia’s eyes were wide, staring up at me, unblinking. “I could have—”

“If you could have, you would have,” I said, firmly.

“Shibal,” Jae muttered under his breath before sighing loudly. “Kiaria, it kills me to agree with him, but Rok’s right in this instance.”

“If anything, we should have seen you were struggling. I should have known,” Song said.

Kia pulled her gaze from me to look at Song. She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I was hiding it. I didn’t want you to feel like I was.”

“Don’t hide how you’re feeling from me,” Song told her, instantly. “I don’t care how bad you think I’m going to feel, I want to know so I can help.”

“We,” Gun said. “We want to know so we can help.”

“I don’t—”

“Would you want to know if one of us were upset?” I asked, cutting her off.

Her blue eyes narrowed as they flicked back to me. “Of course, but that’s different.”

“It’s really not.” I took a step back to give her a little room, but also so I could stop blocking Jae from this angle. “Between the five of us, we’ve got a fuck-ton of shit to work out, and I don’t think any of us are deluded enough to think it’s going to be easy. Not even with the one braincell those three share—”

“Fuck you, Rok.”

“—But Luck chose you, and you chose us, and we chose you.”

Maybe there was a yorae with us, because I’m sure I wouldn’t have said that without it… much less without cringing.

But I meant it.

“Let’s go to Korea,” Jae said. “If Eodum likes jjimjilbang, we stand the best chance of finding him there. And if nothing else, it allows us to spend more time with each other.”

“Do you have a place in Korea?” Song asked me.

“Why would I?”

“You had a place in New York,” he shrugged. “We need your key to get us out of here, and I figure that, like Jae’s portals, you need a specific location to go to.”

“What if I knew a place?” Kia asked.

“That’s probably not a good idea,” Gun said.

Almost at once, Kai’s cheeks flushed, and she bit her lip. I would have punched Gun for that if it wasn’t for the fact he looked like I’d already done that.

“Forgive me, but what I meant is that the places you know are probably not safe to go to. We only spent a limited time in Busan, and Hana’s place—We went back and there were already people in that apartment. The last thing we want is to appear in the middle of the room from out of nowhere and terrify someone.”

“Then let’s go back to New York,” Kia mumbled, her cheeks still pink.

Jae walked around me and took Kia’s hand. “What if I think of somewhere?”

“Your portal magic won’t work here,” I told him. “Kia was right about going back to New York, although, if the city was attacked that badly, it might be safer if I went alone first.”

Even though it was never my intention to abandon them here, I was surprised when Jae shook his head and didn’t accuse me of that.

“Actually, I meant you take Kiaria’s hand and we use her as a conduit.”

“Will that even work?” Song asked.

I grabbed Kia’s hand, summoning my key to my other hand, then I closed my eyes. I had no idea how to make this work, but I cleared my mind. Slowly, a door started to form in front of me, starting with the lock and growing outwards.

The door wasn’t one I’d seen before, so I was hoping it was Kia—or Jae—creating it.

Finally, it was formed enough that I could slot the key into the lock. There was a moment of resistance before it clicked open.

The other side of the door was dark.

“What do you think?” Kia asked. “Did it work?”

At some point, Gun had gathered the bags we’d brought with us because they were slung over his shoulder. But his sword was also drawn. “There’s only one way to find out.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Both Jae and Rok refused to let go of my hand as Gun and Song stepped through the doorway, and in doing so, stopped me from following.

Suddenly, Gun put his sword away as Song turned back to us, frowning. “Hurry. Shibal, Jae! Here, really?”

Confused, I hurried through the door, my feet stepping on wood that creaked beneath our weight.

I’d been unable to see what Jae had imagined, just urging the magic to transfer the details to Rok, so I was surprised to see the porch we were stood on.

I moved out of the way for Rok to walk through, and in doing so, stepped in front of a window, soft warm light shining out. Inside was a bar, packed with people I assumed were Korean.

Before I could take the room in, Jae was pulling me away from the window and down a few stairs.

“The last time we ended up in the ocean, and considering how much things had changed since the last time I’d been to Busan, I went with a place I thought would be empty at this time of night,” Jae said in a low whisper as we moved to the side and into the shadows of tall trees.

In the dim light, I stared at the trees. They were densely packed together, with thin trunks, leaves high above us. “Where are we?”

“We needed a reaper to take us to the Dark World to find you,” Jae explained. “Hana brought us here to this bar. I figured, considering the time we left Florida, it had to be past midnight at least here. I thought it would be closed.”

“Reapers? As in Grim Reapers?” I asked, my eyes going wide. “And that’s a bar full of them?”

“Yes, grim reapers, but that’s a human bar,” Song told me. “Which is almost worst—or would have been if a human had seen us. Hana brought us here because there was one that she knew who liked to drink here.”

I looked around at the forest, before glancing back at the traditional Asian looking building, with a double, curved roof. All the buildings I’d seen in Busan were tall—dozens of skyscrapers which easily rivaled the ones I was used to in New York. This place was either a hundred years old or had been built to resemble the older architecture.

We also seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, and despite the few people I’d seen in the building, there wasn’t a car in sight.

“How far from Busan are we?” I asked.

“Just over an hour.” Gun’s lips were pressed together in a thin line. “By car.”

“Look, it was the best I could do, and if nothing else, we’re less likely to be discovered while I’m working the chuseok,” Jae grumbled at him. “We’ll worry about getting to—”

A voice rang out across the darkness, but I assumed she was speaking in Korean because I didn’t understand a word being said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gun muttered, turning. “Hana?”

Still speaking in Korean, a gorgeous petite woman stepped into view. Her pixie cut hair was ink black, but there was still a line of light reflecting off the shine.

Apparently, she was over a hundred years old though she barely looked older than me. Unlike my guardians, this woman was mu—a shaman—but as far as I could understand, she was still human.

“We’re looking for someone,” Gun told her, in English.

I saw her frown, then watched as her gaze swept the group, stopping at me.

“They found you.”

“Thank you for helping them,” I told her.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect to see any of you again, especially considering the shit-show that’s happening in America right now.”

“And we weren’t expecting to see you here,” Jae told her. “Or did you decide to stay here and drink?”

Hana shrugged. “Best makgeolli in this part of the country.”

I had no idea what makgeolli was, but before I could ask, she let out a loud groan.

“How long are you staying this time, because Hwanung’s destroyed half of America looking for you, and I don’t want his attention focused over here. I’ve got a bet with a couple of Reapers that he moves through Central America, not head over here.”

My heart hit the bottom of my stomach and I had to fight back the wave of nausea. “Where in America? Did he make it to the Keys? To Florida?”

Twisting her lips, Hana pulled a phone out of her pocket, squinting at the screen as it illuminated her face. “The most magical place on Earth is now a pile of rubble, but after he realized you weren’t there, he headed west. Dallas was hit an hour ago.”

My legs went weak as relief flooded me, but I managed to stay standing. That meant he hadn’t found Mom and King Hwanin yet.

“So, why are you back here?” Hana asked, slipping her phone back into her pocket.

“We’re looking for Eodum,” Jae told her. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen him?”

“Eodum? The Dark Lord?” Hana cocked her head. “Weren’t you looking for King Hwanin?”

“Hwanin is with Kia’s mother in Florida.”

Hana stared at Jae before she rubbed the back of her head. “I’ve either not had enough makgeolli, or too much.”

“Eodum, Hana? Have you seen him,” Gun asked, shortly.

“Gun, the last time I checked, Eodum was the one trying to get into the Heavenly Realm.”

“Prince Hwanung joined forces with Lord Eodum’s daughter, Mara. They were the ones who succeeded in taking over the Heavenly Realm. We were able to rescue King Hwanin and Kia from the Dark World, and we have a plan to take back control of the Heavenly Realm, but we think our best chances are if there’s someone who can bring the demons back to the Dark World with them.”

Hana’s gaze swept over us, lingering on me before she returned her attention to Gun. “And you think he’s here?”

“We know he’s not in the Dark World,” Gun told her.

“You guys are crazy,” she told him, shaking her head.

“At least we’re trying,” I snapped. “At least we’ve not given up and we’re trying everything we can to fix this.”

Hana’s eyes narrowed and she took a couple of steps towards me.

Instantly, all four guardians created a wall in front of me with their bodies, while Song created a magical barrier around the five of us.

Coming to an abrupt stop, Hana’s eyes widened. “Hwanung has control of the Heavenly Realm and the Dark World, and it’s not going to be long before this place is nothing but a burning pile of rubble, so why don’t you just spend what little time we have left enjoying each other.”

Despite their reluctance to let me pass, I squeezed between Rok and Gun so that I could speak to Hana without doing so from where I could barely see her.

“Because, when I know I’m one of the few people who know what’s happening, and that I might have a chance—even if it is a slim one—of stopping Hwanung, how could I possibly enjoy anything? How can you? How can you just hide here and wait for the ones you love to be killed?” Instead of waiting for an answer, I turned on my heels and folded my arms. “We’ve wasted enough time. Let’s do what we came here to do.”

Aside from Gun who glanced at Hana. “You’re going to regret giving up when Kia’s ruling the Heavenly Realm.”

“Just let her go,” I muttered at Gun, trying not to show how flustered I felt from him mentioning ruling the Heavenly Realm—I hadn’t even thought about that, and I wasn’t going to. Not now. “She’s not the one we need to be fighting. What she does is up to her.”

I was vaguely aware of her walking off as I turned my attention to the magic in the air. There was a lot more here than in the Dark World, or my mom’s. I wasn’t sure if that was because of people like Hana, but I was already encouraging it to gather around us.

Jae stepped in front of me, holding out his hands to me. I took them, and then, like before, Jae closed his eyes.

The familiar purple bubbles of magic swarmed to him, some we’d brought with us, but most already in the air. As I urged them to help Jae, more started to filter through the trees like fireflies.

It was so pretty I wished I had a camera to take a photograph. It was a shame no one else could see the magic like I could.

“He’s here,” Jae said, his eyes shooting open.

“Here?” Rok asked, glancing back towards the bar. “Really?”

“Not here, but he’s close. Really close—maybe an hour’s walk?” He looked at me and arched an eyebrow.

My lips parted. “You think I did that?”

“It’s pretty lucky.”

“Whether Kia did or didn’t, intentional or not, we shouldn’t waste any more time,” Gun declared. He picked up one of the bags that was on the ground by his feet and hoisted it over his shoulder.

“Maybe I could just create a portal and—”

“No.” Song cut Jae off with a firm shake of his head. “We’re not familiar with this area and we can’t risk appearing in front of mortals.”

“I was going to suggest doing it with a little help from Kiaria and Luck.”

“Let’s just walk,” I said. There was more magic here than there had been accessible, but an hour’s walk wasn’t too bad of a pay off to try to conserve what we needed.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Nearly three hours later, I was regretting that decision.

If we were an hour’s walk away, it was only if we walked in a straight line. Wherever Rok’s door had opened, it was in the middle of the country, on the side of mountain. Walking in a straight line would have taken us through a forest with steep, unstable ground in the middle of the night, so we’d taken the roads.

According to Jae, chuseok magic worked by Jae being able to see a small glowing light which was the person he was seeking. The closer we got to it, the bigger and brighter it became.

I was fairly certain that made Jae a cat following a laser beam.

Even though I had no idea where we were, and the roads were rural and empty, I felt much safer here—and it wasn’t just because I was surrounded by four powerful guardians of the gods.

“How much further, Jae?” Song asked.

“If I had a map in front of me, I could tell you for certain.” Jae shot me an apologetic smile. “He’s really close though. I think, around this corner?”

“We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere,” Rok grumbled. “If he’s here for a jjimjilbang, it’s going to be somewhere more residential.”

“It’s the middle of the night. Surely it would be closed, so we’re looking for a house,” I pointed out.

Rok shook his head. “Jjimjilbang can be open twenty-four-seven. It’s not uncommon for people to sleep in them.”

A lightbulb went on in my head as I remembered a K-drama I’d watched once. “One of those things?”

Jjimjilbang weren’t just spas. They were like community centers. Yes, they had baths and saunas in them, but these were the large buildings where people were given shorts and T-shirts to wear, and frequently went around with a towel rolled up on their heads like they were impersonating Princess Leia.

I’d always wanted to go to one.

“You think a god is going to sleep in something like that?” I asked.

“A god on the run, who most likely escaped the Dark World with nothing more than the clothes on his back?” Rok nodded. “They’re not homeless shelters, but I bet he’d find a way to get into one.”

“But they are community buildings, and you need a community to have…” Song trailed off as we rounded a corner.

“Like that?” Jae asked, pointing in front of us.

The road curved down the side of the mountain, and as it hit the valley, opened out to a small town. For the most part, the only real sign of life were the streetlights and building lights.

By the time we got to the bottom of the mountain, the sun was beginning to rise and the town was starting to come alive with it. Regardless of whether Eodum was here or not, I was in need of food and some sleep.

We followed Jae to a four-story building. From the outside, it looked more like a something from a concrete dystopian future with its small windows and faded sign in the language I couldn’t read.

Despite the early hours, the lights were on and when we walked inside, there was a person on the desk. She was older and busy watching a small television. Without looking up, she asked us something and it was only when Song replied that she turned to look at us.

After scanning our faces, she had a short conversation with Song before pushing some keys on faded green bracelets towards. Then she added a yellow one to the pile. Song gave her some money and then walked back to us, handing them out.

I looked at the yellow bracelet in my hand. “What’s this for?”

“We need to separate. Go through those doors there.” Song pointed to a faded yellow door. “You’ll find a locker. Inside that there will be some clothes to change into.”

In the dramas I’d watched, inside one of these bath houses, all the people wore the same T-shirt and shorts, but I’d never thought about the changing aspect.

“We’ll meet on the other side.”

I headed inside, quickly locating the small locker my key unlocked. Inside, as Song said, were a change of clothes. I knew the others were waiting for me, but after all the walking, I was tired and sweaty. Putting on clean clothes and then wandering around this place wearing the disposable slippers I’d also been provided seemed rude, especially when a small towel had also been provided, so I quickly ducked into a shower and washed before finally putting the burnt orange matching outfit.

On the other side of the changing room, Jae, Song, Gun, and Rok were all waiting for me. I had to bite back a laugh at the sight of the four of them. They looked like members of a boyband rather than the big tough guardian gods that I knew they were.

“He’s still here?” I asked as I joined them.

Jae pointed at a door on the far side of the room. “In a steam room. Which you can’t go in.”

“I can wait.”

“We can all wait,” Song said. “We can have something to eat while we do.”

“Can I try one of those eggs?”

In the end, I went with Song to buy us food while the other three sat down opposite the sauna in case Eodum came out.

On the inside, this jjimjilbang’s décor looked like it dated back to the early nineties. The tan tiles on the floor were well worn, and the walls might once have been white were now creamy. Despite this, the large, open-plan floor was warm and busy. In the corner was a small shop selling a wide selection of ramyun, drinks I didn’t recognize, and the deep brown eggs I’d seen on television.

We grabbed several packets of ramyun, cooking them at the small machine, and along with some drinks, took the food back to the others.

Although there was one big, main room, there were areas along the sides which were partitioned off. Behind them, people were asleep on floor mats. Some were starting to wake, but mostly, the only sound was the dull thrum of the heating.

“I’ve always wanted to try one of these,” I said after we’d sat down with the others. My attention was on shelling the egg in front of me. “Why are they this color?”

“They’re called maekbanseog eggs. They’ve been cooked for a really long time and it turns them this color. But you’re supposed to crack them like this.” Jae took one from the bowl before reaching over and tapping it against the side of Rok’s head.

“Do you want to die?” Rok growled at him. He snatched the cracked egg from him.

It didn’t take long for me to peel my egg. Inside, the egg white was almost as brown as the shell had been. I gave it a quick sniff before taking a bite. The texture of the yolk was almost creamy, but the whites weren’t as rubbery as I was expecting.

The five of us devoured the food we’d bought and despite my aching legs, I could feel my energy levels pick up. But a full stomach and the warmth of the room had me leaning against Gun as my eyes started to feel heavy.

“Sleep,” Gun muttered. “We will wake you when Eodum moves.”

“How long can he stay in there?” I asked, trying to bite back my yawn.

“He’s moving now,” Jae said, standing. He stood, blinking as he shook his head.

My exhaustion seemed to evaporate as I stood, waiting for someone to walk out of the door to the sauna.

Moments later, a tall man walked out. Like us, he was wearing the burnt orange T-shirt and shorts. On top of his long, dark hair, which had been tied in a low ponytail was a rolled towel. He looked like he was probably the same age as my mom, with a few wrinkles at his eyes, but otherwise, he seemed far too ordinary to be a god. Nonetheless, Jae walked over to him, blocking his path.

Eodum looked him up and down before letting out a long sigh. “Leave me be, gataekshin. I like this place, and the last thing I want to do is cause it trouble.”

“We’re not here to fight,” Jae told him. “We need your help.”

“My help? What makes you think you have the right to ask me for help?”

“Because our worlds are about to implode and we need your help to stop that from happening,” Rok replied.

“You?” Eodum’s eyes went wide. “Where is she?”

Rok held his hands up. “Your daughter is probably in the Dark World, but seeing as we’re not on speaking terms, I couldn’t say for certain.”

“Rok’s with us,” I said, quickly. “And I trust him.”

“And who are you?” Eodum asked me.

“One of the few people who are prepared to risk their lives to protect our worlds,” Jae replied before I could. As Eodum dragged his gaze over me, Jae shot me a silencing look.

“I’m Hwanung’s daughter,” I said, ignoring the stare.

The double take that Eodum gave me was almost funny.

“Whether you help us or not, when we leave here, we're going to make sure that we stop Hwanung and Mara…” I trailed off as a middle-aged couple walked past, shooting us all a look of suspicion. “Does this place have somewhere private where we can talk?”

With his lips pressed together, Eodum stared at me.

“Is it because she's Hwanung’s daughter, female, young, a demigoddess, or all of the above?” Rok asked.

Slowly, his eyes narrowing, Eodum turned his head to glare at Rok. Then, without saying anything, he started to walk away.

“Is it that hard to go longer than five minutes without pissing someone off?” Jae snapped at Rok.

“You asked for somewhere private to talk,” Eodum said. He was standing at the door to the sauna.

While I couldn't read Korean, I was willing to bet good money that the sign on the door which had a think line across the outline of a woman meant that I wasn't allowed inside.

Following my gaze to the sign, Eodum let out a long sigh. “Do you want to talk or not?”

Figuring that, at worst case we had maybe ten minutes before somebody came to ask us to leave, and if we couldn’t get Eodum to agree to our request for help in that time he probably wasn’t going to, I just looked at Jae and shrugged. Regardless, I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching us before I followed the others inside.

The door didn't lead straight to a sauna like I expected. Instead, we first passed through a changing area, and into the next room which contained three square pools. Maybe it was the time of the morning, but thankfully there wasn't another person there. However, Eodum continued walking towards the door at the far side of the room and before going inside.

With the exception of a small glass window, a raised box in the center of the room which contained stones, and a large bucket full of water, everything in the room was wooden. A slatted bench ran around all four walls, probably designed to hold maybe twelve people at the most.

Even though the stones weren't steaming, beads of moisture clung to every surface. Somehow, I'd got my whole life without ever going in a sauna, but I had experienced some pretty humid evenings in Florida. While some people clearly loved this, I wasn't sure I was ever going to want to repeat this experience.

Eodum took a seat on the far bench. Even though he was still wearing the T-shirt and shorts provided, and hadn't, thankfully, changed into a towel, he leaned back, stretching both of his arms out like he was there to relax.

Despite the ease at which the guardians followed Eodum into the room, the four of them sat down, taking seats to ensure that they were between me and the god.

“Over 800 years ago, I was sent to the Dark World to see what resources and treasure could be found there. When I returned to the Heavenly Realm and revealed that the Dark World contained nothing but monsters, I was sent back and told to look harder. The next time I tried to return to the Heavenly Realm, the gates were locked. Now, my daughter has been able to gain entry, and achieved what I could not.” Eodum tilted his head. “And yet you expect me to help you?”

“The same daughter who locked you in a dungeon and would have had you killed had you not escaped?” Rok asked.

Eodum leaned forward, glowering at Rok. “The only person I'm talking to is her.”

Honestly, Rok had asked what I was going to do.

“I found out who my father was when he took over the Heavenly Realm, and I'm still playing catch up on everything relating to gods and magic, so I can't really say I know why you were prevented from returning to the Heavenly Realm. Just like I don't know why your daughter seems to hate you enough to want you dead.”

Beside me, I could feel Gun tense. While my tone wasn't rude, I knew I was being direct, but time wasn't on our side. Whatever had happened with Eodum in the past was a lot of history to unpack.

“Whether all of this was my father's doing, or your daughter’s, I don't care. The simple fact is the two of them have taken control of the Dark World, the Heavenly Realm, and it won't be long before this world falls too,” I continued. “The five of us are going after the two of them, and we will stop them, and we will return things to normal. I admit that I had thought that you were happy ruling the Dark World, and I was going to ask for your help in summoning all of the demons to return there with you, but if returning to the Dark World to rule is not something that you want, then tell me what it is that you do want.”

“Kia,” Song said in a low, warning tone.

“You’re really Hwanung’s daughter?” Eodum arched an eyebrow.

“It's not something I'm ever going to brag about,” I said, dryly.

“My daughter and your father were able to take control of the Dark World from me and defeat all the gods to take control of the Heavenly Realm. What makes you think that the five of you will be able to stop them?”

Beads of sweat were trickling down my body. The thin cotton clothing was clinging to my skin uncomfortably, and I wouldn't have turned down a glass of iced water.

“If anyone can stop them, it's Kia,” Gun told him.

Gun’s declaration of confidence made me want to hug him, but instead I shook my head. “Six. Seven, if we include you.”

Eodum stared at me, tilting his head as he slowly narrowed his eyes. “If there is one thing I know for certain, it's that neither Hwanung nor Mara will surrender. The only way they will stop is if they're dead.”

“We will do what we need to,” Rok told him.

Despite Rok’s promise, Eodum didn't take his eyes off me. “My daughter lives.”

I frowned. “What?”

“That's what I want.”

“You just said that even you know that the only way Hwanung and Mara will stop is if they're dead.”

Slowly, and deliberately, Eodum leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “My daughter is many things but she's not stupid. If you stop Hwanung, she won't follow him into death. Her strength and abilities come more from her mother's side.”

“If we can accomplish this without killing Mara, we will,” Jae told him. “But we cannot make a promise based on her actions.”

“But I will based on yours. You want my help? Mara returns to the Dark World with me. Alive.” Eodum stood. “That's the deal. The only deal.”

“Fine,” I said before any of the others could speak.

I wasn't lying, or at least, I wasn't intentionally trying to deceive him, but I had no idea how I was going to accomplish that.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The main room seemed busier as we passed through it to return to the lockers, but no one seemed concerned when I left the men's sauna. I quickly changed back into my clothes before I met the others in the foyer. Opening a portal in the sauna, where no one could see us, would have been ideal if not for all our belongings being in the locker room.

“-Unless you know somewhere discreet that...?” Jae's question to Eodum died on his lips as we left the jjimjilbang.

In front of the building a large group of people were blocking our exit.

In the sea of faces of various races, the only one that I recognized stood at the front of the crowd, her arms folded, and her hip jutted.

On either side of me without hesitating, both Rok and Gun drew their swords while Song created a barrier around the six of us.

“Hana? What's this?” Jae asked.

“He really was here?” Hana's eyes went wide.

“Hana?” Jae growled impatiently.

Releasing a long sigh, Hana relaxed, lowering her arms before she scratched sheepishly at her short, spiky hair. “I realized she was right.”

Assuming that the she in question was me, I frowned trying to figure out what I could have been right about.

“Fighting?”

Hana nodded. “Even with the Dark Lord on your side, I'm not sure how successful you'll be. Honestly, this feels more like a suicide mission than anything else, but you were right: we can't give up without a fight.”

I scanned the crowd around her. There were probably about thirty people—an almost even split of male and female. “Who's we?”

It was Song who answered. “They're reapers.”

Between my courses and volunteering at the shelter, I never really had a great amount of free time, and out of that limited time, a lot had been dedicated to partying. However, after Eloá had found me watching a K-drama and I had gotten her hooked on them too, we’d found time to watch a number of series together over the past few years.

Amongst them had been a drama that Eloá had loved and I hadn't. It was about a man who had been cursed into immortality when he was turned into a goblin. The goblin had ended up living with a Grim Reaper—several more of them appearing throughout the series.

The reapers all seemed to wear a uniform: a black suit and tie, with a long black coat and a very distinctive brimmed hat.

Aside from Hana, everyone in front of me was wearing black, though the style of the clothing was traditional, like a hanbok. The men still wore hats but the crown was much taller, and everyone had a flash of red from the thin, red belt around their waists.

They certainly weren't as creepy as the western images of Grim Reapers that I had been brought up with.

“Should I be concerned that I can see them?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if it was the same K-drama or another that I’d seen, but being associated with death, humans shouldn’t be able to see them unless they were about to die.

“The last time we spoke, the reapers were adamant this wasn't their fight,” Jae said, as he glared at the crowd, not hearing my question.

“I didn't realize that changing our mind would be such an issue, but if you feel you don't need us, by all means, go it alone.” The owner of the voice was a middle-aged looking white woman, with a short bob of auburn hair.

Reaching over, I talked at Jae’s sleeve until he turned to face me. “Is there a reason why we shouldn't accept their help?”

“Absolutely none,” Gun said.

“We'll take all the help we can get,” Jae said, as much to me as to the reapers.

“Then let's go find somewhere to open the door,” I told them. I glanced back at the crowd. “Somewhere where people aren't going to notice a large group of people disappearing through a doorway that appeared from the middle of nowhere.”

“The reapers can just meet us there. They actually have the ability to travel to the Dark World themselves,” Jae explained.

The female reaper who had spoken before stepped forward, shaking her head. “We can pass through to that world easily, but if you need us in a specific place, we should go with you.”

Beside me, Rok groaned. “My apartment is about to feel very cramped.”

If Rok was wrong, it was only because his statement felt more like an understatement. Half of the reapers were waiting in his bedroom because there wasn't enough space for everyone in his living room and kitchen.

By now I had no idea what time it was. It had been a morning in Florida, we'd walked through the night in Korea, and here in the Dark World I couldn't tell if it was midnight or midday.

Rok and Jae stood on either side of me beside the large, glassless window as we watched the various types of demons pass through the gateway Hwanung had created.

“What's the plan?” I asked as I tried to hide a yawn.

“We should move as quickly as possible,” Jae answered.

A pair of arms wrapped around my waist as somebody pulled me back, flush with their chest. “I think we have a couple of hours that we can spare for some of us to rest,” Song said before I could agree with Jae.

“I don't think...” Jae glanced at Song and then to me. “I don't think we should rest for long, but I do think there is time for a nap for those that need it.”

Which meant I would be the only one sleeping.

And while I wasn’t about to argue that I didn't want to rest, but if I was the only one, especially with all these people in Rok’s small apartment, there was no way I would be able to.

“Let's go,” I told them, firmly.

“Kia—”

“Look at this place. It's only going to be a matter of time before someone—or something—realizes that we're all here. Let's go.” I glanced up at Rok before anybody could object. “You and Eodum know this place better than anyone. What's the plan?”

Pursing his lips, Rok studied me. But he nodded. Stepping back so that he could turn to face the room, he cleared his throat. “Eodum is going to lead us to a room which lies more or less below that portal. We're assuming most ilhoeyong and other lower-level demons will be above ground, but there is a chance the Agmas will still be patrolling, especially if that area is considered part of the castle. We'll move in groups of eight with everyone remaining here until myself or Eodum come to collect you.”

“There are nooks and a handful of rooms off the passageway to be able to hide in if needed, but we must stay together in these small groups,” Eodum added.

“We’ll wait until everyone is together before opening the portal to the Heavenly Realm,” Jae continued. “The entrance will be in our home, or what's left of it. That room is barely bigger than this one, so you'll need to wait for the all clear before following. The last time we were there the house had been ransacked, and we're hoping there's no reason for any demon to go back, but the moment we leave this apartment we must move in silence, just in case.”

“Which means, if anyone has any questions now is the only time you'll have to ask,” Song finished.

“What happens when we're in the Heavenly Realm?” Hana asked.

Jae glanced at Song, running his tongue over his lower lip before answering. “We left our place with wards in place which we’re hoping are still working. They should mask our arrival, though, at this point, we can't guarantee anywhere else is safe. We'll be about twenty minutes from the palace. Hwanung knows the Heavenly Realm, and it's likely that any sanctuaries or hiding places have already been breached. We can't guarantee there are any gods left, so this isn't search and rescue. We'll head for the palace, lower the Heavenly Realm’s barrier, get King Hwanin there… And then we attack.”

Jae had missed out the part about the Heavenly Realm most likely being overrun by demons, but then again, we all knew that.

“Any other questions?” Song asked.

The room fell into an uneasy silence.

“Then let's do this,” Rok muttered.

I followed him over to the door in the corner of the room. The last time I had passed through it, I had been in the most impractical cocktail dress imaginable. This time, even though I was dressed in more practical clothing, had all four guardians with me, and was armed with the sword that Gun had given me, I felt more nervous than last time.

Whoever had named this place the Dark World had done so very literally. The entire cave system that housed Rok’s apartment, along with the castle was made with an almost-black stone. Dull and rough until it was cut into.

Eodum and Rok were taking the lead of our small group. While I was struggling to see the edge of each step in the dim light, they were confidently leading us down. Eventually the stairs leveled out and although the ground was still uneven, it was much easier to walk on.

We moved quickly and quietly, although my heart was pounding so loud that I was sure it would give our location away. On earth the ilhoeyong had been able to track me because they could either sense or scent Luck, but I took a risk by asking a small amount of the magic to help us anyway.

Even though it felt like it had taken a long time to get to the room Eodum said would be safe to create the portal in, we arrived without meeting any demons. After making sure that we were safely inside, both Rok and Eodum returned to the other room.

I sent some Luck with them, just to be on the safe side.

“How are you doing?” Song whispered to me.

I gave him a small smile before I realized he couldn't see it. “Probably as nervous as everyone else, but I'm okay,” I whispered back.

Gun moved closer, his large, warm body pressing up against mine somehow giving me some reassurance I didn't know I needed. “No matter what happens, the four of us will stick together to protect you.”

I wasn't sure if I would ever feel comfortable at the idea of these four guardians prioritizing me over themselves or anything else, because at some point I had acknowledged they were here for me more than Luck. As far as I was concerned Jae, Song, Gun, and Rok all stood more of a chance at defeating Hwanung on their own without me adding even a drop of Luck to the fight.

But I sure as hell appreciated it.

Just as much as I felt the warmth spread through me at Gun including Rok.

Yes, I wanted to save the three worlds and put things right, but if I was being completely honest, what I wanted more than anything was a future where I could be with the four of them. There was still a small voice in the back of my mind telling me it was crazy, and maybe I was, but the less time I spent fighting the idea, and the more time I spent with them, the more it felt right.

Not just right.

That we were meant to be together.

Destined to be together.

The stronger that feeling became, the more confident I was feeling that even though everything seemed weighed against us, we were going to be successful.

“How are gods made?”

“Huh?” Jae’s response seemed a little too loud in the otherwise silent room.

Grateful that the darkness hid the heat from my cheeks, I winced. “Hopefully we're going to find survivors in the Heavenly Realm, but I'm thinking of the future. You've lost many gods. It just got me wondering, and I know I didn't really spend that much time there, but there were no babies or children. When I was younger and asked who created God, I was told God just is, which means nobody created Him. But you’re gods, And...”

I wasn't sure how I was making this so awkward.

“Are you wanting to repopulate the Heavenly Realm with us?” Jae asked.

“I'd be happy with a dozen baby Kias running around,” Gun added.

I had to clamp my hands over my mouth to stop the squeal. “A dozen? Twelve babies?”

“The ilhoeyong will hear you and find us, then kill you before you have chance to make babies,” one of the two reapers who were in our group hissed at us. “You said we had to be silent.”

I was beginning to wish I had stayed silent anyway, but the reaper was right. Trying not to think about babies, I kept my lips pressed together.

Eventually, after several journeys back and forth, Eodum and Rok had led everyone to our room. Rok walked straight over to me. “Are you ready to do this?”

If there was ever a time to want to back out, this was probably it.

Only, that was the opposite to how I felt.

“I’m sure that somewhere, a psychiatrist would have a field day at how much I’m looking forward to kicking my father’s ass,” I whispered back at him.

“I think you truly have to do consider him to be a father to you before anybody considered that,” Rok muttered.

Conscious that the room was very crowded, and we were all still trying to stay as quiet as possible, I moved over to Jae. “Do you want to try this without Luck first?”

Jae shook his head. “From here on out I think we need luck on our side as much as possible. If we’re not close enough, or we were wrong about this idea, we run the risk of alerting Hwanung.”

As Jae dropped to one knee I took his hand in mine, closing my eyes. Although it was getting easier to see magic with my eyes open, I didn’t want to be distracted now.

Once again, the majority of the magic in the room seem to be Luck. I selected a few of the bubbles closest Jae and told them to help him.

Watching Jae create a portal was still cool to me, but seeing only the magic was something else. Luck was such an intense gold color, and the magic Jae used for portals was the same shade of blue as the ocean that I could see from my mum’s bedroom on a sunny day. The two mixing together created a vibrant turquoise, but each minute bubble had a golden, glowing outline.

Wishing once again that the others could also see it, I opened my eyes. The portal was illuminating the room, but it looked the same as usual.

Darkness waited for us on the other side. Without letting go of Jae’s hand I looked down at him. “Did it work?”

“I know what failure looks like, and that’s not it,” Eodum told me in a low voice.

Jae’s brow furrowed, then he looked to me. “We bypassed the barrier, and I don’t think we tripped any alarms.”

I sucked in a deep breath as I released Jae’s hand. “Then let’s see what’s waiting on the other side.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I went to step through the portal, but Gun stuck his arm out in front of me. “Song and I will go first.”

Raising the sword that he hadn’t sheathed since we’d left Rok’s apartment, gun stepped through the portal, Song right behind him. It only took a few steps before they were swallowed by the darkness.

Even though I’d heard nothing to the contrary, the moment I could no longer see them, my heart started beating so loudly that I thought Hwanung would hear it in the Palace.

As though Song was able to sense my anxiety, he quickly reappeared and gave me a reassuring smile. “There doesn’t appear to be anybody in the next room. We’re going to quickly check the house. We’ll be back, don’t worry.” And then he turned, the light of the portal glinting off his silver hair being the last thing I saw before he disappeared completely.

According to the dramas I’d watched, reapers had once been human. I was glad of the momentary distraction as I realized that despite it being standing room only, with little space to move comfortably, the room was almost silent. I could barely hear them breathing—assuming they still breathed.

Despite this, I strained to hear anything from the other side.

After an eternity, Gun reappeared. “It’s safe to come.”

Taking the hand that Gun was offering me, I stepped through the portal. The room was dark, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust as Gun led me through another door. That’s when I realized that we had returned via the small study we’d use last time, but also, here in the Heavenly Realm it was night.

The study led to a large library, although now, there were more books in destroyed piles on the floor than there were on the shelves that still stretched to the ceiling. I stood to one side as the reapers followed us into the room in a single file. At the back of the line were Rok and Jae.

“From here, it’s a ten-minute run to the Palace. With so few of us, I don’t see the point in splitting into smaller teams from here on out. If one of us is spotted, they’ll alert everyone—or everything—anyway.” Jae looked at the small sea of faces, all staring back at him. “Hwanung may have lived in the Palace, but he did so as Prince of the Gods. There are a couple of service entrances which I doubt he will be familiar with, and if he is, I’m hoping he will be too arrogant to have considered them.”

“And if he’s not?” Hana asked.

“Our goal is to get inside and lower the barriers that protect the Heavenly Realm. The gyeoljeongche is located in the center courtyard. Song, Gun, and I know how to use it. If we fail, destroy it.”

“What good will that do?” Hana asked.

Song stepped forward. “We plan to lower the barrier long enough to allow us to bring King Hwanin back into the Palace, then we will completely close the barrier to stop any more demons going through from the Dark World. If we fail, you should at least be able to stop Hwanung and Mara from escaping.”

And anybody else who was still alive.

“Shhh!” Rok hissed.

Everyone froze except for Song who pulled me close to him.

After a couple of minutes straining to hear anything, Rok shook his head. “I thought I heard something.”

“The longer we stay here, the greater the chance of being discovered,” Eodum told us. “Let’s not waste any more time.”

Even though I’d had very little practice with the sword, I unsheathed it and tried not to grip it too tightly, like Gun had taught me. He gave me his nod of approval before he and Jae led everyone outside.

I wasn’t sure if I felt any safer surrounded by reapers considering none of them seem to have weapons, and as far as I could remember, they weren’t evil entities so much as beings that helped transport the dead to the afterlife. But I was glad they were there.

Outside, little seemed to have changed since the last time we were there. The darkness painted everything in shades of gray, but I sense this place had been really beautiful once and I hoped I would be able to see it in its full glory one day.

While a lot of trees had been damaged and lay on their sides, there were still just as many upright, though they didn’t have as many leaves on as I’d expect.

The house that Jae, Song, and Gun lived in was half ruined, but I could still see a lot of the traditional Korean architecture have been used to build it. In the distance, along the road to the Palace, the other buildings still standing shared the same style.

The light from the moon passed in and out from behind the clouds, but otherwise, the only light was in the distance—the Palace.

As everyone took a moment to survey the destroyed landscape, I switched my focus to the magic. The tiny, colorful bubbles were everywhere, in every shade imaginable. They swirled through the air, glowing brightly.

“If there are any gods still here, bring them to us,” I commanded, though no sound left my mouth. “Bring them to the Palace. We are going to take this place back.”

There was a swirl in some of the magic as it rushed around me, tugging at my ponytail, and the edges of my clothing before I saw some of the magic shoot off in all directions.

“Kia? Are you okay?” Rok asked, softly.

I nodded.

“No matter what, stay close to us,” he said before glancing back at the others. “Let’s move out.”

If we had stuck to the road and run straight along it, it probably would have taken us ten minutes to get the palace. Instead, we stuck to the sides, charging over the torn-up grass, keeping low and as close to the trees and plants as we could as we ran from house to house.

At the front of the group, we’d just reached the next house—more pile of rubble than anything else—when, at the same time as Jae held up his fist, Gun grabbed me, flattening us against the side of a wall.

Seconds later, a group of five or six human-looking agamas came into view, walking along the road. Holding my breath, I didn’t even dare try to look behind to see if everyone had managed to take cover.

And then their footsteps faded into silence.

Another couple of minutes passed before Gun stepped back and I was able to take a deep breath. Before he could ask if I was okay, I nodded my head.

The closer to the palace that we got, the more we had to stop, duck, and try to blend into the shadows. But each time, regardless of the type of demon, or how many of them there were, they passed by without spotting us.

“Thank you,” I mouthed at the glowing golden orbs near me. I got ready to move on again, but this time, Jae didn’t move. Instead, he glanced back, past me. “What’s the matter?” I whispered.

Jae knelt down beside me. “That’s the Palace wall. There are more ilhoeyong than I imagined.”

Before I could ask him what that meant for us now, I felt someone poke me. But when I looked down at my arm, the only person close was Gun, and he wasn’t touching me. Frowning, I turned my attention to the magic.

There was a small swarm of emerald green colored magic bubbles bumping against the back of my wrist. As I tilted my head, the small group started to slowly drift away to the left.

“Follow me,” I muttered as I started to follow the magic.

Gun grabbed my wrist. “Stick together. It’s not safe.”

I shook my head. “We need to go this way.”

My four guardians shared a look, but without any further hesitation, they followed me.

For a while we moved parallel to the Palace walls. Then the ruin of whatever building we were hiding behind came to an end. The magic drifted across a long open space, before disappearing downwards. I pointed in that direction. “We need to go that way.”

I looked over at the Palace. Perched on the corner were two jeongchalbyeong—winged demons that tried to attack us in New York. Flying monsters with the ability to find luck. Their ugly heads were hidden, tucked beneath the wing like a sleeping bird.

Jae shook his head.

There was a hundred-yard exposed distance between here and whatever lay on the other side and had witnessed first-hand what those jeongchalbyeong were capable of. Although I had no idea where the magic was trying to lead us, my instinct was telling me we needed to go that way.

Behind us, the reapers were slowly catching up.

“We have to go that way,” I whispered.

“That’s a path that leads us to the city. Even if we made it across, it will just take us further away from where we need to be,” Gun told me.

“Then you—"

“Hard no,” Rok said, firmly.

“We have to,” I hissed.

“What’s going on?” I heard Eodum ask.

“Why do we have to?” Jae asked me.

As I glanced back towards where the magic had gone, I saw the emerald green orbs reappear and hover in the air. “Magic.”

Shaking his head, Jae closed his eyes. “I’ll go and check it out, you wait here.”

Before I could tell him that I was going with him, he disappeared as his clothes fell to the ground. From out of them scrambled a jet-black squirrel with tufted ears. It seemed to give me a pointed look before it scampered off.

While Song gathered up Jae’s clothes, and shoved them against the war, Rok tugged me back away from the edge.

“What’s going on? Why are we stopping here?” Hana asked.

“There are too many demons between us and the service entrance that we want to use,” Song told her. He glanced at me. “Jae’s gone to investigate something, so we’re waiting here.”

“It’s too dangerous here,” she told him.

“Just keep to the shadows, and keep quiet for a few more minutes,” I told her.

Creeping back to the edge of the rubble, as much as Rok would allow me, I focused my attention on where the squirrel had disappeared. A few minutes later, a squirrel seemed to pop out of the ground. It sat on its back legs sniffing the air as it stared at the Palace, and then it scampered back to us.

Behind the safety of the rubble, the squirrel transformed back into a naked Jae. He grabbed his pants and pulled them on, scooping the other items of clothing up as he made his way to us. “We’re going in through the service entrance as planned,” Jae told us.

“How the fuck do you expect us to manage that?” Rok asked him.

Jae grinned. “You’ll see.”

Rok swiped at his arm. “We don’t have time for this bull shit.”

“Just wait.”

I sensed it before I saw it—the shift in magic.

Above us, like someone had turned off the moon, the clouds thickened. Gently at first, but quickly growing stronger, from the direction the magic had been trying to lead us, came a wind. The kind of wind I’d only ever experienced from hurricanes.

The sudden change in weather didn’t scare me because with it, came more magic.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

There were still gods alive in the Heavenly Realm.

It wasn’t until a twister formed, though from the ground instead of the air, picking up rocks and debris, that any of the demons guarding and patrolling the palace noticed anything.

And by then the debris was being used as a weapon, raining down on anything within the palace walls.

“Is that… Pogpung?” Song asked, his eyes wide.

Pogpung had the ability to influence the weather, which almost seemed ironic considering the god was usually three sheets to the wind. He’d probably had to sober up considering the state of this place.

Jae grinned. “Hwanung has almost destroyed the city, and I thought the place was deserted, but as I went to turn back, I saw Wujung. He was with Pogpung and a dozen other gods. They’ve been in hiding, moving their location. As soon as I told them we were here, they agreed to help. They’re going to divert attention here, as well as a second attack on the other side of the palace. They think one of the weaker defense points is through the kitchens, and that’s where we’re headed.”

Wujung, if I remembered correctly, had a limited ability to shift. Unlike Jae who had wasted far too much oxygen trying to convince me that if he wasn’t infected by demon toxin, he really could shift into anything including dragons, Wujung could only shift into a bird.

If I was Hwanung, and I was trying to take over the heavenly realm, my first targets would be the gods who could control the powerful magic, before focusing on everybody else and the guardians.

And there was only a dozen of them? “A dozen guards against an army of demons won’t last long,” I told him. “We should move quickly.”

Even though the demons were distracted, we kept low behind the ruins as we backtracked. Despite the back-and-forth, the reapers followed without question.

Bangs and explosions from another part of the palace grounds joined the noise of the other attack, just as Gun brought the group to another stop. He peered around the corner and pointed. “That’s it. They were right. The demons are gone from here.”

But for how long?

I turned to Kia and felt pride ripple through me. The frown on her face was from concentration, not fear. Even though, out of everybody here, she was the least trained, you couldn’t tell. “Stay close,” I told her.

I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.

Gun nodded at us and then we charged towards the door, quickly covering the distance. Jae reached the door first, there was almost a little disappointed to see that the door opened with ease.

The disappointment turned into irritation when we entered and discovered the room was empty. There was no evidence that the kitchen had been in use recently, which meant Hwanung’s confidence was that great, that he felt he didn’t need to leave at least one guard inside.

“Inside the Palace isn’t the same as outside,” I said as I glanced at the reapers. It wasn’t far to the courtyard where the gyeoljeongche—the crystal which powered the barrier. The only problem was that there were barely enough places to hide one person, never mind thirty.

“Don’t worry,” Hana said. “We knew what we were signing up for. You just make sure it’s not in vain.”

“Then, this is where we need to split into two groups. Three might be better,” Eodum declared.

Kia’s eyes went wide. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No, that’s a bad idea. We need to stick together.”

“We can protect you,” Gun assured her.

“But I can’t protect everyone,” Kia said, a slight panic to her tone.

Eodum scoffed. “You may be the daughter of Prince Hwanung, but you’re protecting nobody.”

The only reason I didn’t punch him was because we needed him.

I turned, stepping in front of Kia. Reaching up to cup her cheek, I gave her smile. “Smaller groups will allow us to create distractions in other areas of the palace. They know what they’re doing.”

“I don’t doubt that, but the magic, I can only use it—"

“Magic?” Eodum rolled his eyes. “It’s Luck. So long as it’s on our side, that’s all we need. There is no other way to use it.”

Before I could even turn to face him, Gun, in one smooth and fluid move, had dropped to the floor, swung his leg around and tripped Eodum, and managed to get back on his feet with his sword millimeters away from Eodum’s neck.

“You have been away from this kingdom for too long, Dark Lord,” Gun growled. “Kiaria’s father might be a traitor, but she still has royal blood in her, and you will speak to her with nothing less than the utmost respect she deserves.”

Kia reached out and grabbed Gun’s arm, gently pulling the sword away. “Gun,” she said, softly. “Even if this was the time to worry about palace etiquette, you don’t need to attack anyone like that.”

“I didn’t attack because of palace etiquette. If anything, he got off lightly because nobody will speak to the woman I love like that, and get away with it.”

Okay, maybe this one was worthy of her.

“What the hell is going on here?” Hana demanded.

Song step forward. “The six of us—” he gestured to Kia, Jae, me, Gun, and Eodum, who was still picking himself up off the floor. “We are going to the courtyard. The rest of you need to split into two groups and try to attract attention away from us for as long as possible.”

There was a flurry of movement, and then Hana, along with all of the reapers, hurried out of the kitchen, leaving us alone. I turned back to Kia, finding her eyes glazed over, staring into space. Her lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

My gentle touch made her jump. “Are you okay?”

She quickly nodded. “I hope that works.”

“What works?” Jae asked.

“Everyone is protected with the barrier magic that Song uses. I sent them with some Luck too, but I don’t know how long it will stay with them, or even if it will work…” Kia’s cheeks went pink. “I mean, it probably won’t, but I had to try.”

Even if he was a dick, I understood Eodum’s skepticism.

If we managed to get the other side of this, I had no doubt that Kia would be named the Goddess of Luck. She was in control of that magic even if she and others doubted the extent of that control. Getting to where we were right now should have been impossible, and yet, here we were.

I’d also seen how she’d been able to amplify Song’s magic, not that he could ever fully control magic considering he was only a gataekshin like me, Gun, and Jae. But that was the problem—Song’s barrier magic didn’t answer to him like Luck did to her.

“You’ve done the best that you can, and no one can ask more of you than that,” I assured her, because I’d be damned if I was going to let anyone make her feel bad.

We left the kitchen, the noise of battle becoming louder. Distant bangs and explosions suddenly seemed closer, as the screams and screeches of demons echoed around us. As we moved through the corridors, smoke started to fill the air.

“How could he destroy the palace like this?” I heard Song ask in disgust. “This place was his home.”

“Just focus,” I hissed at him.

The next thing coming was going to be one of them suggesting that it was Mara’s influence. Not that I gave a flying fuck about protecting Mara’s character—the last person I cared about was that bitch. But we had Eodum with us.

That being said, even if Mara was half-demon, her castle had always been kept clean.

The palace had sustained a lot of damage, but it wasn’t just broken windows and doors, destroyed artwork, crumbling walls. There were decomposing carcasses—some gods, some demons, but most looked like food source.

The door to the courtyard was lying on the ground.

According to Hwanung, Hwanin had loved this place more than his own son. I mean, if Hwanung was my son, I’d love a weed more than him, so there was most likely truth to that belief. But even so, calling this area just a courtyard didn’t do it justice.

The courtyard was about the size of a baseball pitch. The edges were sheltered with trees—cherry blossoms which flowered all year long, their branches stretching to the center to offer shade to the stream. The stream entered from the east, flowing through the palace where, not far from the kitchens, some was diverted to the taps. Once the stream entered the courtyard, it forked, breaking into two paths which flowed in an almost perfect circle, before they joined back together and left through the west wing of the palace.

Multicolored Koi lived in the water, and I knew that Hwanin would feed them from one of the four bridges that crossed the water. In the center of the small island, was the gyeoljeongche.

Or at least, that’s what this area used to look like.

There was nothing alive in here now. Every inch was charred, covered in soot. Somehow the water still ran clear…ish. There were no fish in there anymore.

“Is that it?” Kia asked. Her focus wasn’t on any of the devastation, but the glowing crystal which still hovered in the center of the area. “He just left it unguarded like this?”

“He’s an arrogant fucker,” I told her. “I doubt he’d believe that anybody would be able to get this far, and even if they did, I doubt there are many gods or guardians who have the ability to create portals even if they could disable the barrier.”

Something exploded, close enough to set the ground shaking, sending clouds of dust into the air.

“You should hurry before Luck runs out,” Eodum snapped.

Like Jae and Song weren’t already charging towards the gyeoljeongche.

Turning the crystal off only required one guardian, so the fact there were two of them was more than enough, but I wasn’t going to point that out to Eodum. Especially not when he took it upon himself to go join them.

I turned my attention to my Princess. Despite her lack of training, she wasn’t trying to back out. Explosions and screeches were almost deafening, and although her body betrayed her with the occasional flinch, she didn’t cower. Her gaze was locked on the skies above us, beautiful blue eyes sweeping back and forth.

This plan may have been thrown together last minute, but honestly, I don’t think we could have done any better, even with more time. If anything, this plan relied on chance as much as it did knowledge and preparation, and we wouldn’t have been successful had Kia—the five of us—not taken the time that we had to accept what we needed to.

As though she knew I was watching her, Kia turned, eyes locking with mine. Almost instantly, they grew wide, horrified. She started saying something, but it wasn’t her voice that I heard.

“I know that finding somebody better than me is nigh on impossible, but allowing your standards to slip that low is unforgivable.”

The sound of Mara’s voice had me turning. Or at least, I tried.

Movement sent ripples of pain shooting through my body.

I looked down, confused at what I was seeing.

A bloodied sword blade was protruding from my body.

“You had the chance to be by my side. On the winning side.” The blade began to shrink, getting shorter. “You picked her, and you signed your death sentence, and look at her: she doesn’t even care enough to cry.”

It took the last, sharp bite of pain from Mara pulling her sword out of my me to fully realize what had happened.

With the speed in which energy seemed to drain from my body, I knew the wound was fatal. Instead of attempting to stop the blood, I turned my attention to Kia. Halfway between me and the crystal, she was still in the same spot she had been when she looked back at me.

Mara was right. There weren’t any tears in her eyes.

There was something worse.

Revenge.

Summoning the last remaining bit of energy that I had, I sucked in a deep breath. “They’re here! Protect Kia!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

There might have been times in my life where I had struggled, and as I’d gotten older, I’d realized that a lot of the times when my mom has said we couldn’t do something, or that I couldn’t have something, it was because we couldn’t afford it. All in all, she might have been raising me as a single mom, but she did have a good job, and support from her parents.

But until now, I don’t think I had ever fully appreciated how lucky I really had been to grow up how I had.

Having come straight from the Dark World, I’d almost grown used to the lingering scent of bad dog fart, the natural sulfuric fragrance, that the demons smelled of. As things, and places that I couldn’t see exploded all around me, the thick, cloying stench of smoke and death joined the air.

Every so often, I’d be able to hear the screeches. I was hoping that was the sound of demons dying, and that the reason I couldn’t hear anything else was because gods were successful, rather than because the sound of their deaths were being drowned out.

When the others had first told me that the barriers between the worlds were controlled by a crystal, I expected something clean and uniform in shape, and small enough to be able to hold my hand.

The crystal was a giant shard that was almost as tall as I was. It stood in the center of the courtyard, and although the area around it was heavily damaged—damage that seemed intentional, rather than collateral damage from a battle—the crystal seemed intact.

It was hard to see what the exact color of it was, because it glowed with a silvery light. But I was also trying not to get distracted.

We were in the heart of a war zone, in what was essentially enemy territory.

So far, we hadn’t been spotted. In the open like this, where above us, despite the thick smoke, day was beginning to break. Even without light being on our side, most of the demons that I had encountered didn’t have eyes.

Trusting that Jae and Song would do what they needed to, I turned my attention to the skies, keeping an eye out should any demon fly over us.

Luck really did seem to be on our side.

We could do this.

I’m not sure what it was that made me pull my attention from the skies, but I found myself turning back.

Rok was behind me.

And behind him, an agma either side of her, was Mara.

Terror flooded me.

I tried to shout, to warn Rok, but I couldn’t hear my own warning. The only thing that seemed to be able to move were my lips.

Instead of things moving in slow motion, they moved quickly. Too quickly.

A blade appeared through the front Rok’s torso, just to the left of where his bellybutton would be. And then it was gone.

Rok locked eyes with me. “They’re here! Protect Kia!”

The only one who was going to need protecting was Mara. The second I got Rok out of there, I was taking her down.

Like she knew what I was thinking, Mara smirked at me.

“Stay back and let me handle it,” Gun told me before I could move.

Then the agmas stepped over Rok‘s crumpled body like he was nothing more than the debris that littered the area. Maybe Gun could handle the two agmas by himself, but I was more concerned about Rok. I wasn’t going to stand back and let Mara get away with this. I wasn’t even thinking about the possibility of her raising the alarm.

Mara made no effort to move, other than to fold her arms as she continued to smirk at me. Taunting me.

She was unarmed.

Then again, so were the agma’s that Gun was now battling. Their weapons were their claws.

I took a step forward and Mara’s smirk grew, causing me to hesitate. Even though Gun was outnumbered, and Rok was lying on the ground, something felt wrong. I glanced over my shoulder.

The crystal wasn’t glowing as brightly as before, which I assumed meant it had been turned “off”, but instead of Jae and Song running towards me like I expected they would from Rok’s shout, they were still beside the crystal.

Had they decided that opening a portal and getting Hwanin here was the priority, I would have been happy.

They were fighting Eodum.

“You brought him here thinking he was on your side?”

I whirled back to face Mara. “You’re working together? You were going to have him killed.”

Mara shrugged. “I did. I have to make sure that the job is done properly next time.” She tilted her head. “But that means you had the opportunity to get him on your side. What did you offer him?”

“Making sure that you say safe so that he can take you back to the Dark World.”

“Back to the Dark World?” Mara burst out laughing, then she suddenly slapped her thigh. “The only thing that my father has ever wanted was to get out of the Dark World and return to the Heavenly Realm. No wonder he turned on you.”

Instead of the creeping panic start to paralyze me by making my mind go blank, it had a dozen thoughts start racing through my head all at once.

Gun was barely holding his own against the two agmas, and behind me Eodum was more than a match for both Jae and Song. And Rok was still lying on the ground, unmoving.

The only saving grace at this point seem to be that Mara hadn’t called for reinforcements. If I didn’t do anything, she wasn’t going to need them.

I close my eyes, and sucked in a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down. It wasn’t my intention, but when I opened my eyes, instead of my normal vision, I saw the magic.

The burnt orange of Rok’s masulsa was congregating around him, but it was the magic of Song’s barrier that still clung to him that I was taking as a good sign.

Without further hesitation, I sprung into life, although the only thing Mara would have seen was me sheathing my sword. Seeking out the barrier magic in the air, I gave it commands to help my guardians. Seconds later, there was a thick, silvery outline around Gun and Rok. Even though I didn’t turn back to check, I knew that the same applied for Jae and Song.

Luck, help me. Help them.

Gold swirled around me and then shot out in several directions away from me.

Or rather, some did.

Some stayed in front of me, circling the magic, which was a strange, green-tinged brown color.

What are you? Can you help?

The magic seemed to respond by pulsating and brightness. Before I could figure out what the hell that meant, navy blue colored magic also started glowing brighter.

Hoping that this was Luck helping out, I told the magic to do its thing—whatever that thing was.

The ground started rumbling and then everything started to shake.

Gun seemed completely unaware as he continued to swipe and jab at the demons. One of them stumbled, and conduct, swinging his sword round and up. At the same moment the ground beneath agma gave way, impaling it on the sword.

The stream just behind Mara started to flow faster. She turned just as the water rose like a snake. Still moving at the speed of the rapids that the stream had turned into, the water shot through the air, slamming first into Mara, before it took out the second demon.

“Holy shit,” I muttered. “Did I do that?”

I spun on the spot. Eodum was on the ground, though there was no water in sight. Jae stood over him, his sword pressed up against his neck.

“Is that backup?” Song cried, looking around. His gaze fell on me. “Kia? Did you have something to do with that?”

“I don’t know. I think so?” I glanced back at Rok before shaking my head at Song. “Get Hwanin here before it’s too late. Rok’s injured.”

“Use this.” Song stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled something out, before throwing it at me. Bubbles of gold shot out to meet the small bottle before I caught it.

Holding it tightly, I ran over to Rok, collapsing on my knees in front of him. “Rok?” I quickly pressed two of my fingers against his throat, checking for a pulse.

Nothing.

His shirt was soaked in blood, and there was a large pool of it beneath him. “It’s mixed in with the water,” I told myself, trying not to panic.

I ripped open his shirt, giving me a clear view of the stab wound. From the position of the wound, I was sure that our luck had to have run out for Mara’s sword not to have hit some major organs.

More concerning was that I couldn’t see the rise and fall of his chest.

“Focus, Kia,” I snapped myself. Linking my hands together, I leant over him before placing them on his chest, above where his heart was. Then I started compressions.

If Rok was conscious, I would have made him drink the elixir that Song had given me.

“Kia!” Song’s voice carried over the sounds of the explosions that were still ongoing. Moments later, he was kneeling beside me. “Let me see what we’re dealing with.”

As I paused, Song pressed his hand against Rok’s forehead. He sighed. “I’m sorry, Kia.”

“No.” The thickness in my throat made it hard to speak. I resumed the compressions.

“Kia, you can stop now.”

“Open that bottle for me,” I told Song.

“Kia—”

“Open the bottle!” I yelled at him.

Song picked up the bottle by my side and opened it, holding it out to me. “Even an elixir brewed in this realm can’t help him.”

Instead of answering, I took the bottle back from him. Taking care with the precious liquid, I started to gently pour it into the hole in Rok’s abdomen.

I’d tried to save Gun’s eye by pouring elixir into the socket, but Gun was currently wearing an eye patch because that eye no longer worked. If Mara had caused any damage to any of his organs, would the elixir repair the internal damage, or would it just close the wound?

I summoned Luck into the hole with the elixir. “Take this to everything that is damaged.”

Song lowered his head with another sigh, but I ignored him, as I continued to order Luck to work with the elixir. I set the bottle down and then resumed the chest compressions.

“Kia,” Song said after a while. “I’m sorry, I really am. But it’s too late for Ro… the elixir. His injuries were too much.”

“It’s going to work.”

Something exploded on the other side of the wall sending stone and dust showering over us.

I didn’t stop.

Song moved in front of me, on the other side of Rok. “We still have a chance to stop Hwanung. Rok would want you to try, not—”

“Are there gods with healing magic?” I asked through gritted teeth, exhausted, but without stopping.

“Yes, but even if they were here, which they’re not, there’s no magic that can make someone rise from the dead.”

Rok wasn’t dead. Not yet.

Ignoring everything else, I turned my attention to the magic.

I need healing magic.

A few bubbles of iridescent pink drifted down towards my hands, and then sank into Rok’s body.

“What is that dumb bitch doing?” Mara asked from somewhere behind me before she started sniggering. “He’s dead.”

“If you want to keep your tongue, I’d suggest you shut up,” Gun snapped.

“Kia, please. Let him go.”

Song reached out, trying to remove my hands, but before he could touch me, I created a barrier, pushing him back. “King Hwanin said I need all four of my guardians. That’s you, Jae, Gun, and Rok. So back off, Song.”

“Kiaria Lennox!” Song’s use of my full name, sounding eerily like my mom, was enough for me to look at him. “You need to stop now,” he said as he grabbed my hands.

“Stop telling me to stop. Or I’ll—”

“Kill me? Because I think that’s going to completely undo everything.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The hand holding mine wasn’t Song’s. It was Rok’s.

“And I can think of a dozen more enjoyable means for you to get my blood pumping.” Rok winked at me.

All the tension left my body as my arms folded in on themselves and I threw myself at Rok. “Oh, thank god.”

With a groan, Rok sat upright, hugging me tightly. “Thank you.”

“How did you do that?”

I pulled back from Rok so that I could look behind me. Jae was a few paces away with Gun beside him. Both were staring at me and Rok in disbelief.

While I’d been trying to save Rok’s life, everything else around me had become irrelevant. I’d been aware of the constant explosions, and from the corner of my eye had registered that Mara and Eodum had been killed, but otherwise, I’d not given anything else a second thought.

“You’re not dead until your heart stops beating, and I kept it beating…” There was more to it than that, and honestly, I only had the slimmest chance… “I wasn’t going to give up on Rok. Like I wouldn’t give up on any of you. Luck helped.”

“That’s not what I meant. Kiaria, that was more than luck.”

“It was indeed,” said Hwanin.

Since leaving him, he seemed a little steadier on his feet, but I was surprised my mom had let him go without insisting she come with him. “Are you okay?”

He gave me a proud smile. “You are more powerful that I could have imagined, Sonnyeo, and I can’t wait to help you discover your full potential, but we must find my son.”

“There’s someone coming.” Gun pointed to the east.

From the direction he was pointing, I could see several figures in the smoke. In an instant, Song was raising a barrier around us, but I caught the familiar glimmer of gold.

“It’s the reapers,” I said.

Moments later, they broke through the smoke, accompanied by some other people I didn’t recognize but assumed to be the gods who had joined in the fight.

“They’re too strong. We need to retreat!” one of the gods yelled as she ran over to us. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, eyes going wide at something behind us.

I turned. Dozens of demons were climbing onto the roofs and walls of the building surrounding the courtyard. Below them, from inside, more ilhoeyong and agmas were blocking the doors and windows.

“This doesn’t look good,” Song muttered.

Then, from the door on the far side of the courtyard, the demons parted, making way for my father.

I quickly summoned the barrier magic to strengthen Song’s efforts so that there was a dome of magic covering all of us. As I did, Jae, Gun and Rok joined Song’s side as they moved in front of me and Hwanin.

“After berating myself for underestimating you and allowing you to escape, it turns out my original judgment was correct, because only idiots would come back here.” My father stopped a few paces in front of the barrier. “None of you will be leaving this courtyard alive.”

“Enough.” Hwanin stepped between Song and Gun, revealing himself. “This ends now, adeul.”

“Abeoji?” Hwanung smirked., then his gaze swept over us. “And of course, the blight on my life of a daughter is with you… What a wonderful family reunion.”

I clapped my hands together. “Exciting, isn’t it? So, how about we kick off these celebrations with you surrendering?”

Hwanung arched an eyebrow. “Me? You’re the ones that are surrounded and outnumbered. Why would I surrender?”

“Because that’s the only way to guarantee your survival.”

“My survival?” Hwanung pressed a hand against his chest. “Mine? You are surrounded and you’ve trapped yourself in that barrier. Even if I don’t order my army to destroy that barrier, it’s only a matter of time before you all starve to death.” He pointed to the gyeoljeongche crystal. “You fools turned that on, in what I can only assume was a misguided effort of stopping me from filling this world with my loyal subjects. You won’t be able to escape this time. If you don’t lower that barrier and surrender, then we’ll see what’s going to last longer: the barrier as my army destroys it, or your lives with your limited supplies.”

“We’re not lowering this barrier,” I told him.

Hwanung walked the last few feet to the edge of the barrier where he raised his hand as though he was pressing against it. “Let me guess. You came back here with my father because you believe he’s the only one who can defeat me?”

I went to move closer, but Rok stopped me. “I’d give it a shot.”

“Shin Rok. You still haven’t learned your place, have you? You always were such a disappointment of a guardian.”

“That’s probably because he was always meant to be my guardian,” I told him.

Directing his attention back to me, Hwanung arched an eyebrow. “Let’s have a little reality check. Your guardians are a bunch of misfit rejects, and as for you? I really hope you don’t have the same delusions about being able to defeat me. And as for my father?” He leaned to the side and looked past me. “He’s not looking too great. All the luck in the world won’t help him.”

“Too scared to try?” Gun taunted him.

“No, but I’m not stupid either. I want you all dead. I’ll be satisfied if that comes from watching you starve to death.”

“Sounds like you’re scared to me,” Rok told him.

I wasn’t scared, but I was starting to worry. So that he couldn’t see, I walked away. I was halfway to Hwanin when he swayed on the spot. “Grandfather!” I ran over, but he fell to the ground before I could reach him.

“I’m fine,” he muttered as I dropped to my knees beside him. “I’m fine.”

“King Hwanin, King of the Gods…” Hwanung called over. “Soon you’ll be like all the other gods: dead.”

“Give him an elixir,” Jae said to Song as the four guardians arrived at my side.

“We used the last one on Rok,” Song told him.

“Then—”

“Don’t,” both Hwanin and I said at the same time.

“An elixir would be wasted on me now,” Hwanin said.

“You said you would be able to defeat Hwanung.”

Hwanin took a couple of deep breaths. “My son was right. If I couldn’t defeat him before, that was never meant to be my destiny. It was yours.”

Individually, Jae, Song, Gun, and Rok probably couldn’t defeat Hwanung. But together? With a lot of luck? “If you tell us what we need to do, I’ll use all the luck to help these guys.”

Shaking his head, Hwanin reached for my hand. “You Kia. Your destiny, their destinies—and Hwanung’s destiny. You have the power to control it.”

“I control luck.” I glanced up at Jae, but he looked as confused as felt.

“Magic. Take control of it… Take it…” He went limp.

“Song?”

Song placed a hand on Hwanin’s face. “He’s still alive.”

“We need to do something,” I told him.

“The only thing that might help him is an elixir. One brewed here.” He glanced at the demons still surrounding us. “But we’re not going to find one here.”

“Well, if anyone has anything resembling an idea, I’m all ears,” Jae muttered.

“Song’s barrier doesn’t stop us from being able to fight through it,” Gun said. “The gyeoljeongche has been reactivated but stopping us leaving is also stopping more ilhoeyong coming. We fight until he has to deactivate it and then we escape.”

“Unless anyone has any better suggestions, that sounds good to me,” Jae said with a shrug. He raised his hand, a fireball appearing above it.

Just like that?

I could feel the anger bubbling in me and quickly called the shield to me to protect Song. Before I lashed out, I stood and took a few paces back away from them, turning to look at the ilhoeyong. They were already clawing at the barrier.

Maybe it had been a half-baked plan from the beginning, but the premise of it was that Hwanin would be able to defeat his son.

“That’s not the truth,” I hissed at myself. I’d been set on coming here and attempting to defeat my father without Hwanin. I hadn’t thought he’d be able to get out of bed until the last minute, so it was unfair to blame this on him.

The rage I felt stemmed from the fact he thought I could defeat him when, in reality, I was a fraud. I couldn’t fight. I needed to rely on my guardians and put them at risk.

And all of this was being amplified by the stupid toxins in my blood.

I glanced down and saw long black tendrils wrapping around me.

No, they were hallucinations, like last time.

But rubbing my eyes didn’t make them disappear.

“Kia? Are you okay?”

Turning, I found Jae staring at me, but my attention was instantly drawn to the area where he’d been attacked by an ilhoeyong before I’d met him. The one which had poisoned his blood with toxins and prevented him from being able to shift. Even though the scar was hidden below his clothing, I could see the shadows, like his wound was on fire.

“You called me Kia.” The realization snapped me out of the hallucination.

“Can you stay with Hwanin?”

“I’d be more use fighting the ilhoeyong. I know I’m not the best fighter, but I know which end of a sword I need to stick in the demons.”

Jae glanced back at Hwanin, still unconscious on the floor. Then he looked back at me, his eyes full of sadness. “I don’t think he has long left.”

Behind Hwanin, Rok and Gun were leading what was left of the other gods and reapers in a charge to the barrier. Song was knelt down beside Hwanin watching me.

I could still feel the anger surging through me, like a foreign body I had no control over. If I wanted to do anything, it was join my guardians on the front line.

“Kia, I’m not asking because I’m trying to stop you from fighting,” Jae said when I didn’t respond. “He’s your grandfather and you’ve not had much time with him. I’m not sure he will make it to see our victory. You can still help with the magic from by his side.”

The anger didn’t subside. If anything, the idea of Hwanin coming all this way just to die made me feel angrier. But Jae was right. “Thank you.”

Jae paused for a moment, then created a fireball in his hand, already running to join the other. Checking my shield was still strong before I approached Song, I then walked back to Hwanin, kneeling opposite Song.

“Do you need me to stay with you?” Song asked me.

“Go. We’ll be fine.”

Song studied me before nodding. He stood, gave me one last check, then ran off.

The area beneath the dome of a shield Song had created wasn’t all that big, especially with twenty or so gods and reapers attacking the various demons around us. From where we were, almost in the center, they were perhaps only fifteen feet away at most. Somehow, it felt much further.

Regular soft booms accompanied the screeches from the demons as we attacked, but if it weren’t for the small explosions of their bodies being destroyed, I wouldn’t be able to tell that we were gaining any sort of victory. On the other side of the barrier, I could no longer see the palace walls as the sea of ilhoeyong grew.

The gyeoljeongche may have been reactivated, but clearly, there were a lot more demons here than we’d realized. And meanwhile, we were trapped, our lives depending on the barrier’s ability to withstand each attack the ilhoeyong made against it. Quickly, I checked the magic, reinforcing some areas and sending Luck to others.

“My dearest Sonnyeo.”

At the sound of Hwanin’s voice, I looked down. He was awake, watching me with half-closed eyes. “You keep calling me that, but my name is Kia.”

Hwanin smiled. “It means granddaughter.”

Song had done his best to make Hwanin comfortable, but even with a bag supporting his head and a tattered cape which must have come from one of the reapers, my grandfather was still lying on the ground amongst pieces of rock and fallen trees.

I focused on the magic, seeking out anything which could help. Luck nudged something bright green towards me, and I asked it to do what it needed. Moments later, flowers pushed their way through the broken ground around us until I could see Hwanin’s body rise about an inch.

Despite the amount of magic swirling in the air around us, I couldn’t see any of the iridescent pink which had helped Rok earlier.

“My dearest Sonnyeo,” Hwanin said again, bring my attention back to him. “Even in this realm, very few fully understand magic. Until now, the only one who has been able to communicate with it has been me, but I see that you have that gift too.”

“But I don’t think I do. It’s just Luck. I have no idea how to use any of it.”

“For most, magic is like fate: no one truly has power over either. You and I have the ability to take control of both.” Hwanin closed his eyes. “Hwanung is powerful, but you have the ability to change destiny…”

Change a tire? Yes. But change destiny? What did that even mean.

“How?”

“Take it…”

Something screeched nearby silencing whatever Hwanin was saying.

I leaned in closer and I could barely feel Hwanin’s breath on my face. “Take what?”

“…Magic.”

“What magic?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

When Hwanin didn’t respond, I sat up. His eyes were closed, but he did seem to be breathing still. I tucked the makeshift blanket tightly around Hwanin and then stood.

“He’s still hanging on?”

Somehow, Hwanung’s voice was loud and clear enough over the ongoing fighting for me to hear him. I turned and found him at the other side of the barrier.

“Do you care?”

Hwanung tilted his head and then shrugged.

I really wished I knew what Hwanin was like before Hwanung had attacked, because I was really struggling to imagine how the frail man lying on the ground behind me had ever been capable of defeating the man in front of me.

“Give up, Kia. Give up now and I will make your deaths quick and painless.”

“Not going to happen.” I folded my arms.

“My father has been filling your head with nonsense, hasn’t he? You’re half-human. Even if you think you’ve got Luck on your side, you can never defeat me. Even the great King Hwanin, King of the Gods, ruler of the Heavenly Realm couldn’t defeat me, and he controlled all the magic.” He smirked. “How do you think you could do it?”

Until only a few months ago, neither he nor I knew of the other’s existence, but for some reason, Hwanung hated me. That bothered me in the sense that I’d done nothing to warrant those feelings, but at the same time, the man in front of me was nothing but a stranger.

Instead of responding, I pursed my lips and stared. Only I wasn’t looking at him.

I was looking at the magic.

Several colors swirled around him, but the strongest was a deep crimson. The amount I cared for my father was probably the same as how much he cared for me, so I’d never bothered to ask the others any questions about him. I had no idea what that crimson magic controlled.

Take it. Hwanin’s words echoed in my mind. Take it.

I had no idea what it was.

Could I even do that?

Come to me, I beckoned it.

My father was the Prince of the Gods, and I didn’t disagree with him when he said he was powerful. Which was why I was surprised when, one by one, the crimson magic started to peel away from him, drifting through the barrier to me.

Hwanung seemed oblivious, just smirking back at me. Then, he shuddered and the cockiness in his eyes was replaced with confusion. “What are you doing?”

Come to me!

In a woosh, the magic hurled towards me. I wasn’t sure where it was really coming from, because there hadn’t seem to be that much of it, but it kept coming.

“Stop it!” Hwanung shrieked, clutching at the air like he was trying to grab the magic.

“What are you doing?” Gun asked, appearing at my side with Jae, Rok, and Song.

“I’m taking it. All of it,” I told him, feeling strangely calm.

“All of what?” Rok asked.

“I think it’s magic?” Song told him.

Jae’s eyes widened. “Can she do that?”

Folding his arms, Rok looked me up and down. “Fairly certain she’s already doing it.

The last drop of magic left Hwanung, and he stared open mouthed at me. I frowned and narrowed my eyes as I stared back.

That wasn’t the last of it.

“Come. To. Me!” I yelled.

My father’s body started to glow, red like the magic. Suddenly, it disappeared as a solitary bubble of crimson flew out of Hwanung’s mouth.

Hwanung dropped to the floor.

“Is he…?”

“I don’t think so, but I don’t care,” I told Gun. I still had no idea what this crimson magic did, but I knew what I needed to do next. “We’re going to the crystal.”

“There’s about a hundred demons between us and it,” Jae pointed out.

“That’s not going to be a problem.” I walked to the edge of the barrier, and even though they looked confused, my four guardians followed without hesitation.

As I reached the edge and walked through, creating a new, smaller pocket of a shield that covered the five of us. The ilhoeyong swarmed around us, but none attacked as I walked across the courtyard.

“Is anyone else a little freaked out right now?” Jae asked.

“After spending all that time in the Dark World, I know I should be, but I’m not,” Rok told him. “Our princess has got this under control.”

Before, Rok’s words would have freaked me out, but he was right. I wasn’t entirely sure how I was doing it, or even how I knew what to do, but somehow, I did.

We walked across the courtyard without any incident, and when we arrived at the glowing crystal, I extended the barrier to give us a little more room. “You need to turn that off so that we can open a doorway to the Dark World.”

Jae glanced at a nearby ilhoeyong. Then he walked up to the crystal and held his palm against it. After a few seconds the bright light stopped radiating from the crystal. “The gyeoljeongche is deactivated. The barrier is down.”

“Rok, can you open the doorway?”

“You bet your fine ass, Princess.” Giving me a grin, Rok held out his hand. The key which was tattooed on his arm appeared in his palm before he wrapped his fingers around it and stuck it into the air. Like he was unlocking a door, he turned the key and a door appeared from nowhere. He pushed it open and then turned back to me. “Your turn.”

I stepped back, bringing my guardians and the barrier around us with us. With the doorway fully accessible to the demons, I looked at the crimson magic.

Help me.

“Get out of this place.” I didn’t shout, but my voice seemed to boom around us. Every demon seemed to stop what they were doing at the same time and turn to face me.

“What’s happening?” Gun asked.

“I said, get out!” This time, I did shout. The crimson magic flew away from me like an explosion, slamming into every foul-smelling monster. Some screeched, but all of them started walking towards the door and through to the other side.

“I have no idea how this is possible,” Jae muttered. “It shouldn’t be possible.”

Possible or not, it was happening.

The line of demons filing out through the doorway seemed endless, but it only took a few minutes for the courtyard to completely clear. As soon as the last demon was through, Rok slammed the door shut and locked it. When the door disappeared, Jae reactivated the crystal, and Song and I lowered all the barriers.

And then a massive cheer erupted from the remaining gods and reapers.

“We’re not done yet.” I ran back to where we’d left Hwanin.

Hana was with him. She looked up as we joined her. “He’s alive. I think if you can find an elixir, he’ll be alright.”

“I have one!” I wasn’t sure who she was, but from her clothing, I was certain the woman shouting was a goddess. She ran towards us, her hand in the air wrapped around a bottle. “They were still in the apothecary.” She thrust the bottle towards Song.

With help from Jae, Song lifted Hwanin’s head and upper body so that he was almost sitting. He uncorked the bottle and pressed it to Hwanin’s lips. At first more liquid dripped down the side of Hwanin’s face, then slowly, he started to drink. By the time the bottle was half empty, he was drinking it properly.

“How do you feel, your majesty?” Song asked him.

Hwanin looked up at me. “You did it?”

I nodded. Then I glanced towards where Hwanung’s body lay. “I think I killed your son.”

“He is not dead,” a reaper declared.

“Then why hasn’t anyone tied him up?” Gun asked, alarmed. He started to march over to him.

“Because he isn’t a threat. He’s… human.”

“How?” I asked. “Did I do that?”

“Help me up,” Hwanin told Jae. Despite frowning, he did as was asked. When Hwanin was standing, he looked at me and smiled. “Because you are Kiaria, Princess of the Gods, and the Goddess of Fate and Destiny. You have the ability to control magic and you used that to remove it from my son.”

I sucked in a deep breath. “Oh.”

Rok stepped by my side and draped his arm over my shoulder. “The Goddess of Fate and Destiny who isn’t alone because she has this loyal guardian by her side.”

“And this one,” Jae said, glaring at Rok.

“And me,” Song added.

Gun nodded. “I’ll be with you too.”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Ji Soo

My biggest regret with this book is that it took so long to write it—and that’s on me. A lot has happened in my life over the last few years, which has knocked me over more than once. I’m so, so sorry that you’ve waited this long, and if you’ve made it this far, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Serenity and Ji Soo

As always, love and gratitude goes to our amazing cover designer, Natasha Snow, for our stunning cover. We’re so happy to have this one join the others on our shelves and finish the collection.

Thank you to our amazing editing team, who had to completely readjust their schedules to fit us in as we worked up to the last minute to get this done.

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Serenity Ackles primarily writes reverse harem and although it’s only this series so far, intends on writing more collaborative books (both paranormal and contemporary), and solo projects too! She sends her newsletter out twice a month, and by signing up, you can grab yourself a free copy of Reaper Reborn (a standalone PNR RH):

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Meanwhile, Ji Soo writes contemporary romance—some of which is reverse harem, some is YA academy, but both are K-Pop themed.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Serenity Ackles

USA Today and International bestselling author Serenity Ackles writes both contemporary and paranormal romance stories. With a long-standing inability to choose a book boyfriend, and always rooting for the 'second lead', she mainly writes reverse harems. As such, Serenity's stories contain a lot of men, just as much cock, and a liberal sprinkling of profanities.

J. S. Lee

USA Today and International bestselling author, Ji Soo Lee spends most of her days lost in a K-Pop haze, which inspired her to start writing stories about her idols at Atlantis Entertainment.

Under the name Ji Soo Lee, you will find YA contemporary romances, with romance levels like a K-Drama.

Under J. S. Lee, Ji Soo writes steamier stories, mainly of Reverse Harems.

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