“We must plan quickly,” Komo says. “The museum closes in three hours. We need to be inside when they lock the doors. A Guardian will be there to assist us in case we run into trouble.”
“Wait a second,” I say. “You’re not planning on stealing it, are you?”
Komo doesn’t answer. Instead she picks up a scrub brush and turns on the faucet to clean the dishes. I want to scream, shake some sense into them. There’s no way I can let them get hurt because of me.
I lost Mom to cancer, and I couldn’t control that. I won’t lose Grandfather and Komo, too. I have to think of a way to stop them.
“Come,” Grandfather says. “We should not discuss this here but in a more private place.”
Komo sets the teacups in the drying rack and moves to the center of the room to toss back the carpet over the trapdoor. I help her lift the hatch, and just as I start down the ladder rungs I glance at the window. Someone is standing outside, silhouetted in the streetlight against the curtained window.
I grow so cold, I nearly let go of the rung.
“He’s here!” I yell.
“That is impossible!” Komo says. “Darkness already has set in.”
Grandfather whips around as the front door flings open. Flashing light burns my eyes. I duck my head into my arm.
“Conspiring, I see,” Haemosu says in his creamy-smooth voice. He’s dressed differently tonight, in black slacks and a blue-collared shirt; but he’s still his same perfectly gorgeous self, with those piercing black eyes, chiseled features, and wavy black hair. “So we meet again, old man. I cannot have you influencing my princess.”
Komo doesn’t even blink. She rushes at Haemosu, whipping out a roundhouse kick. Haemosu is thrown sideways and crashes against the concrete wall, cracks splintering up and down where he lands. Grandfather turns to me, his eyes wide, and pushes me farther down.
“Stay below and lock the hatch,” he says.
“No!” I push against him. “You need my help!”
Grandfather leaves me, and I scramble back up the ladder. Komo is bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet as Haemosu pulls himself off the wall. Grandfather sidles next to her.
“Not much of a welcome,” Haemosu says, brushing off chunks of cement. “Especially since I have brought my friends.”
He snaps his fingers. Two boars leap through the open door, snarling. One lands on Komo, pinning her to the ground with its sharp claws. The other faces Grandfather and growls.
“Komo!” I scream, and forward flip through the air. I land next to her as the boar’s fangs sink into her neck. Blood spurts up in the air, and I kick the boar in the side; but its furry mass feels like iron. The animal won’t budge.
Grandfather punches and kicks at his boar, barely holding off the beast as he backtracks to the kitchen cabinets. He yanks open a drawer and withdraws a handful of knives. In quick succession, he hurls knife after knife at the boar until the beast’s face is riddled with them.
“The sword,” Komo screeches. Her pale finger points to the wall.
I follow her finger to the sword resting on two nails above the step chest. Before I can take another step, the bracelet on my arm flares white. It jolts me back, and I’m flung to the very opposite wall. The bracelet bolts me to the wall.
Haemosu laughs and snaps his fingers again. The boars’ heads flick to him. “Leave the princess alive. She will watch you kill these two conspirators,” he says. And then to me, “You shall suffer for making a fool of me. You will watch all those you love suffer until you are begging me to take you.”
Then I start screaming, and my vision is a blur of anger as I snatch anything within grasp with my free hand—picture frames, lamp, vase—and hurl them at him.
In a burst of light, Haemosu vanishes. His laughter echoes through the room, spinning my heart into a raging fire.
The boars gnash their teeth, saliva drooling from their tongues, and face Grandfather and Komo again. Grandfather leaps onto the table and dives across the room toward the sword. The beast jumps after him. Grandfather’s outstretched hand whips the sword off the wall, and as he falls, he swivels the sword around and pierces the boar in midair.
I pull against the bracelet, now with three dragon eyes blazing red.
Komo has squirmed back toward the couch while Grandfather scrambles to his feet, slipping on blood. The boar rakes his claw across her chest. Still she holds him off. Her hand snakes under her couch cushions and pulls out a silver dagger, and she plunges it deep into the boar’s chest. Grandfather pierces the boar’s rear. It wails, kicks him in the face, sending him tumbling backward. Komo yanks her dagger back out and stabs the boar again. It collapses to its side.
Komo, her face streaked with crimson lines, falls still.
And so do I.
The carnage of blood, the rank animal odor, the broken furniture overwhelm me. Sharp silence chokes at my throat, and suddenly it’s impossible to breathe. The door bangs against the side of the house in the wind.
Bang, bang, bang.
My wrist is raw and throbs with pain. But that is nothing compared to the agony in my chest. A cutting wind swirls through the room, kicking up golden dust. It whirls around the beasts and Komo’s body until all three are drawn into it.
“Don’t take her!” I yell.
Grandfather shifts on the floor and lifts his head. “Eun,” his voice whispers, and then louder, “Eun!”
Komo’s eyes flutter open, and she reaches out a hand to me.
“Komo!” My scream pierces the night as she vanishes in the tunnel of wind.
She’s gone. She needed me, and I couldn’t save her.
The bracelet finally releases me from the wall. Sobbing, I sink to the floor, the pain of the battle battering against me like sheets of hard rain, but I crawl against the storm inside me to the door.
Haemosu took her to that awful palace of his. I’m sure of it. Grandfather pulls me into his arms, tears streaming down his wrinkled face.
“I tried. I tried.” Grandfather repeats those words over and over. “If only he had taken me. If only—”
Why? WHY!
“This is all my fault,” I say. “I should’ve let him take me. Then she’d be safe.”
“This is the first time he has broken out of his usual path.” Grandfather’s eyes are wild with fear and anger. I have never seen him like this. “It is impossible, but he was here at nightfall. He no longer requires light to empower him. This means only one thing. None of us is safe. All the old rules we held on to mean nothing! I must find out how he is getting this kind of power. Jae Hwa”—he cups my face between his hands—“time is of the essence. Your father might be next.”
A calmness settles over me as if I’ve stepped out of my body, and I know what I must do. “Then I’ll hunt down Haemosu and stop him before he gets the chance.”
“No.” Grandfather clutches me tighter. “This is for me alone. You must convince your father to escape the country. I need you to take me to the clinic. Then tomorrow night I will get the amulet, enter the Spirit World, and put an end to this forever.”
I stare at the pool of blood where Komo had been. “Okay,” I say.
I don’t tell him the truth. That there’s no way I’m going to let him sacrifice his life for me. Not over my dead body.
CHAPTER 25
I skip the elevator and instead huff up the stairs to the ninth floor of our apartment building. My hand trembles as I push my finger over the scanner to unlock our apartment door. When it finally releases, I shove the door open.
“Dad!” I yell out as I enter.