The Koguryo kingdom exhibit lies directly in front of me. After a few minutes I skirt directly to the amulet encased in the glass cabinet. The samjoko stretched out in the center of the bronze disk pulls at me.
I stop for a moment. What if taking the amulet is exactly what Haemosu wants me to do? What if we get caught and sent to jail? What if—
Laughter fills the room. I swivel around, thinking I’ll be face-to-face with Haemosu, but it’s only a bunch of middle school girls flirting with a museum tour guide.
“You are so smart,” one of them tells the guide in Korean. She flashes him a coy smile. “My school project would have been just awful without your help.”
I’m ready to gag when Marc comes up behind me.
“Stay focused, Jae,” he whispers in my ear as he slides a hammer into my palm. “I’ve unlocked the rear exit.”
I peer over my shoulder and catch him heading down the stairs to the basement. A map of the museum now rests on the glass display next to me. I pick it up. Marc has circled the back stairwell as a reminder. That will be my escape route. I scan the room for Haemosu. He’s still nowhere in sight. I will Marc to hurry.
“Oh!” one of the girls screeches, loud enough, I’m sure, for the passengers on the buses outside to hear. “Is it gold? But it must be. Look at the shine, the color, the way it sparkles under the lights. If only I could try it on.”
Whatever the guard mumbles under his breath as he glances around doesn’t seem to be to the girl’s liking. She pouts her lips and bats her eyelashes. “But don’t you think it would look perfect on me? Please, please, please open it.”
Her whiny voice grates on my nerves, but it doesn’t seem to bother the guard. He starts apologizing profusely that he cannot open the case for her. I duck behind another glass case that holds a mannequin replica of Princess Yuhwa wearing her wedding dress.
The lights blink out. The museum falls into darkness. Marc has cut off the power. I flick on my flashlight in time to see the girl clinging to the guard and screaming as if her life depended on it.
I race to the glass cabinet, and in one swoop I smash the hammer down onto the glass, shattering the glass into a thousand pieces, setting off alarms. I grope through the glass for the amulet, a slice of gold against the darkness. The sharp glass edge cuts my fingers. The amulet slips through my hands, and it drops with a clatter to the marble floor. My flashlight beam skitters across the floor until I find it, but before I can grab it, a hand reaches out and picks it up.
My tongue feels thick and dry as I slowly lift my head. The girl smiles at me.
“You have no need for bronze, my princess, when I can deck you in gold.” And then her body twists and her skin pulls until the girl has been replaced by Haemosu.
I can’t move. Right now my crazy hunt-down-Haemosu-and-kill-him sounds like the stupidest idea on the planet. Problem is, I have no other ideas.
Guards shout from the far end of the exhibit, and beams from flashlights roam a few feet away.
“Come,” Haemosu says. “These men are of annoyance.”
Footsteps pound the marble floor toward us. It’s Marc, careening around the corner, sprinting toward us.
“Jae!” Marc says, waving his flashlight. “Run! It’s a trap!”
Haemosu’s eyes narrow, and his mouth dips into a frown. “You!” he says to Marc. “You are supposed to be dead. You will pay for your interference.”
No! I leap on Haemosu’s back and wrap my arm around his neck, choking him. Haemosu gags, but grabs hold of my braceleted arm and pulls. The electric shock from the bracelet sears me, and I scream in agony. Still I fight against him. There’s no doubt I’m stronger than he in our world, and I taste victory.
But then the bracelet begins to glow. Wind surges around me, and my hair whips at my face.
Marc picks up the hammer and raises it over Haemosu’s’ head.
And an explosion shatters all the glass cases in the room.
I scream through the darkness but manage to kick the amulet out of Haemosu’s hands. Marc cries out my name, but a void tears at my lungs and sucks away all sound before I can respond. The floor vanishes, and I’m falling. The guard’s flashlights become stars, and they churn around me as if I’m in a vortex. I grope empty air, searching for the amulet. Something! But it’s gone.
And with it my hopes.
CHAPTER 29
The wind dies. The stars fade. My feet find solid ground amid the nothingness, and the darkness pulls away like a curtain, allowing light to pour through. It washes over me, and I’m blinded. I cover my eyes as heat penetrates my skin, warming me—such a contrast to the bitter cold of Seoul. The sweet tang of tangerines fills the air.
I move my hand away from my eyes and squint against the brightness. I’m in a great hall, and it looks vaguely familiar. The floor and walls are lined with shimmering gold, etched with battle scenes. Eight red pillars create a line from the throne to a wood-beamed ceiling. Rice paper lanterns are attached to the pillars, glowing even in the daylight. The ceiling is painted in traditional green, red, and yellow vertical stripes, with chrysanthemums at either end of the design just as in the palaces in Seoul. A golden pedestal with the impression of the samjoko in its center stands in the center of the room. I eye it, wondering if the amulet would fit inside it. Was that the portal?
And then I catch sight of Haemosu, lounging on a bright, golden throne on the red platform before me. Massive red pillars rise up on either side of the platform, holding a pagoda-style roof. He’s resting his arms on the dragon’s head armrests, and his feet are propped up on the dragon’s tail footstool.
“This place is far more romantic than that musty old museum, do you not think?” Haemosu says, rolling my flashlight across his palm. “And plastic?” He shakes the flashlight in the air. “I have prepared a beautiful palace for when you become my queen. You deserve more than this rubbish you have been given. You deserve gold.”
“What I deserve is freedom,” I practically growl, holding up my gilded arm. “Where is my aunt?”
“Now, dearest, do not be terribly boring.” Haemosu tosses the flashlight, and it smashes into a celadon vase, shattering it. “Your aunt is tucked away in a safe place. Let us not worry over her.”
If only I had the dragon bow. I could pierce his heart with an arrow in seconds. I look around me and notice I’m standing next to two wooden racks where long-handled fans are stored. The long stick part of the fan reminds me of those European lances. Useful.
Casually I stroll toward the racks, but something pricks me in the hip. I glance down and realize I’m no longer in jeans and my black hoodie but wearing Princess Yuhwa’s dress from the museum. My stance wavers as I grab a handful of silk. It’s slick against my rough hands. A dress? I glower at Haemosu, but he only smiles.
I lift my hand and touch twisted braids and loops. Moving my fingers farther, I realize I must be wearing a crown, too. I squirm my hips, hoping to dislodge whatever is stabbing me, but moving only makes it worse. There must be a needle stuck in the skirt.
“Something wrong, my princess?” He grins as if reading my mind. “A dress like so is far more appropriate than the rubbish you were wearing.”
I have about a million things I’d really like to say to the creep, but I bite my tongue.
“You have a point,” I say, putting on a princess smile, all the while imagining him as my punching bag. I slip a fan out of its holder. “We got off on the wrong track. Why don’t you come down and show me the queen’s palace you were talking about?”