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“But I don’t like a mad hunt.” He dragged me close.
“You’re mine, moonlit seraphim.” He spun me once.
“And if I don’t beg this of you, someone else will.” He pressed his lips to mine. They tasted like love and power. My heart sang. “I can’t wait anymore. From life to death, light to dark, share your soul with me, Luna Deokhye.”
ChapterThirty-Four
THE ORACLE MUSINGS
What would you do to be mortal?There has to be an equivalent exchange in magic.
On one side of the world, a teenage mermaid, desperate to dance with the humans and chase a boy, made a foolish deal with a sea sorceress to gain her legs and lose her tail. The cost? Her voice and identity. Nobody, not even the man she came to chase, recognized her. And she tried to swim home, but her own family threw her back to the earth, convinced she was just another suicidal teenage drama queen and not the youngest heir to the sea king’s throne.
On the other, a lonesome demon met a conjurer, who promised an avenue to live the humanity she watched so often from afar. She wanted to fall in love, she said. She wanted to experience a girlhood, and growing up, and not be stuck forever in the same age of nothing.
So the witch made the nine-tailed fox appear as a beautiful woman, enchanting enough to make any man fall to their knees. Which is convenient, because she was filled with a ravenous hunger at the cost of her magic: she must rip out hearts and eat them to stay alive. However, there is a twist to her curse: should she last more than 1000 hours without killing a single man, the curse will be lifted, and she will become a normal human girl, ready for true love.
Unfortunately, she only made it to hour 999 today.
HYDRA ALERT!HYDRA ALERT!
My dastardly phone beeped a loud, screeching message, ruining the moment. I desperately prodded the screen to turn it off, but it wouldn’t shut up.
HYDRA ALERT: RUN, HIDE, FIGHT. THE MYSTERY KILLER IS ON A RAMPAGE AGAIN. OVER 5 DEAD BODIES IN THE PAST 5 HOURS.
Reaper cursed so foully I almost drew away from him.
“She chooses now to do this?” he snarled.
His eyes softened at the emotional wreck that was on my face.
“I’m so sorry, seraphim.” He kissed my forehead. “I wanted this to be so special for you.”
I said nothing, in shock. Did my proposal just get ruined by… a different demon?
“I have to handle this.”
“Take me with you,” I blurted. “Please—just don’t leave me alone here.”
He gripped my hand. “It’s too dangerous, remember? I’ll take you to your home, but I have to handle this alone. This is my battle to fight.”
He dropped me at my dorm without a word.
* * *
My shadows writhedwith impatience under my skin. They pulsated and throbbed, unsatisfied with just sitting around waiting.
I was ready to go.
I was going to go find the damn creature myself.
I’d spent enough time letting Reaper rescue me. It was my turn to rescue him.
I couldn’t just sit here thinking about how my ancestor never told me he was my ancestor. Of how obvious that was in retrospect. He must truly think me the densest of all his descendants for not realizing. I couldn’t sit here and simmer about how a demon from the Beyond nearly proposed to me, only to get interrupted by a different demon. Of how I would have definitely accepted had he not run off to chase.
I willed my shadows into a gate and stepped into the Whispering Woods.
I searched far and wide, starting at the portal and expanding until I covered every inch of the earth. I ignored some smaller creatures that hopped through—including the dragon, which waved at me—and begged the woods to whisper a clue at me. Only hisses and growls greeted me, no different from the regular beasts of the woods.
