Nine Tailed (Realm of Four Kingdoms, #1)

by Jayci Lee

“Sunny . . .” Ethan reaches a hand out for me. “What are you not telling me?” I stumble back another step. Why did you lie? Why did you leave? I can’t hide from this anymore. “Who are you?” “I’m yours.” He closes the space between us and takes my hands in his. “I am yours, Sunny Cho, body and soul. No matter what happens, please remember that.”

Darkness takes its final breath, double dragons reunite. Fierce shall jade and silver burn the truth of tears and blood unchained. Blinding sorrows extinguish dreams, hope shines forth, the unveiled pearl. The true heart of the righteous shall shatter the light that reveals all paths.

The implications of his answer sink in. “You mean the yellow assassin teleported you out of the cave?” “Yes.” He shifts as though he wants to turn around again, but he stops himself. “What did you think happened?” “I don’t know,” I mutter a tad defensively. Ethan was summoning axes and shit. Who knew what other powers he had? He can’t blame me for assuming he teleported the golem away in some misguided attempt to protect me.

It pisses me off that I don’t know—that he didn’t tell me any of it. I don’t care if he saves our lives. Well . . . I do care. But I can be pissed and grateful at the same time.

Ethan stretches his hand out, and the silver axe rips from the tree trunk and flies into his hand. With a collective gasp, the suhoshins each drop to one knee and bow their heads to Ethan. “Your Highness.” Ethan’s gaze flies to me as I stagger back from the group. Before I can respond to the plea in his eyes, he turns back to the bowed heads of the guardians. He fists his hands at his sides and swallows. “You may rise.”

I close my hand around the necklace, swallowing my sorrow. I’m sorry, Mom. I’ll find a way to fix it. I don’t notice it at first, the disk pulsing against my palm like a heartbeat. Then blinding green-and-silver flames burst through the seams of my fingers, and I’m thrown flat onto my back. The fire surrounds me—then consumes me until it burns inside me. It levitates me off the ground, holding me aloft for a split second before it explodes. I crack like the jade disk. My shout escapes my throat as green-and-silver fire, and my eyes flare with the flames. And I burn. I am the fire. Then it ends. I know who I am. I know the sacrifices made for me. I know . . . what I must do.

“I hope you’re not going to segue into a villainous monologue,” I shout, hoping he can’t hear the tremor in my voice. “Because we haven’t got all night.” “We don’t? Is it because you’re going to let me take you to Roxy’s?” Ethan jokes—because he’s got to be joking—with his eyes glued on Daeseong.

“I must say I’m impressed . . . but your father’s worries are exaggerated.” The dark mudang waves his hand in a fussy little circle. “I hardly think you and your pretty axes can overthrow the King of Mountains. Not as long as he’s aligned with the Amheuk.” Overthrow . . . the King of Mountains? Ethan is meant to overthrow his father to become the new King of Mountains? Is that the long-awaited plans that Hailey was talking about? The one Daeseong threw a wrench in? It sounds complicated and heartbreaking to fight his own father. But if the king is really backed by the true darkness . . . it will be suicide to stand against him. “You’re lying,” Ethan says evenly, but his body tenses next to mine. I steal a peek at him, but I can’t read the hard lines of his face. “The king is too much of a coward to make a deal with the Amheuk.”

“No one can see what hasn’t been written,” I say with more confidence than I feel.

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Ethan growls, raising his axes. “I assure you, princeling.” The dark mudang spreads his hands in a benevolent gesture. Coming from him, even the false benevolence is sacrilegious. “If you stay with her, you’ll be laying the path to the destruction of your kingdom—the destruction of the Realm of Four Kingdoms. I’ll be granting you a great mercy by killing you tonight.”

“I told you I won’t kill you,” Ethan says faintly. “Consider this my big fuck you to destiny.”

“You . . . you are evil,” the mudang shrieks. “You will kill everyone if you unleash that power.” “No, I won’t.” My eyes flutter shut. “Because I choose to be good.” Even with my eyes closed, the light is blinding. I realize I can’t control it. I can’t contain it. I’m not wielding the power of the Yeoiju. The Yeoiju is wielding me. It wants to be released, and I have to let it go, even if it tears me apart. I smile. The light will vanquish Daeseong. I will die, but my friends will live. Ethan will live. Even the sullen teenage dragon will live. My smile grows. I give myself up to the light. It seeps out of every pore in my body, pushing against my skin. Then it pulses through me in endless waves until I am nothing . . . but light.

“When did you find out?” I manage to whisper. “The night of the fire.” Regret lines his face. “I learned everything that night.” A part of me already knew, but I go limp with relief that he wasn’t lying to me from the moment he walked back into my life.

“Between one breath and the next, I suddenly knew . . . everything. Everything my mother, the Queen of Mountains, knew before she hid me away. She imbued all her knowledge . . . all her memories . . . into the jade and bound my powers to it. Then with the last of her gi, she enchanted the stone to keep me hidden—to keep me safe—until my time came.” His eyes are far away. “I was meant to break the jade disk when I came of age on my twenty-fourth birthday, but Ben died before he could tell me. “But I . . . I think I’ve pieced together what happened after I left the Kingdom of Mountains. My mom . . . she was the queen’s lady-in-waiting and . . . and my dad . . . they didn’t die in a car accident. I think they died saving me. That’s why Ben and I had to move to LA so quickly. Even with my mother’s magic, the people after me . . . they found us somehow.” “Oh, Ethan.” Helpless tears spring to my eyes. “And I think Ben let himself be killed without a fight because of me.” Ethan hunches in on himself. “To keep me hidden until I came into my powers.”

“But why?” I choke out. “Because I am the King Foretold.” His bark of laughter is a sound of helpless sorrow, edged with rage. “Because of a prophecy that proclaimed I would be the one to unify the Realm of Four Kingdoms.”

“On that small mountain in South Korea . . . I didn’t know who I was praying to, but I prayed to anyone who would listen. I begged them for a way to save you from the blue assassin. I promised to do anything . . . to pay any price. That’s when the golden axe and the silver axe appeared to me.”

I never imagined I could ever love someone and be loved in return. I never knew a love like this even existed. And it guts me that our love cannot be. I can never accept his love or reveal my love to him. Because if I can’t outrun destiny, then I intend to fight it. I refuse to let destiny manipulate Ethan into killing someone he loves. Someone who loves him back. That will destroy him. This has to end now. I’ll make him stop loving me, even if it wrecks me. And I will hide my love from him. If Ethan kills me, he’ll do it never knowing that I love him. I will spare him that pain, at least.

Daeseong must be dealt with. He killed my mother. He killed Ben. He will pay for his sins. But it isn’t only vengeance I seek. I glimpsed the extent of the dark mudang’s power—the extent of his evil. He will unleash the Amheuk from its prison beyond the worlds. It will mean the end of both realms. I know this. With Draco’s scales and my sacred ashes, we can forge a sword of light. I will learn to wield the powers of the Yeoiju. We’ll be ready for Daeseong when he returns.

To my readers . . . WHAT?!?! I still can’t believe I have readers—generous, quirky, funny, and kind readers who love my books as much as I love them. Nine Tailed is my beating heart, and I trust it to your care. I hope it beats stronger and grows bigger with your love and support.