I stand and stretch my hand into the iridescent light. It shimmers as if it’s sprayed with gold. One step closer and my hand slips into the locker. I grope toward the back, but it’s not there. I squint, and that’s when I can see a glistening palace, gilded in gold and gems. My breath leaves me. It’s beautiful.
A voice calls out from behind me. “Jae Hwa!” But it’s so far away, like at the end of a long corridor.
A gust of wind swirls around me. My whole body glitters as I am pulled inside. And then I’m standing in a thicket of tall grass that waves against my knees, tickling them. Beyond the field is a grove of persimmon trees, laden with plump orange fruit. Fluffy white clouds sail above on a sea of sapphire sky.
Haemosu emerges from the grove with a confident stride, taking a bite of a persimmon. I can’t deny how handsome he is, dressed in a red silk tunic and pants lined with gold ribbon, a giant dragon rearing across his chest. But then the light shifts, and for a moment I can see his true hideous self. A decaying skeleton of a monster.
Stepping backyard, I suck in a deep breath. He must see the fear sweeping over my face, because he stops midstride. Staring intently at me, he crushes the persimmon in his hand. Instead of spewing out juice, it erupts in a gush of red liquid like spilled blood.
“So you can see my true form,” he says. “Interesting. The others never did. Perhaps Palk is right. Perhaps you are different from the others.”
“So you’ll let me go, then.” I clench my fists, hating how my voice shakes.
“No. That would never do. A prize like you must be treasured for eternity.”
He lifts his arms in the air and roars, the ground shaking in response. I stumble and fall to the ground. As I’m staggering to my feet, I watch in horror as he transforms before me. In a shiver of light, his body ripples into a black spiked beast. Smoke pours from his nostrils. A long thick tail snaps behind him.
I’ve never seen anything more horrifying than this.
I whip around and take off in a full sprint just as his four paws hit the earth and he leaps toward me. Icy terror streaks through my veins. My feet pound the grassy field, but I can hear his paws behind me and feel the lash of his tail swipe my heels. I’ve always been fast, but here I’m as fast as the wind. Maybe faster. I think I can outrun him.
But it’s not enough. Because I can’t find my way out of Haemosu’s world. Last time I escaped by finding the place in the air with a distinct contortion. I’ve no idea how I got here this time.
Then the ground falls away, leaving behind a sharp cliff that plunges to nowhere. I stagger to a stop and hold out my arms to keep from plummeting over the edge. I comb the cliff edge for the wavering light, feeling Haemosu’s presence drawing closer.
Where’s the flipping doorway?
“Why run from me, my princess?”
I spin to face Haemosu’s perfect human face. I want to punch it until its black and blue.
“Your efforts are pointless. We are meant for each other. Even my lands respond to you. It will not be long until we are together for eternity.” He’s got another persimmon in his hand and takes a bite of it. Juice drips down his chin. “I thought we would spend some time together. You and I.”
The cries I heard in that dark, abandoned palace echo in my memory, and a fire rises up inside me. “Time together? Is that what you told all those other girls?”
“I do not know what you speak of.”
“The curse. That’s what you have brought my family. It needs to end. Now.”
“Do not lessen what we have.” He clucks his tongue, taking my arm and rubbing his hand over the bracelet. “I am intrigued. How do you plan on ending our special bond?”
I whip out a side kick into his gut, and the fruit falls to the ground. He tries to grab my leg, but I whip around and my foot smacks him in the cheek. I throw a punch aiming for his temple, but he grabs hold of my left wrist where the bracelet is.
I scream in pain as an electric shock pulses through my body. I drop to my knees when he finally lets go. My teeth chatter from the shock. All Komo’s training suddenly seems pointless and stupid. Metamorphosis magic? Transforming into another being? What had I been thinking to believe I could stand up to a demigod?
A voice calls out my name, booming from below the chasm, sounding oddly familiar. I search for the source. No one is there.
“Who is calling you?” Creases fill Haemosu’s forehead. “It sounds like a boy. Did you bring someone through the door?”
The locker. My thoughts clear. Yes, that’s how I got here. If I can find it, I can escape. I think about the voice. It sounded awfully like Marc’s.
“You made a very poor decision in telling someone about our special place,” Haemosu says, and strides to the cliff. “I will not share you with anyone. You are mine alone!”
Haemosu reaches out his hand and aims it toward the voice. “He does not understand who he is dealing with. Perhaps he should have a taste.” It dawns on me that he’s going to do something horrible to the person calling my name. What if it is Marc? I couldn’t bear Haemosu hurting him.
I grab ahold of Haemosu’s arm just as a burst of golden liquid shoots from his fingertips. But it’s enough to throw him off guard, and his aim is flung sideways. He isn’t used to girls who can fight.
“This is between you and me,” I say, hoping that whoever is trying to save me is okay.
Haemosu rears back, and a mind-splitting screech erupts from his mouth, pulling at his lips until they stretch into a beak. His body contorts, the red silk twisting and bending into feathers; his legs extend into wings, and sharp claws replace fingers.
A massive bird stands before me.
The beak is larger than my head, and it snaps at me. My reflexes click into motion, and I snap out a front kick, jamming my foot into the beak. The bird screeches again, flies higher, and circles above me. The roundhouse double kick Komo taught me comes to mind.
I wait, my high block in place as he nose-dives straight at me. When the bird is inches from me, I lift my body into a spin and twirl around. I’ve estimated perfectly as my foot impacts against his stomach. His claws attack my face. A chunk of my hair tears out, and his beak rips my left cheek. I fall to the ground, which is no longer tall grass, but hard-packed dirt.
I scramble to my feet, but not fast enough. He’s pecking at my back. I scream as the pain cuts through me as if I’m being stabbed by sharp pieces of glass.
I push out a front punch but knife through empty air as he swerves left. If I don’t do something soon, he’ll tear me to shreds. My mind races, trying to remember how Komo said I should transform. What did that article say?
Take control of your mind.
Haemosu soars high above me now, screeching out some battle cry. I have a few moments. I close my eyes and focus, desperately blocking everything around me. I visualize the form of a bird, something to fly me away. Didn’t Habaek in the legend turn into a bird? The picture of a hawk in Mom’s book comes to mind.
Another screech erupts in the stillness.
I snap my eyes open. He’s in a nosedive. I break into a sprint so that I’m running in his direction, hoping to force him to redirect. My feet pound the ground, kicking up dust.
Then I realize I’m racing full speed directly toward the cliff. He cornered me.
“Jae! Jae!” Marc’s voice calls from the nothingness beyond the cliff.
I must concentrate on becoming a bird. It’s my only chance. I run toward Marc’s voice, not thinking about the cliff anymore, only the air, its fullness and blueness stretching out beyond me, waiting to be flown through. A tingling prickles over my skin. My vision blurs as the cliff edge looms. I pump my legs harder, my muscles screaming, Haemosu screeching.
The ground falls away.
All that is left is empty air, and my heart lodges in my throat as I freefall. My chest tightens, and something inside me explodes, energy coursing to every tip of my body, from my ears to my toes. I flail my arms through the void,
and that’s when I realize I don’t have arms anymore. They’re feathered wings.
And I’m flying.
The wind fans my face. I beat my wings faster. The air abruptly changes from clear cold to warm dry. My skin bristles again, and I watch in horror as my wings twist and the feathers fall away. The sky blurs. I’m losing my focus.
Once again I’m human.
My limbs jumble around me as I fall. My arms flail, and my feet can’t find the ground fast enough. I trip over a thin metal edge, and then I’m tumbling through my locker onto the floor, back at school, sprawled across the hallway.
Slowly I sit up, my stomach heaving. I know I’m having side effects from the metamorphosis, but I can’t stop shaking uncontrollably. Marc grabs my shoulders, kneeling next to me. His eyes look oddly golden and wild. I blink and stare at my locker, which at this moment looks perfectly normal.
I search the area for Haemosu. He’s nowhere in sight. I slide forward on my bottom and kick the locker closed.
“You okay?” Marc asks, a sharpness to his voice. “You’re bleeding. I’m taking you to the nurse’s office.”
Bleeding? I look at my palms, and sure enough they’re scratched and bloody. I gingerly touch my back. It’s warm, and my shirt clings to it. Marc helps me up, and I glance around to see if anyone has noticed. But the hallway is empty. Everyone must be in class.
The hall lies in deadly silence. Marc’s shouts still vibrate in my ears. Marc’s voice. It was his voice that called me back. He was calling for me. It had to have been him. Did he see me? Does he know?
Then my heart stops, remembering the golden liquid Haemosu shot across the chasm. I can’t help myself. I reach out and lightly touch Marc’s arm to see if he’s safe. He feels warm and solid. At first glance he seems perfectly normal. Jeans. Navy T-shirt. Ruffled brown hair.
But his eyes still show hints of that shimmery gold Haemosu blasted.
My heart skitters as my fingers reach for his face. “Your eyes. Are you hurt? What happened?”
“Don’t worry about me. We need to get you to the nurse. You look like a horde of fire ants has been feasting on you.”
Marc draws me to him. I’m still in shock, and allow myself to lean against his chest and let my body relax. I know I should be worried about my injuries, about his eyes, but right now I’m just glad to be alive.
We shuffle our way down the hall and step outside. A light dusting of snow covers the path. I shiver, wishing the nurse’s office was connected to the main building. When we enter the nurse’s office, Nurse Lah and the two assistants rush over.
“What happened to her?” Nurse Lah asks, directing us to a cot lined with a crisp white sheet.
“She fell.” Marc rubs his eyes.
“Fell?” Nurse Lah grabs a bottle of antiseptic and gauze, then sits on a stool and rolls over to me. “On ice?”
“Right outside the gym next to the bushes,” Marc confirms.
I shoot Marc a grateful smile. Ice makes a lot more sense than telling her I was pulled into another dimension and confronted by an immortal who transformed himself into a savage red bird.
Marc gives me a hard look as if trying to tell me something. His skin looks paler than usual, but his eyes are also back to their piercing green except for a hint of golden speckles. I can almost convince myself that I imagined the gold, but there’s something in his gaze that tells me he knows more than he should. Oddly, that’s exactly what I want. For someone other than my aunt and Grandfather to know the truth about me.
I wince at the sting of the medicine as the nurse cleans out the scratches on my hand and then wraps them. She moves to inspect my back but first gives Marc the eye.
He shifts on his feet, saying, “I’ll be right by the door.”
I nod, and Nurse Lah draws back a curtain to give us privacy.
“Well, it looks worse than it actually is,” she says as she cleans away the blood. I cringe and grit my teeth. “Scratches will do that. I’m going to put some ointment and large bandages on them. That should heal you up and keep them from scarring or infection.”
How can I have only a few scratches after that attack?
Once the nurse leaves I take a few moments to collect myself. I peel away one of the bandages on my hand. The scratch has healed up almost perfectly. Only a thin line is left. Impossible.
It seems that what happens in the Spirit World doesn’t apply to the real world. And there’s Marc, again, right in the middle of my mess. Is it coincidental that he’s been there for me both times I’ve encountered Haemosu? And what about that article his dad wrote? Does Marc know more than he’s letting on, or am I completely paranoid?
Beyond the white curtain, I hear Marc chatting with the nurse about the weather. He sounds so normal and relaxed. Maybe I just imagined that look in his eyes earlier. Maybe I imagined him calling my name over the chasm.
I push the bandage back in place, pressing my lips together as I slide off the bed. I can’t handle anything else magical or otherworldly right now. I find Marc sitting by the entrance on a blue plastic chair, a book in his lap. A quick glance at the cover tells me it’s written in Hangul: Legends and Myths of Korea. I know it because I have the exact same book back home.
“Looks like you didn’t need to stay after all.” I won’t get him involved in my mess of a life. I think of Haemosu’s rage upon hearing Marc’s voice in the Spirit World. I can’t risk Haemosu taking out his vengeance on Marc. I say, “Nurse Lah says I’m scratched up, but I’ll be fine. Thanks for helping, though.”
“Does this mean I can’t carry you to class?” He grins.
“I’d flatten you, Brainiac. Better not.”
The nurse laughs from her desk, and even I can’t stop the smile crossing my face as I push open the cool glass door and step into the frigid air. How does Marc know exactly what to say to make me feel comfortable? He stands, tucks the book under his arm, and follows.
“You read Korean?” I ask.
“Naw, I just stare at the pretty characters for fun.”
“Cultured and a comedian.”
“I try to please. I expect to get through college on my comedy skills alone.”
I burst into a ridiculous laugh, and I can’t seem to stop. This is probably what hysterics are, I decide as I snort and hiccup like a complete idiot. At least the pressure in my chest seems to have released as we hurry up the stairs into the high school, away from the February cold. I grab the side door, but the chill from the handle seeps through my bandages. Even with the wounds healing at impossible speeds, it still hurts.
“Wait,” he says, and the humor leaves his face. “I can’t let you go back in there after what just happened.”
“You know what happened?”
“I do. And I think you’re in terrible danger.”
The wind curls around me, frosty and sharp. “That was your voice calling me, wasn’t it? You saved me.”
“Yes.”
My head spins as if I’m going to faint. I shake my head against the dizziness and suck in a deep breath. Komo and Grandfather never mentioned that humans could see into the Spirit World without those spirits allowing it. Even I saw only what they wanted me to see.
“How could you see me? Did anyone else?”
“Something wild happened back there.” He massages his forehead. “We need to talk.”
We skip our calculus lesson to sit on the carpeted floor in the far back corner of our school’s auditorium. I’m slightly unsettled by the rows of empty maroon-colored seats and the stage, dark and silent; but it’s quiet and private here.
I lean against the dark-blue wall and cross my legs, trying to figure out how I feel about everything. Now that Marc seems to be drawn into this mess, it’s getting complicated. How much did he really see? Really understand? And then there’s the guilt—and the thrill—that’s tugging at me because I want him to be a part of this.
Marc settles beside me, releasing a long sigh as he, too, leans against the wall, stret
ches out his legs in front of him, and closes his eyes.
“What happened back there was crazy,” he says. “Did I see what I thought I saw?”
I press my sweaty hands against my jeans. I’m not supposed to tell anyone about this insanity. But that was before Marc had saved me. “What did you see?”
“Something that belongs in a fantasy film.”
My throat tightens. He knows, I think, and I don’t even want to think about the consequences. “What makes you say that?”
“My dad is a professor of religion at Yonsei University.” He twirls his gold ring around his finger. “So I’ve heard all the stories and memorized all the beliefs. It’s just—it’s different when you actually see it.”
I remember Haemosu’s anger when he heard Marc’s voice. That shot of light I thought I’d deflected. A sliver of cold slides through my body. What if I hadn’t deflected all of it? Marc is rubbing his eyes again. I reach out and touch his face.
“Your eyes. What’s wrong?” I grip his arm tight. “The monster hurt you, didn’t he?”
“Technically, these creatures aren’t monsters.” He half laughs, and then his jaw tightens as he focuses on me. “Think of them more as supernatural figures. In some cultures, people call them angels and demons. Some call them ghosts and spirits.”
“You can call him whatever you want, but the man you saw was a monster.”
“Dad used to explain it to me as if they were more than just fairy tales. I always thought he was a bit crazy, but I went along with it to keep him happy. I guess in theory I believed him. Now I know they’re real.”
I search his face for pain or some sign of Haemosu’s mark on him, but he seems fine.
“In the locker,” Marc says. “You faced one.”
I take a deep breath. “Yeah. I did. And I wouldn’t have found my way back if you hadn’t called my name.”
“You disappeared into your locker. And then I remembered my dad’s stories about the Spirit World. I even remembered Kumar’s theory on different dimensions, and then all that stuff my dad had taught me made sense. I tried to climb into your locker. I beat on the back wall and started screaming out your name.”
Gilded (The Gilded Series, Book One) Page 13