Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3)

by Heather Heffner

  However, as we neared the top, the sound of a thunderous waterfall lured us closer. I panted excitedly, tasting the water’s purity on my tongue. Bo Ra smiled at my enthusiasm.

  “We do not go to the falls yet,” she said. “I have something else to show you.”

  She pointed. I ventured ahead to behold a large rolling river with steam rising from its swirling currents. It was a giant hot spring.

  Both Sun Bin and Heesu squealed in delight. We wasted no time in soaking our aching feet in the scalding hot water, the frost on our breaths intermingling with the hissing steam.

  “Is this normal in summer?” I asked Bo Ra, gazing up at the foreboding peaks encased in ice.

  “No,” Bo Ra said. “The snow should have melted completely by now.”

  Up here in the alpine meadows, the weretigers relaxed and lounged on the shale. Several began to playfully spar with one another, leaping from rock to rock and then splashing across the hot spring. Heesu and I laughed.

  Bo Ra nodded at us. “It is your turn to try.”

  “I’ve never really practiced any martial art,” I confessed.

  She cocked her head. “How do you fight when the undead attack?”

  “I use my Were abilities.”

  Bo Ra folded her arms. “A Celestial Dragon must know how to fight as a great and mighty dragon, as well as with her fists and mind. Today we shall train on this. Come. I shall show you basic taekwondo stances.”

  The Yong siblings were far more advanced than I. Heesu had two teachers, and she practiced mimicking their leaps and bounds until she could blur across the hot spring without causing a single ripple. Ankor’s style of fighting was slow and methodical, yet he dutifully held off three attackers.

  But of course, the center of attention was Sun Bin. She stood in the middle of a ring of weretigers, calm and confident as she defeated foe after foe. Nyssa supervised nearby, but she seemed more concerned for Sun’s opponents. One by one, they tumbled onto the rocks bruised and defeated.

  Bo Ra nodded. “Sun Bin-a,” she called. “Take a break. Help Raina with her basic stances.”

  Sun Bin grudgingly obliged, but she quickly grew bored watching my elementary punches and kicks.

  “Let’s go, Alvarez,” she drawled, holding up her fists. “Time to see what you’ve got.”

  I attacked hesitantly, wary of the ice on her breath. My older half-sister amusedly dodged each swipe and then stuck out her foot. I tripped and went sprawling on the sand bank.

  “I know you’re a water dragon, but you must have fire burning in there somewhere,” Sun Bin called. “Quit fighting like you’re prey and hunt.”

  I sprang to my feet. Keeping low, I lashed out with a series of punches and kicks, allowing my body to twist and bend like a serpent’s. Sun Bin raised an eyebrow as my fist grazed her side. Then her hand seized my wrist. I gasped as ice crackled from her fingers and shot up my arm, blinding me with numbing, sub-zero pain.

  I just had time to see the Winter Dragon’s cruel smile before she cracked back my frozen arm and then forced me to the ground, her knee digging into my spine.

  “Yong Sun Bin.” Nyssa’s voice was harsh and disapproving. Through my tears, I realized that Sun’s girlfriend, her siblings, and the weretigers had stopped to watch us.

  To my astonishment, Ankor stepped forward. “Really, Sun. Try that against someone who knows your tricks.”

  Sun Bin grinned and mercifully released my wrist. I gasped as color flooded back to my skin. Nyssa helped knead feeling back into my limbs and kept her narrowed gaze on Sun Bin. The Winter Dragon sauntered past to meet Ankor’s challenge.

  “I don’t know if I can,” she said. “Baek sunsaeng-nim asked me to train, not kick ass.”

  Ankor snorted in disgust, nodding toward me sitting sore and wounded on the ground. “You lack the maturity to know the difference.”

  The weretigers looked toward Bo Ra. She nodded, motioning for her clan to form a ring. Sun Bin’s smile grew. She waltzed into the circle as if she’d been born there. Ankor studied her every movement cautiously.

  Sun Bin abruptly flipped over backwards and then launched into a series of flying sidekicks at Ankor, which he narrowly ducked each time. She landed in a crouch and then flung out a leg. It was what her twin had been waiting for. He dodged again and then seized her lashing foot. He twisted it with a quick thrust. Sun Bin spun about like a top and landed heavily on the wet sand. Bo Ra nodded, and the weretigers growled their approval. One point to Ankor.

  Eyes narrowing, Sun Bin resumed her fighting stance. The twins glared at one other, each daring the other to make the first move. Ankor finally acquiesced, beginning a sequence of punches that Sun Bin parried. The Autumn Dragon pressed his advantage but too late realized how close Sun Bin had lured him. She pivoted diagonally and then landed a roundhouse kick that knocked Ankor to the ground, stunned.

  The move earned a nod from Bo Ra. Heesu, Nyssa, and I glanced at each other. Point to Sun Bin.

  All gloves were off as the twins entered the final round. Ankor abandoned his hesitation, jabbing Sun Bin’s midriff with a flurry of aggressive strikes, and Sun Bin whipped about in the air so many times that I half-expected to see wings sprout from her back. Like a sturdy rock, Ankor stubbornly defended or rolled out of the way each time, but Sun Bin was as relentless as a blizzard. Instead of growing weary, she only appeared to be gaining hyper-intensive energy.

  Then it was over. Ankor landed a solid front snap to Sun Bin’s head, but she leaned back to absorb it and then caught him in the throat with a tornado kick. As Ankor reeled over, choking, Sun Bin spun sideways and grabbed hold of his ear.

  I just had time to catch a glimpse of the gleaming obsidian shard before Sun Bin’s fingers sank into his tender flesh. Hissing, Ankor collapsed to the ground while his twin pressed her weight against his ear.

  “Enough.” Bo Ra stood. The other weretigers immediately padded away, losing interest.

  “Cheater,” Ankor muttered as Sun Bin released him.

  His twin cackled. “It’s not my fault your weaknesses are right where I can reach.”

  Bo Ra beckoned for us to gather. “Very good, Sun Bin,” she acknowledged. “Our enemy has no honor and neither should we. If you know the enemy’s weakness, then use it. How can we determine what these weaknesses are?”

  I felt uneasiness wrap thick cords around my chest, and it had nothing to do with Sun Bin’s deadly ice.

  “What they care about,” I said softly.

  The weretigress turned her disconcerting amber eyes to me. “Explain.”

  “When Citlalli defeated the Vampyre Queen, it was because she presented her with a distraction: what she wanted most.” I paused, remembering the night Citlalli had shared this tale. She had stayed up with me because I was too frightened of the dark. Somewhere toward the early hours of dawn, she’d revealed how close she’d come to death, if No-Name hadn’t answered her summons.

  I continued: “The Vampyre Queen was so blinded by greed to consume her oldest foe that she forgot what No-Name also held: Maya’s original soul. Thus did Maya attack and destroy herself.”

  Bo Ra looked abruptly at my imugi siblings, and a thin smile crossed her lips. “Good. I had forgotten…one of Mun Mu’s children did fight in the Were War.”

  To my surprise, it was Ankor who reacted swiftly with anger. “We wanted to help,” he growled. “Father said it wasn’t the right time.”

  Bo Ra tapped a finger on her chin. “Enlighten me, imugi prince. When was this right ‘time’ that you were waiting for? Would it be after the first world war, when Maya and her sons took up permanent residence in the burned remains of Gyeongbok Gung Palace? Would it be after the second, when her darkness extended to the northern reaches of Russia to the tip of Southeast Asia? Or would it be after the Korean War, when your father ignored the plight of the spirit world and focused on helping the mortal humans with his metal war machines and chemical bombs?”

  “He couldn’t risk us,”
Ankor replied hotly. “We were the Celestial Dragons, the only ones who would be born for the age. If we perished, then so did any hope of completing the seasonal cycle.”

  I glanced at Sun Bin, surprised she had kept quiet for so long. Her face was expressionless as she gazed off at the bubbling spring. Did she agree with Bo Ra?

  “You don’t understand, Baek sunsaeng-nim,” Heesu spoke up. “Umma was sick and fading. Appa was doing his best to search for a cure for her and raise us at the same time!”

  The weretigress looked back and forth between us. “Ah. Now, forgive me if I am incorrect. However, the reason the Spring Dragon was missing was due to your father’s infidelity, correct? If he had stayed true to his mate, especially in her time of illness, then the seasonal cycle would have never been broken, yes?”

  My eyes burned with unexpected tears, and I ducked my head so they wouldn’t see. I suddenly saw another girl my age who looked like me, but she didn’t walk and talk like me. She flowed down the streets like an unstoppable river, and when she spoke, her language was Korean first and English second.

  “It was already ruined,” Sun Bin finally said. Her bristling hostility wasn’t directed toward Bo Ra. It was riveted on her twin. “Father wanted you, Ankor. He wanted you at his side to fight against the Vampyre Queen and be heir to his corporate empire. But you fucked that up, didn’t you? Aren’t you only half a dragon now? Can you even shift anymore?”

  Ankor clamped a hand over his pierced ear and leaped to his feet as if physically struck. “I have a way to fix this. But it is none of your business.”

  Sun Bin snorted. “What’s changed after ten years? I was first-born. Appa should have wanted me. He never should have cared that I didn’t have a dick. But he does, and now I’m still not worthy of his attention because I don’t like the ‘right’ gender. After all, what would that do to Yong Enterprises’ sterling reputation?” she finished sarcastically, and Nyssa grabbed her hand in comfort.

  “Stop it!” Heesu surged to her feet, her fists clenched. “I hate it when you two fight!”

  “Ah.” Bo Ra’s guttural growl cut in. “But the enemy does not.” She pointed a scarred finger at Heesu. “What is the First Trial of Wisdom’s lesson?”

  “‘There is suffering,’” Heesu muttered.

  “The second lesson is this: ‘Suffering is attached to desire.’” Bo Ra folded her arms and studied each of us in turn. “Know your enemy’s weaknesses, but even more so, know your own. You face no flesh-and-blood foe, but ghosts of vengeance and bloodshed. The vampyre princes and their Dark Spirit allies can see beneath your skin. They can visit your dreams and see what haunts you. To pass Deul, the Second Trial of Wisdom, you must identify the desires that are attached to your suffering and let them go. You must come to peace with yourself. Otherwise you will be defeated before you begin.”

  Nyssa stood and bowed. “When shall they take this Trial, Baek sunsaeng-nim?”

  Bo Ra clambered to her feet and planted her pole in the soil. “It begins tonight. We shall make camp here. Each day at sundown, one of you shall make the climb to the summit and gaze upon Heaven Lake, a window into your soul. When you return, tell me whether you passed or failed. The order shall be this: Sun Bin, Heesu, Raina, Ankor.”

  We glanced at Ankor, and he gave a sarcastic bow. “Ladies first.”

  Bo Ra clapped her hands. Her weretigers emerged from the crevices with gray camouflaged tents and backpacks. “Make camp,” their chieftain commanded. “You, girl,” she continued, pointing at Sun Bin. “Prepare. You leave tonight.”

  I approached Ankor later when he was tending the campfire, but he shook my hand from his shoulder.

  “What did your sister mean?” I pressed. “How are you half a dragon?”

  He wheeled on me, shadows from the flames dancing across his face. However, his eyes stood out like glittering onyx, flaring with a startling kaleidoscope of color. I took a step back in shock. I had never seen an inner Were of such intensity before.

  “I am not half of anything,” Ankor snapped. “Sun Bin is bitter. She doesn’t understand that Appa always pitted us against one another. I was never his favorite any more than she was. But there is no time to play these games anymore. The threat of a Children of Death Coalition is real. Soon I will be whole again, and this time I will show the Were Nation how to win a war.”

  Nyssa joined me, crouching beside the flickering flames. We watched Ankor stalk off, smacking aside branches as if they had personally offended him.

  “This will not be an easy trial, I fear,” the werenagi said softly.

  “Was Mun Mu really too busy looking for his wife’s cure to help in the Were War?” I asked, dreading the answer.

  Nyssa sighed, smoothing her long braid. “Oh, Raina. There is much that we owe the royal dragons, it is true. However, more often than not, it is a happy coincidence that they free us from our oppressors, rather than their intention. First and foremost, the dragons care about themselves.”

  “I’m not like that,” I said defensively. “I care about Citlalli and my family more than anything in the world. I saw the lengths the Were Nation went to save me and the kidnapped girls.”

  Nyssa smiled sadly and patted my shoulder. “That is nice to hear, Raina. Sun Bin and Ankor once thought the same, too.”

  I caught her glancing up toward the shadowy summit of Mt. Baekdu, a silver sliver in the dark of the night and yet unmistakably present: a mighty behemoth debating whether to cradle or crush us while we slept.

  “Sun Bin will be okay, Nyssa.”

  “Of course.” Nyssa clutched her shawl tighter and attempted a chuckle. “I’ve always known Sun was a force to be reckoned with. If anything, I should fear for those in her way.”

  I offered her another cup of tea, and she accepted. Surrounded by the ferocious weretigers in the hostile wilderness of North Korea, I knew neither of us planned on sleeping tonight.

  Chapter 30: The Second Trial

  ~Raina~

  Mid-morning broke surly gray across the forested valley, and Sun Bin had not returned. Nyssa strode back and forth in agitation. A heavy silence fell over our camp, broken only by the bubble of the hot springs and the distant roar of the waterfall. I breathed in the scent of pine and stretched, glancing toward Heesu.

  “Morning flight?”

  She caught my underlining meaning and nodded vigorously. However, Bo Ra appeared as silently as a ghost. “No fly,” she growled. “Many spirits who are not your friends dwell within these peaks.”

  I hesitated, looking back toward an anxious Nyssa. “Surely it can’t hurt to investigate a little ways up the trail.”

  “No,” the weretigress said flatly, her amber eyes flashing in annoyance. “Speak of this again, and I shall declare you unworthy to complete the Trial. Sun Bin must return on her own.”

  Ankor spotted her first. A little past noon, when the crickets began to hum, Sun Bin stumbled around the bend and lurched, headfirst, toward the hot springs. Ankor sprang to his feet and caught his twin, lowering her slowly so she could catch her breath.

  As soon as she’d dipped her feet in the water, we smothered her with shouts and hugs. Sun Bin endured it all with a weary grin, but her face hardened when Bo Ra approached. We parted to let the weretigress through.

  “Yong Sun Bin,” the Second Guardian said. “What was the outcome of your Trial?”

  Sun Bin’s fingers tightened on her brother’s shoulder, but then a slow smile broke across her face. “Pass,” she whispered.

  Everyone broke into whoops and cheers except for Bo Ra. The sunlight hit the gleam of her extended claws, and that was all the warning Sun Bin had. Then Bo Ra drew a tiger’s claw on Sun Bin’s palm, next to the Jackdaw’s inky footprint.

  Sun Bin swore, and Nyssa hurried off to find a bandage. The weretigress merely turned to Heesu. “A token of favor is earned. It is your turn to prepare, child. You leave tonight.”

  Sun Bin’s hand shot out to grab her sister’s wrist. “Look for the
carrions, Heesu-ya. I left them to guide your way.”

  “‘Carrion’?” Heesu repeated the unfamiliar English word curiously.

  “Small piles of rocks,” Sun Bin said, nodding at me for confirmation. “Look for them if you lose your way. What awaits you up there…” She shuddered and gazed off into the steam of the hot springs.

  Once more did one of our siblings leave us that night to enter the vast darkness of Mt. Baekdu. Once more did Nyssa and I sit side-by-side before the campfire in companionable silence. Sun Bin collapsed exhausted in her tent, dead to the world. Preferring the company of no one, Ankor wandered off until the night swallowed him completely.

  Dawn crept beneath my eyelids. I shot awake, an unshakeable dread filling my chest until I couldn’t breathe. I dashed to the trailhead.

  And there was a small, grinning Korean girl accepting Bo Ra’s claw mark on her palm.

  “Just you and me left, Alvarez.” Ankor stepped up beside me, and I knew from the shadows creasing his eyes that he hadn’t slept much, either.

  We feasted on budae jjigae that afternoon. Ankor was a patient cook, cracking open tins of spam and crunching up ramyeon noodles to add to the seasoned red broth. I slurped down two bowls of the “army stew.” I was desperate to fill the anxiety in my stomach, which grew more incessant the further the sun crossed the sky.

  At last it was time. Heesu advised me to follow the carrions, while Sun Bin threw an arm around her younger sister’s shoulder and commented that she hoped I wasn’t afraid of ghosts. Ankor said nothing, crouching to tend the fire.

  Suddenly, Bo Ra appeared and doused the fire with a bucket of water. Ankor stumbled backwards with a startled, “Mweo-yehyo?”

  Bo Ra drew us close and sniffed the air. She put a finger to her lips in caution. “No fire tonight. My scouts scented something strange in the valley. There may be enemy soldiers close tonight.”

  “North Korean soldiers?” Sun Bin demanded. “You do know how much Raina could go for ransom if they catch her out there?”

  Bo Ra snorted. “They will not patrol the mountain at night. They know that what awaits them up here does not fear their guns.”