Year of the Rat, page 7
part #4 of Changeling Sisters Series
Samson sighed, stretching languidly. “Very well. So what we know is that neither Aleksandr nor the Death Lords have come forward to flaunt a captive Mun Mu. If Mun Mu disappeared around Bongil Beach, then that is on the shores of what you call the East Sea. However, it is known as the Sea of Japan to Korea’s former rival across the strait. You said Vampyre Prince Donovan retreated to Japan, yes?” he asked Ankor, who nodded. “Donovan may be a high player in the Vampyre Court, but he is not powerful enough to imprison the Guardian of the East Sea. But I do know of one territorial rival of Mun Mu’s who would leap at the chance to hold him captive.”
The twins shared a glance. “Ryujin,” they chorused together.
I cocked my head. “Who?”
“Ryujin is Japan’s dragon god of the sea.” Ankor rubbed his arms as if he had lost feeling in them. “But Eobshin told us all of the gods were locked away.”
I didn’t miss the way color drained from Sun’s face at the mention of her former lover, and I gave her hand a quick squeeze.
“Yes, so they were. In the last century, many of the Elder Life Spirits rebelled against their former masters: the gods. It was one of the most influential, controversial, and best kept secrets in all of Were history.” Samson stared moodily at his beer. “But if the Death Gods are insisting upon being players in the war to come, then arming you with knowledge is the best defense I can give. Locking the deities away could not be accomplished without help from certain gods who saw an opportunity to thin the competition.”
“So some gods still have free reign, and they enjoy lording it over the others.” Sun Bin shared a look with us. “But what can we do from here?”
I exhaled shakily. “I think Raina might know for certain what happened at Bongil Beach.”
Both twins whirled to stare at me, shock stamped across their faces.
“She never told me,” I said, raising my hands. “Raina said it was Heesu’s secret to share. But something bad happened on that beach that made them both terrified.”
Sun Bin gave a rough laugh. “And now Heesu is dead. How convenient.”
“Yong Sun Bin,” Ankor hissed, the crackle of electricity in his pitch-black eyes warning that she had gone too far.
Yu Li nodded briskly. “Then we have our plan. Citlalli, you think your sister went to Japan, which is Ryujin’s domain. We must find a way to communicate with her through Eve. Even if Ryujin does not have Mun Mu, then surely the god of the ocean can see that The Twelve are a threat to us all.”
That made Samson give a small whoop and raise his beer to Yu Li. “I can see that being on Ground Zero will be worth the mountain of paperwork awaiting me back at headquarters. Listen, Alpha Ahn, if you can convince a god who was fine with locking his brethren away to challenge the Death Lords of Xibalba themselves, then your pack will earn one hell of a motherfuckin’ promotion.”
Chapter 11: Land of the Rising Sun
~Raina~
Japan, Months Earlier
The karaoke bus wound its way up increasingly serpentine roads to the Hirogawara trailhead high in the foothills of the Akaishi Mountains. Three vacationing foreigners attempted to sing a Japanese ballad and reached forbidden octaves. It was possibly due to the altitude, or perhaps it was due to the driver enthusiastically cranking the volume at every turn, but I felt trapped in a concert full of helium-hyped chipmunks.
Rafael Dominguez wasn’t helping. The rogue werewolf tapped in time to the song and hollered encouragement alongside the elderly Japanese gentleman he’d befriended. I focused very hard on the three white caps rising from a meadow of alpine flowers in the distance. The glaring sun and the striking blue of the sky felt like an unsettling mirage. The singing and the cheer of the bus’s backpackers all rang false when I thought of what had made its home in these rolling hills.
Rafael paused to give my hand a reassuring squeeze. Then he disappeared up front with his elderly friend, and the first notes of a new song drifted from the speakers. I rolled my eyes in defeat. So much for remaining inconspicuous.
The sudden tremor in the earth nearly sent our bus off the road. I slammed against the window, a mere sheet of glass between me and the drop into the valley below. The song dissolved into static.
“Apologies!” the driver called over the disappointed mutters. “No more sing.”
I glanced back out the window and froze. I could see the shadow of a dragon. The dragon’s shadow glided across the valley as if riding a sea of wind. Blinking twice to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, I craned my head upwards. Sure enough, flitting amongst the clouds was the wink of an emerald tail.
“Heesu?” I glanced doggedly around the bus, but no one seemed to notice a giant flying reptile’s presence.
The green dragon descended and soared alongside our rattling bus. I stared, riveted, into a brown eye as rich and warm as the soil of the earth.
Raina, Heesu whispered. Then she pushed me.
My head jolted up. To my horror, there was a hairless, red-eyed creature crawling across the ceiling. It smiled down at me.
Shouting, I scooted backwards and bumped into Rafael.
“Raina!” His hands gripped my shoulders until I ceased shuddering. “What is it?”
I struggled to squash the ill feeling of dread spreading through my chest. Heesu had vanished. In her place was a cold void that could not be filled. Just as I had feared, a shadow had darkened this ethereal meadow.
“I don’t know,” I said softly, “but something terrible has happened.”
∞∞∞
Throngs of people mobbed the mountain hut at the trailhead to Mount Kita, but none of them were hiking. Voices babbled in a hundred different languages as they discussed the strange earthquake and the electronic interferences. The feeling of immense dread deepened down to my toes as I watched two hikers fiddle with their radios and produce nothing but static.
I caught a glimpse of Rafael’s longish chocolate-brown hair amidst the sea of black as he fought his way back to me.
“Raina,” he gasped, grabbing my elbow, “Seoul has been attacked.”
For a moment, I didn’t register his words. They didn’t seem possible. They didn’t feel real. “What do you mean?”
Rafael’s grandfather friend from the bus waved us over. We crammed around a Japanese kid importantly holding up a smartphone. The video stream showed nothing but smoke, dark and curling, devouring something that had once been Seoul, South Korea. The crowd shouted excitedly when a humanoid figure took shape, but it evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.
“Rafael,” I muttered, a bubble of panic expanding in my chest, “what the hell is going on?”
He ran a hand through his hair as the broadcaster spoke in rapid-fire Japanese. “I have no fucking idea. I heard ‘North Korea.’ Wait! Raina!”
I shoved through the onlookers, my fingers flying over my phone’s keypad. Citlalli’s phone wouldn’t connect. Hot tears welling up behind my eyes, I tried Miguel next. Same result. Heesu. Yu Li. The Alvarez Family Restaurant.
“I’m sorry. Your call cannot be completed as dialed—”
Faces were everywhere, and none of them were my family. My chest was knotted up so tightly that when I did breathe, the tears erupted. The forest beckoned ahead, its dense green pines darkening to pitch-black. I bolted.
“Raina!” Rafael swore, pushing his way through hordes of shocked backpackers. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to find them.” It was broad daylight. I had zero chance of falling asleep naturally, but I didn’t give a damn. I was going to the place I hated most: Eve. Putting on a burst of speed, I left Rafael and the hushed whispers of the crowd behind.
The woodland was guarded by a small wire fence. I vaulted it and melted gratefully into the pine trees’ shadows.
“Oi!”
Startled, I turned to see a young Japanese boy with a brawler’s build and thick hair slapped back in a ponytail stalking toward me from across the meadow. One hand was on the hilt of an archaic-looking sword. He shouted something in Japanese and gestured at a sign. I couldn’t understand him, but the characters circled in scarlet flames gave the gist.
“Hey!” I heard him switch to English behind. “Girl! You can’t come here! Trespasser!”
My throat was too tightly clamped up to speak. Shaking my head, I began to run. I heard him growl and say something into a walkie-talkie, but I wasn’t worried. A mere man couldn’t catch a dragon.
Upon a bed of pine needles in a deep patch of the wood, I knelt and withdrew a prayer wheel and two faded candlesticks from my backpack. Squatting in my raggedy sneakers, I placed my bento lunch and a baggie of almonds in the candle doorway. It wasn’t much of an offering, but I hoped whatever forest spirits were near would take pity and guide the way into Eve.
I lit the candles and watched the flames deepen to a roaring blue. My hand closed over a rock. Sunrays slanted through the pine needles, curious to uncover my secret ritual. Yet before they could reach me, I bashed the rock into my head.
Chapter 12: A Place Twisted and Strange
~Raina~
I landed in the spirit world of Eve with a splash, mud staining up to the hem of my jeans. Tangled branches created a web of slithering serpents that converged on me. I ducked their brittle fingers. Crashing blindly through the underbrush, I put on a burst of speed and tumbled out into a yawning pit of nefarious dark matter. The glow of my candle archway disappeared behind the malignant trees.
The ground pitched forward. I shouted, trying to keep my balance. The sky devoured my screams. It was a violent blackcurrant sea that pitched and bucked until I felt dizzy. I found a dwarf pine to cling to, but it was slim solace.
Amidst the dizzying spires of snow-capped peaks, I saw an ancient palace, its crescent roofs as numerous as the stars. A scarlet path unraveled from its steps. To my horror, I realized it was blood, unrolling the Death Palace’s welcome mat further and further down the slope.
Even when the Vampyre Queen had taken over Eve, the spirit world had
retained some sense of order—albeit, an unending nightscape one. I had never seen Eve in distress like this before. What the hell was going on?
Fingers trembling, I withdrew the prayer wheel. Dim light played over its four sides: the bird, the tiger, the monkey, and the snake. After the Trials of Wisdom, I knew the faces of the four guardians as well as my own—aloof, indifferent.
Yet at this moment, they were all I had for guidance. I spun the wheel clockwise and whispered: “Om Mani Padme Hum.” The prayer wheel’s bell pealed across the vast emptiness in plea.
Finally, a roar answered it.
I swung about, wary. My Yong siblings and I had completed the Trials of Wisdom by any means necessary, which often led to facing some very ugly truths about ourselves. I wasn’t on the best of terms with all of the guardians. Yet when I saw the luminous sapphire eyes of the White Tiger, my spirits lifted. The Lady of Eve would know what to do. She would know how to find Citlalli and my family.
That is, until She charged me.
I released my precarious hold on the dwarf pine and rolled. The White Tiger pounced where I had been standing a second earlier and then circled, Her tail twitching. The inky midnight blue of her gaze glued me in place. She wanted me to hold still so She could eat me. I obliged, every nerve in my body at war to hold or disobey.
Her stalk turned into a lope, and I knew I was doomed. However, at the last second, recognition flashed within the wilds of Her eyes.
–HIDE!–
Her giant paw swiped down a hairsbreadth from my cheek. Then She was gone, Her smoke-ringed tail evaporating into the darkness.
“My Lady?” I whispered. The sky had stilled, but the quiet was eerie, like the calm before a storm.
“Please.” I stared up at the endless well above. “I just want to know my family is safe.”
On the horizon, I heard heavy footfall shake the earth.
Boom. Boom.
I tried to flee, but suddenly the thunderous presence was here; everywhere. I rolled under a bush just before the temperature skyrocketed.
A terrible horned king erupted from the oil-black tendrils attacking Eve. Lightning flashed, and it illuminated the bones of the murdered who made up His body, a bloodied, tangled mess slithering up to His feathered skull mask. The heart of His gaze was utter silence. It held a horrifying, alluring darkness that made my hair gray and my skin wrinkle just to look upon it.
And what scared me the most was that I had seen Him before. During the Final Trial of Wisdom, He had been watching me out of the Dreaming Dragon’s future eyes.
I had no idea who He was. I had a good idea of what He was.
And even with all of my power as a shapeshifting dragon, I was no match against a god.
I shut my eyes tight and wiggled across the earth, clutching the prayer wheel in my fist.
–RAINA–
The dark god savored my name, goading. It gave Him power. He had found me.
I didn’t pause. I crawled frantically back toward the forest, which seemed to shrink with every exhale of the monster’s sulfurous breath.
–LITTLE RAINA. TINY RAINA. SO FAR FROM HOME. TELL ME, LITTLE GIRL: DO YOU KNOW THE LEGEND OF HOW THE RABBIT CAME TO BE ON THE MOON?–
I’d ran out of cover. Reaching the next bush would require dashing out in the open. But the winds changed, and I smelled danger. The god took another step, and the earth fell away in front of me. I leaped back just in time, and the dark lord’s laughter reverberated in my ears.
–YOU ARE DIFFERENT IN THIS FORM– His presence drew nearer, and I realized that if I didn’t get away soon, then He would melt me where I hid. His terrible, loathsome face turned upwards, sniffing. –YOUR BLOOD IS MIXED. WEAK. BUT CLEVER OF ILEANA. IT HID YOU SO LONG FROM ME, BUT WE NEVER FORGOT OUR ENEMY– His gaze fixated on my bush, pulsating with power.
–FOOLISH TWINS. YOU CAN NEVER OUTTRICK A GOD–
He stretched forth a six-fingered monkey hand. I braced myself, sucking up what water I could find in this parched nightscape for a fight.
Suddenly, a giant moon bear sprang out of the shadow of His palm. Another bound brought him to my side.
“Climb on!” he cried, and I was surprised to recognize the voice of the militant Japanese boy who had yelled at me for trespassing in the forest.
“We can’t outrun Him—” I began, but the werebear snorted impatiently.
“We won’t have to. Now let’s go!”
I seized fistfuls of bristly black fur and pulled myself up. The Asiatic black bear loped off, his vest of white gleaming like a shield in the nightscape. At our heels, we heard the dark god laughing again, but it was cut off by a familiar roar. The Lady of Eve had returned. She was still feral and angry, but now She channeled it toward the invading lord. She leaped for His throat. His terrible monkey hand wrapped around Her neck. Then a cloud of smoke enveloped Them both.
“Hurry!” We charged across the collapsing landscape as the death god’s cries uprooted trees and split boulders in two. The ground was crumbling quickly. I spied my shrinking candle doorway in the distance, but it was too far. We would never make it.
My werebear mount grunted. With one mighty bound, he cleared thirty feet. Yet just as he landed, the earth gave way, and we were left staring down a charred abyss full of whispers of the unrestful dead.
My breath caught. Xibalba. We weren’t just at war with the vampyres anymore. We had engaged their creators: The Twelve.
And I had just met the one wearing the crown.
The werebear bellowed as we fell, but then my wings broke free. It felt good to shatter the suffocating walls of heat closing in. I guided us back to the candles. An animalistic roar pieced Eve to its zenith; be it beast or god, I couldn’t tell. Then we rolled through the candle doorway and left the nightmare world behind.
Chapter 13: The Treehouse Village
~Raina~
We sprang awake with a gasp. The Japanese shifter leaped to his feet and stomped the candles into the ground, as if convinced that the disturbing death god could follow us through.
I watched him, a dull ache in my chest, as with each step, he stamped out my hopes of ever seeing my sister again. Only days ago, I had accepted Rafael’s offer of revenge. We had flown to Japan to slay the cruel Vampyre Prince Donovan who had brought so much suffering upon myself and countless others. And suddenly, there wasn’t a flight waiting to take me back home.
Home. I hadn’t uttered the thought aloud for years, but that was what Seoul had become to me now. I knew its subway system like the back of my hand. I knew which alleys to take after school to snag farm fresh vegetables from the ajummas. I knew which noraebang owners would join us for a song and which night markets had the best deals. I knew which K-dramas made Citlalli cry, which Korean dishes drove Mami mad to make, and which neighbors would give me free soju in exchange for company. The shadows would grow long as I listened to their stories about North and South, university exams, family conglomerates, and politics, until we had reached the end of the bottle.
I knew my strange, oversized family of fur and claws would go to the ends of South Korea and beyond for me. They would spend days in the clandestine laboratories of Yong Enterprises where the future was made and nights gallivanting around a terrifying and wondrous spirit world where the past was alive and well.
“Arigatou.” I spoke the “thank you” softly. My Japanese was rudimentary at best.
The werebear withdrew his long-handled sword. Light gleamed off the wicked curve of the blade. “Who are you?” he demanded in English. When I made no move to attack, he advanced another step. “Korean? US?”
“I’m”—the daughter of an affair between my Mexican mother and a wealthy Korean businessman on American soil who grew up in South Korea—“Raina.”
“Yong Raina,” the werebear repeated the dark god’s words. His sharp black eyes looked me up and down, and he gave a low whistle. “I have never seen a shifter like you before. A dragon. I am—”
