He’s going to kill me.

The words flashed through Seolhyun’s mind, and she reacted out of instinct. In the back of her mind, she recognized the act of shoving the sickle into his chest was far different than shoving one into a Demon’s or even a furie’s.

And the thing that was the most different? Genuine Guards didn’t collapse into themselves and fade to nothing but a fine shimmer of blue dust. The Guard kept standing, a horrified look on his face.

Maybe he’d actually believed that there wasn’t a blade stuck deep into his chest.

Seolhyun screamed, yanking the sharp end of the sickle out. Then he fell. First to his knees, then face first onto the marble floor. She lifted her head, the bloodied sickle clenched in her shaking hand. She didn’t even know the Guard’s name… and she’d killed him.

The male Genuine must have risen to his feet at some point. He stared back at Seolhyun, equally horrified. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“I had to do it,” Seolhyun pleaded. “He was going to kill me. I had to do it.”

Jasmine whimpered from behind the figure of Themis. The statue had been damaged during the battle. The scales had tipped. No longer equal.

So many rules governed the Myxs. Seolhyun really couldn’t keep them all straight. But there were two she always remembered; never get involved with a Genuine, and never kill a Genuine. Self-defense didn’t matter. A Genuine’s life was and always would be valued higher than hers. Being an Elpis apparently didn’t make her above that law.

Breaking one rule had seemed bad enough, but both of them?

Well, she was so screwed.

Footsteps thundered into the reception hall, the only sound that seemed greater than the pounding of Seolhyun’s heart. Immediately, she recognized the two. Hyejeong was the first through the door. Both she and Jimin halted a few feet away. Seolhyun could only imagine what they saw; piles and piles of blue dust, the bodies, the broken doors, and two Genuines cowering under the statue.

Then they saw her, standing with a bloodied sickle in hand and a dead Council Guard lying at her feet.

“Seolhyun, are you okay?” Hyejeong crossed the room. “Seolhyun?”

She stepped around the fallen Guard and stood in front of Seolhyun. A bruise shadowed under her right eye, and a scratch slashed across her left cheek. Her shirt was torn, but the blade hooked to her pants didn’t have blood on it.

“What happened?” Hyejeong sounded desperate as her eyes searched hers.

Seolhyun blinked, but she kept seeing the look on the Guard’s face.

Jimin surveyed the mess with a cold, almost natural look to her. “Seolhyun. Tell us what happened.”

It all came out in a nervous rush. “I was fighting the Furies and he told me I did a good job. Then he apologized. I had to do it. He said there couldn’t be two of us and that he had to protect his race. He was going to kill me. I– I had to do it.”

Jimin dipped down and rolled the Guard over.

“Okay.” Hyejeong reached out to force open Seolhyun’s fingers from the dagger. “Let me have the blade, Seolhyun.”

“No.” Seolhyun shook her head. “It has my fingerprints on it. It’s mine.”

“You have to let me have it.”

Seolhyun shook her head, holding the sickle tighter. “I had to do it.”

Hyejeong gently pried the blade loose. “I know, Seolhyun. I know.” She glanced over her shoulder before turning back to her. “Do not speak a word of this to anyone. Do you understand?”

“But–”

“Seolhyun.” Her voice rose sharply. “Do not speak about this to anyone. Ever. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.” Seolhyun’s breath was coming out in sharp, little gasps.

She spun toward Jimin. “Get her out of here. Take Jonghyun’s jet to Busan. Use compulsion if you have to get them to leave without him. I don’t care. If anyone stops you or asks why you’re leaving now, tell them the Demons had plans to take the second Elpis. That the risk was too great for her to remain here.”

Jimin nodded, her eyes glowing. “What about them?”

Hyejeong glanced back at the Genuines. “I’ll deal with them.” Her voice was that low. “What happened in here will never leave this room. You can trust me on that.”

“Are you sure?” Jimin frowned. “If you change your mind, it’s all over for Seolhyun. We could just take care–”

“We will not kill them,” Hyejeong hissed. “I know what I’m doing.”

Jimin’s eyes widened. “You are insane… If anyone finds out what you’re about to do, you’re–”

“I know. Go– go now. Before anyone else comes. I’ll take care of this.”

Would Hyejeong use compulsion on another Genuine? That alone was another forbidden act, another rule to be broken. How else would she get them to keep this secret? Especially Jasmine? She was a Council member, obligated to report what’d really happened.

If anyone ever found out the truth, Hyejeong would be deemed a traitor.

She would be killed for it.

Seolhyun shot forward. “No. You can’t do this. I won’t allow it. You won’t die because of me!”

Hyejeong spun around and grasped Seolhyun’s shoulders. “I will do this and you will allow this. Please, for once, don’t fight with me. Just do as I say.” Her eyes met Seolhyun’s and when she spoke again, she did so barely above a whisper. “Please.”

Seolhyun closed her eyes against the sudden rush of tears. “Don’t do this.”

“I have to. I told you before I’d never let anything happen to you. I meant it.” Hyejeong turned toward Jimin. “Leave now.”

Jimin took Seolhyun’s hand in a firm grip. There was so much Seolhyun wanted to say to Hyejeong, but there wasn’t time, not with Jimin dragging her past the bodies and the two shocked-face Genuines. Seolhyun did get one last glance, though.

Hyejeong was already setting her plan into motion. She crouched in front of Jasmine, speaking low and quick, the same way she’d spoken to Seolhyun that night in the warehouse.

A compulsion… she was really using a compulsion on another Genuine.

But there was nothing Seolhyun could do about that right now.

Thinking back on those seconds when she’d seen the Guard raise the dagger, she knew there’d been time to avoid it. She was fast. She could’ve moved out of the way. She could’ve run. She hadn’t needed to kill him.

Jimin’s arm around her shoulder’s tightened as if she could read her mind. “You were defending yourself, Seolhyun.”

“Was I?”

“Yes… And you had no other choice. They declared war on us.”

Few Days Later

Seolhyun jerked straight up in bed, a fine sheen of sweat covering her body as her heart continued to try to come out of her chest. Several moments passed before her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she recognized the walls of her dorm room.

“What the hell?” She squeezed her watery eyes shut.

“Hmm?” murmured a half-awake Jimin.

Seolhyun sneezed in response, once, and then twice.

“I can’t believe you’re still sick.” Jimin blindly reached for the box of tissues. “Here.”

Sighing, Seolhyun took the tissues from her and cradled the box to her chest as she pulled a few free. “It’s your fault– achoo! It was your stupid idea to– achoo! Whatever.”

“I’m not sick.”

Seolhyun wiped her nose, waiting a few more seconds to make sure she was done sneezing her brains out, and then dropped the box on the floor. In her eighteen years of life, she’d never gotten a cold until now. She hadn’t even known she could get one. “Aren’t you just so damn special?”

“You know it,” was her muffled response.

Twisting at the waist, Seolhyun glared at the back of Jimin’s head. She almost looked normal with her face planted into a pillow, not like someone who’d become a God Killer in less than four months. “I had a weird dream. You were in my dream.”

One eye opened. “Please tell me we were .”

Seolhyun rolled her eyes. “You’re such a .”

Jimin rolled onto her side. “Come on. Go back to sleep.”

“You really need to start sleeping in your own bed.”

Jimin turned her head slightly. A sleepy smile spread across her face. “I prefer your bed.”

Unable to fall back to sleep, Seolhyun started chewing on her lip. So many worries surfaced at once that her brain spun. “Jimin?”

“Mmm?”

She watched her snuggle further down into the pillow before she continued. “What happened when I was fighting the Furies?”

Jimin’s eyes opened into thin slits. This was a question Seolhyun had asked several times since they’d returned. She lifted her arm and rolled onto her back. “Anyway, are you going to go back to class today?”

Instantly, a new worry surfaced. Classes meant facing everyone, namely Lisa, without Chanmi next to her anymore.

Jimin sat up. “Seolhyun…?”

Seolhyun so hated their super-special bond. There was no such thing as privacy anymore. She sighed. “I’m fine.”

Jimin didn’t respond.

“Yeah, I’m going to class in the morning. Heechul will have a rant when he gets back and realizes I haven’t been to class.” Seolhyun flopped onto her back. “Jimin?”

“Hmm?”

“When do you think they’re coming back?”

“The Furies?”

Seolhyun made a face at her. By ‘they’ she meant Heechul and Jonghyun… and Hyejeong.

Easing down on her side, Jimin reached across Seolhyun and grabbed her right hand. Her fingers threaded through hers, palm to palm. Seolhyun’s skin tingled in response. The mark of the Elpis, the one that shouldn’t be on her hand, warmed. She stared at their joined hands, not at all surprised when she saw the faint lines making their way up Jimin’s arm. She turned her head, watching as the marks spread across Jimin’s face. Her eyes seemed to brighten. They’d been doing that a lot more lately, both the runes and her eyes.

“Jonghyun said they’d be back soon, possibly later today.” Very slowly, she moved the pad of her thumb down the line of the rune. She smiled. “No one’s mentioned the Genuine Guard. And Jasmine has already returned. It appears Hyejeong’s compulsion worked. No one knows what really happened.” Her thumb now traced the horizontal line. “And it’ll remain that way.”

“You think so?” Seolhyun whispered.

“Yes.”

***

On a good, normal day Seolhyun hated Math class. The whole subject seemed pointless to her. Who cared about Pythagorean when she was attending the Ephensy to learn how to kill Demons? But today her hatred of the class had hit an all-time high.

Almost everyone had their eyes on her, even Mrs. Anthea. She sank low in her seat, shoving her nose into the book she wouldn’t read. Only one set of eyes really affected her. The rest could it.

Lisa’s stare was heavy, condemning.

Why, oh why, couldn’t they change seats? After everything that’d happened, sitting next to her was the worst kind of torture.

At the end of class, Seolhyun shoved her book in her backpack and hurried out the door, wondering if Jisoo would talk to her next period.

Whispers followed her down the hall. Ignoring them was harder than she’d imagined. Every cell in her body demanded that she confront them. And do what? Jump on them like a crazy chimpanzee and take them all out? Yeah, not going to win her any fans.

“Seolhyun! Wait up!”

Seolhyun’s heart sank at the sound of Lisa’s voice. She picked up her pace, practically barreling through a few younger Myxs who stared at her with wide, frightened eyes. Why were they afraid of her, though? She wasn’t the one who was going to go all God Killer soon. Just a few more doors and she could hide in Truths and Legends Class.

“Seolhyun!”

She recognized Lisa’s tone. It was the same one she used to get whenever she and Chanmi were about to have one of their stupid quarrels; determined and stubborn as hell.

Crap.

Lisa was right behind her now and Seolhyun was only a step away from her classroom. She wasn’t going to make it. “Seolhyun,” she said. “We need to talk.”

“I’m not doing this right now.” Because really, being told that it was her fault Chanmi was dead was not on the top of her list of things to hear today.

Lisa grabbed her arm. “Seolhyun, I need to talk to you. I know you’re upset, but you’re not the only one who’s allowed to miss Chanmi. I was her friend too–”

Seolhyun stopped thinking. Whirling around, she dropped her bag in the middle of hall and caught Lisa by the hem of her shirt. In a second, she had her against the wall and on the tips of her toes.

Eyes wide, Lisa grabbed her arm and tried to push Seolhyun off.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Rose, her arm no longer in a brace. She stepped forward like she wanted to intervene.

“Look, I get it,” Seolhyun whispered hoarsely. “You loved Chanmi. Guess what? So did I. And I miss her, too. If I could go back in time and change that night, I would. But I can’t. So please just leave me–”

An arm the size of Seolhyun’s waist shot out from nowhere and tossed her back a good five feet. Lisa slumped against the wall, rubbing .

Seolhyun whirled around and groaned.

Yonghwa, the King of Impeccable Timing, glared at her. “You are in need of a professional babysitter.”

Seolhyun opened , but then she closed it. Considering some of the things Yonghwa had interrupted in the past, he had no idea how true his statement was. But then Seolhyun realized something more important. If Yonghwa was back, then her uncle and Hyejeong were also back, right?

“You,” Yonghwa gestured at Lisa, “get to class.” He turned his attention back to Seolhyun. “You are coming with me.”

Biting her tongue, Seolhyun grabbed her bag off the floor and began her walk of shame down the now-crowded hallway. She caught a glimpse of Jennie, but looked away before she could gauge her expression.

Yonghwa took the stairs (Gods know how Seolhyun loved them) and they didn’t speak until they stood in the lobby. The Furie statues were gone, but the empty space left a cold hole in her stomach. They’d be back. She was sure of it. It was just a matter of when.

He towered over Seolhyun when he stopped. “Why is it every time I see you, you are about to do something you shouldn’t?”

Seolhyun shrugged. “It’s a talent.”

Amusement flickered across Yonghwa’s face as he pulled something out of his back pocket. It looked like a piece of parchment. “Hyejeong asked me to give this to you.”

Seolhyun’s stomach dropped as she reached out and took the letter, hands shaking. “Is… is she okay?”

His brows furrowed. “Yes. Hyejeong is fine.”

Seolhyun didn’t even try to hide her sigh of relief as she turned the letter over. It was sealed with an official-looking red stamp. When she looked up, Yonghwa was gone.

Shaking her head, she went over to one of the marble benches and sat.

Curious, she slid her finger under the crease and broke the seal. Unfolding the letter, she saw Yuna’s elegant signature at the bottom. She quickly scanned the parchment once, and then she went back and read it again.

And she read it a third time.

She felt unbearably hot and cold all at once. dried, throat seized. Fine tremors racked her fingers, causing the paper to flutter. She stood and then sat back down. The four words replayed before her eyes. It was all she could see. All she cared to know.

“Your father is alive.”

***

Heart racing, Seolhyun took the steps two at a time. Spy-ing Yonghwa near her uncle’s office, she broke into a sprint.

He looked less alarmed when he saw her. “What is it, Seolhyun?”

She skidded to a halt. “Hyejeong gave this to you?”

Yonghwa frowned. “Yes.”

“Did you read it?”

“No. It wasn’t addressed to me.”

She clutched the letter to her chest. “Do you know where Hyejeong is?”

“Yes.” Yonghwa’s frown turned severe. “She’s been back since last night.”

“Where is she right now, Yonghwa? I need to know.”

“I don’t see how there could be any reason you’d need Hyejeong badly enough to interrupt her training.” He folded thick arms across his chest. “And shouldn’t you be heading to class?”

Seolhyun stared a moment before she spun around and took off again. Yonghwa wasn’t stupid, so he hadn’t accidentally told her where Hyejeong was, but she didn’t care enough to look into the reason behind that. If Hyejeong was training then she knew where to find her.

A cold, damp breeze sprayed her cheeks as she burst through the lobby doors and headed toward the training arena. The milky gray sky was typical for late November, making summer seem so long ago.

Classes for lower level students were being held in the larger training rooms. Instructor Jonghoon’s impatient barking from behind one of the closed doors followed Seolhyun’s quick footsteps down the empty hall. Toward the end of the building, across from the med room, was a smaller room equipped with the necessities and a sensory deprivation tools.

She had yet to train in that thing.

Peeking through the crack in the door, she saw Hyejeong. She was in the middle of the mat, squaring off with a punching bag. A fine trickle of sweat coated her muscles as she swung, knocking the bag back several feet.

Any other time Seolhyun would have admired her rather obsessively, but her fingers curled, crunching the letter. She slid through the gap and crossed the room.

“Hyejeong.”

Hyejeong whipped around, eyes flaring from a cool gray to a fifty shades darker. She took a step back, wiping her arm across her forehead. “Seolhyun, what… what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in class?”

Seolhyun held the letter up. “Did you read what was in this letter?”

She had the same look as Yonghwa. “No. Yuna asked me to make sure you got it.”

Why had she trusted Hyejeong with such news? Seolhyun couldn’t even begin to figure that out unless… “Did you know what was in this letter?”

“No. She just asked me to give it to you.” Hyejeong bent, swiping a towel off the mat. “What’s in the letter that has you chasing me down?”

A stupid, totally unimportant question rose to the surface. “Why did you give it to Yonghwa?’

Hyejeong averted her eyes. “I thought it would be best.”

Seolhyun’s gaze dropped from her face to her neck. There was that thin, silver chain again. She itched to know what she wore, since she wasn’t a jewelry type of girl. Seolhyun dragged her eyes back to her face. “My father is alive.”

Hyejeong tilted her head toward her. “What?”

“He’s alive, Hyejeong. And he might’ve been at the Seoul Ephensy when we were there… as one of the servants.” The swirling emotions Seolhyun felt when she first read the letter picked up again. “I–”

Hyejeong looked pale. “Can I?”

She handed her the letter. “I just didn’t know…”

Hyejeong’s brows furrowed as she scanned the letter. “Gods,” she murmured. “Do you know what this means?”

Seolhyun faced her, shocked to find Hyejeong so close. At once she caught the scent of hers. “Yes. I have to do something. I have to get him out of there. I know I don’t know him, but he’s my father. I have to do something!”

Hyejeong’s eyes widened. “No.”

“No what?”

Hyejeong folded up the letter in one hand and grabbed Seolhyun’s arm with the other.  “Not here,” she ordered quietly.

Confused and a bit startled by the fact that Hyejeong was actually touching her, Seolhyun let Hyejeong lead her to the med office across the hall. She shut the door behind her, turning the lock. An uncomfortable heat flooded Seolhyun’s system as she realized they were alone in a room with no windows, and Hyejeong had just locked the door.

Seriously, she needed to get a grip because this was so not the time for her ridiculous hormones.

Okay, there really wasn’t a time for them anyway.

Hyejeong faced her, jaw flexed. “What are you thinking?” She placed the letter on the table. “You will not do something crazy.”

Seolhyun’s eyes narrowed as she snatched up the letter, finally catching onto why she was so angry. “You expect me to do nothing? And to just let my father rot in there?”

“You need to calm down.”

“Calm down? The father I’d been told was dead!” Suddenly, she remembered Yuna in the library and how she talked about her father as if he was still alive. Rage socked her in the stomach. Why hadn’t she told her? “How can I calm down?”

“I… I can’t imagine what you’re going through, or what you’re thinking.” Hyejeong frowned. “Well, yes, I can imagine what you’re thinking. You want to storm Inwangsang and free him. I know that’s what you’re thinking.”

Of course she was.

Hyejeong’s eyes turning a brilliant silver. “No.”

Seolhyun backed up. “I have to do something.”

“I know you feel like you need to, but Seolhyun, you cannot return to there.”

“I wouldn’t storm it.” Seolhyun edged around the table as Hyejeong grew closer. “I’ll think of something. Maybe I’ll get in trouble. Hongki said all I needed to do was make one more mistake and I was being sent to the servitude.”

Hyejeong stared.

The table was now between them. “If I could get back there, then I can talk to him. I have to talk to him.”

“Absolutely not,” Hyejeong growled.

Seolhyun’s muscles locked. “You can’t stop me.”

“You want to bet?” She started around the table.

Not really. The fierceness in Hyejeong’s expression told her she’d do everything to stop her, which meant she needed to convince her. “He’s my father, Hyejeong. What would you do if it was Jisoo?”

Low blow, Seolhyun knew.

“Don’t you even dare bring her into this. I won’t allow you to get yourself killed. I don’t care who it’s for. I won’t.”

“I can’t leave him in that kind of life. I can’t.”

Hyejeong didn’t say anything as she placed her hands on Seolhyun’s upper arms and guided Seolhyun to her. Instead of pulling her straight into her embrace, she backed up against the wall and slid down, bringing Seolhyun along with her.

Seolhyun was nestled in her arms. Her legs curled against Hyejeong, one of her hands her shirt.

The breath she took was shallow, filled with a kind of hurt she couldn’t let go. “I’m tired of people lying to me. Everyone lied about my mom, and now this? I thought he was dead. And Gods, I wish he were, because death is better than what he has to live through.” Her voic