o44

The Calm Before the Storm

Preparations gave Jinqiong a headache, especially when the crew more or less all congregated in Luhan’s room to watch him. The gem was no longer attached to her—they tested a couple of times, but she no longer felt the cool, smooth surface in her pocket no matter what she did. Jinqiong supposed it was a good thing, but at the same time, it felt strangely empty.

It was gone. Sometime along the way, Jongdae pulled her aside to his room to talk to her.

He still wasn’t talking to Baekhyun, but he was at least speaking to Luhan, because he had most of the plan down pat. Jinqiong listened with as much attentiveness as she could muster as he explained what was going to happen and what she needed to do, most of which included getting Hei to safety and then distracting Junsu. The best case scenario was that they got away with Jungwoo’s help. The worst was that she would have to either take Jungwoo down or knock him out, enough for Hei to stop time and for them to get away as Luhan used the gem to free Taeyong. Then, if everything went well, Junsu would die and the rest of his crew wouldn’t be close enough to do any serious damage.

“What’s Junsu’s power?” Jinqiong asked immediately after Jongdae finished.

Jongdae frowned. “We don’t know. We’re hoping that Hei has found out something, but none of us can be sure. I don’t think he ever showed it to any of us when we ran into him.”

“He’s saving it,” Jinqiong muttered.

Jongdae tugged on his hair. He was hunched over on his chair, elbows resting on his thighs as he buried fingers through his hair, pulling as if it would help him think. He gave her an exhausted wince. “I’ve been trying to deduce that for days,” he muttered. “Ever since Luhan said that he was in Hell’s Gate with us, I was trying to figure out how he got through the gates with that goddamn dragon there. There’s so many things that don’t match up.”

“Like? We know his father helped him through to the central island.”

“Like how he got through the gates. They couldn’t have gotten through with Hei’s power because only our ship was moving, and we didn’t see them afterwards, but how could Junsu bring three ships through with no damage? It doesn’t make sense if you think about it. None of it makes sense. Then there’s the fact that he has such a big crew in the first place. There’s no way that he has so many people loyal to him, right? His power is also strong enough to have done serious damage against the Byun family leader because according to the stories, Junsu almost won.”

Jinqiong frowned. “So have you figured anything out yet?”

Jongdae nodded slowly. “Something like Hei and Jungwoo,” he replied. “And maybe you and I also. Something that’s not…something that can’t be explained physically.”

Impatient, Jinqiong folded her arms. “Which is?”

“Some sort of control.” Jongdae straightened. He had stopped pulling on his hair, but the damage had been done—it was sticking up at all angles. “Mind control, maybe?”

“Mind control,” Jinqiong echoed, and for some reason, she wanted to laugh. “That’s…”

“Plausible,” Jongdae finished for her. “It makes sense, right?”

“Then why hasn’t he used it on any of us?” It did make sense, but too many pieces didn’t. “Couldn’t he have mind controlled all of us and then had me hand over the gem? Couldn’t he have done it to Baekhyun too, and then have Baekhyun lead him straight to us? Why try to take it by force? If he’s strong enough to mind control a whole crew and the guardian—which is a dragon—of Hell’s Gate, then shouldn’t he be strong enough to do it to me? Or you?”

Jongdae’s head went back to his hands, shoulders slumping. “I don’t know.”

“This all could’ve been easier,” Jinqiong murmured, more to herself, than to Jongdae. “We know Junsu’s desperate enough to use his father’s help. So even if that was his power—”

“I don’t know,” Jongdae repeated more forcefully. “Dammit, you’re going there in less than twelve hours and I don’t know and it’s killing me.”
 

He raised his head to meet her eyes, and Jinqiong swallowed thickly. She was scared if she thought of it, and if she didn’t, it remained in the back of her mind, demanding for her to think about it. She had spent the past two months running from Junsu, hiding the gem, and even if she was free of it, willingly going to him was unthinkable.

“I’m sorry,” Jinqiong managed.

Jongdae’s eyes widened, a bit of the worry disappearing from his face in favor of a grin (even if it were slightly halfhearted). “Did you just apologize?”

“Don’t push it. Say Junsu’s power is mind control. What should I be prepared against if he tries it on me?”

His expression brightened a bit. “Are you asking me for help right now?”

She gave him a scowl in return, and Jongdae treated it like a smile. He stood up from the chair and moved to the bed instead, right next to Jinqiong. She refused to move despite how close he was sitting and tried to focus.

She needed to focus. In order to get out alive, in order to make sure that not her but Hei got out alive, to not only trick Junsu but face him—there suddenly seemed to be so much more work in front, all to be conquered in less than ten hours of time. Jinqiong took a deep breath.

“Mind control sounds so dramatic,” Jinqiong said just when Jongdae opened his mouth to talk.

He shot her an mock-exasperated look. “Tell that to Junsu, and maybe he’ll be offended enough to give you time to finish him. Anyway, if you’re going against him, you’re going to have to be careful. Even if he’s never used his power on you—say it’s mind control—you’ll have to… guard your mind. Does that make sense?”

Jinqiong squinted at him. “Guard my mind,” she echoed. “No. Not really.”

Jongdae rolled his mind. “Kim Jungwoo’s power interferes with your power,” he said. “That’s… you can put it as your magical aspect. I once met a man who could control your body and movements, though not your mind. That’s the physical aspect. For Junsu, it’s the mind. That’s the most powerful, because when he controls your mind, he controls all of you. But there’s ways to block that out.”

Jinqiong shifted her weight on the bed. “That sounds like something you’re good at,” she admitted. “Not me. This whole mind thing.”

“Junsu would have a real headache looking into your head,” she heard Jongdae retort.

“What?”

He raised his hands up in faux surrender. “What?”

Jinqiong rolled her eyes at him. “Just tell me what to do. Or I’m leaving.”

It obviously wasn’t threatening enough, because Jongdae laughed at her before holding up a finger. “First rule. When you’re facing him, don’t let him distract you.”

“Distract?”

He nodded, now back to serious. “The best mental defences you can have is focus,” Jongdae explained. “The moment you lose focus, you become vulnerable both mentally and physically. You can’t afford to do that, so no matter how Junsu tries to distract you—well, he’ll probably try to rile you up—you can’t let him.” 

“I’m great at calm,” Jinqiong said drily.

Jongdae gave her a look. “Just don’t get distracted.”

That seemed awfully mundane, and also much easier said than done. Considering the fact that if—when—she faced Junsu he’d probably be out to kill her, keeping a level head was the last thing Jinqiong could see herself doing. Then again, there was hopefully a reason that he hadn’t used his power on her yet, and Jinqiong had the ridiculous hope that it was because it simply hadn’t worked.

Jongdae was talking about the second rule when Jinqiong zoned back to what she was saying. She tried to pretend to look interested, but it must’ve failed, because a moment later, Jongdae stopped talking in favor of frowning at her.

“You’re not listening,” he accused petulantly.

“I believe the word is distracted.”

His eyes flickered over her face, and Jinqiong could almost swear there was a hint of an approving smile tugging at the corners of his lips, though he managed to school his expression into indifference. “I thought we established that distraction was bad.”

Maybe it was the fact that Jinqiong had no idea how things would play out in ten hours, or maybe it was the fact that Jongdae was sitting a little too close to be normal, or that it felt like forever that she had last kissed him. Or maybe it just seemed a little more right than it had in the beginning, and for some strange reason, she didn’t mind it as much.

She didn’t have to lean in too much to kiss him. Jongdae didn’t seem as surprised as Jinqiong thought he would be, because he responded almost immediately, a hand lifting to her face, absently thumbing along her cheek.

It wasn’t hurried, surprisingly gentle, and Jinqiong let herself relax in the moment. She didn’t feel like herself, with so much running through her head (so much for keeping a clear mind and not being distracted), and after what she had done with the gem, everything had a stranger quality, if not a bit more calm. This—it was the feeling when she had gone completely invisible, a heavy, grounding comfort that she couldn’t explain.

Jongdae pulled back first, breathing quicker than before. Jinqiong spent the next couple of seconds trying to figure out why she had kissed him and why, no matter which way she thought about it, she couldn’t bring herself to feel the same regret that had followed the last couple of times she’d kissed him.

Maybe a possibly impending death did that. Or maybe a little bit of hope—if they made it out, then maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t leave. Just maybe. A strange decision she had pondered since Hei had disappeared, and one she began hoping for a little too much.

“You’re distracted,” she told Jongdae.

He blinked once at her, then twice, then groaned. “That doesn’t count.” 

*** 

Hei had no way of keeping track of time, and it frustrated her to no end. The perpetual darkness the room was in made it impossible to see if it was still bright outside, and Jungwoo didn’t come back at what she assumed would be around midday to deliver another meal. She supposed he’d already risked his neck in bringing her bandages and a meal in the morning, and after the way he left, she didn’t know if he wanted to talk to her again. She was either irritating him because he wasn’t going to help, or he was acting like that because he didn’t know where he stood anymore.

Then there was the fact that she had no idea what was going on with the crew. If Luhan had figured out how to take the gem away from Jinqiong, if Baekhyun would even be willing to follow the plan, if Jinqiong could make it—there was too much that was unknown, and it scared Hei more than she wanted to admit.

Somewhere along the way, she drifted off, only to snap awake, flashes of a nightmare she couldn’t remember imprinted every time she blinked. Nerves more frayed than before, Hei spent the next while forcing herself to calm her breathing until it had steadied. Both of her shoulders screamed in protest when she tried to shift her position, and her wrists throbbed from the shackles.

Hei hadn’t gotten a good look at it when there was light, but when she gingerly tried to move the metal band up, the skin around it burned. Apparently three days in too-tight chains had been enough to rub her wrists raw, and she could only hope that there wouldn’t be any infections because of it. It was just another injury to worry about.

Time trickled by, and Hei was beginning to wonder if it would ever end when she heard footsteps travel down the stairs.

Fear pooled in almost immediately. There were so many ways that it could go wrong and barely any where it would be fine, and the surge of rash bravery she had facing Junsu had disappeared, leaving her terrified of him. She had one scar down her back to remember him by, and now, another two across both her shoulders. She couldn’t imagine what Baekhyun would say when he saw. If she even made it that far.

The footsteps travelled closer. Then the click of the lock, and the door swung open.