Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) (7 page)

Fewer things could wake me up quicker than that. “Wait,
what
?”

“Miguel has not spoken with you?” I knew mock surprise when I saw it. “We met in the last battle of the Were War. I rescued him from the snows. He impressed me very much with his courage. Also, he tells many jokes—” She gave a small smile, a rarity for Yu Li. “He makes Young Soo laugh.”

I was drunker than I thought. No freakin’ way. Miguel knew full well how I felt about Yu Li. Had he conveniently forgotten how she’d tormented me when I’d been the lowly omega of the pack? Had he completely overlooked
Una
?

But all I could manage was: “He’s already met your son?”

“Yes, he will be a good role model for him. Young Soo can grow more confident in his English. And of course, your brother is, how do you say? Hot. So very hot.”

“Okay, stop, stop, STOP!”

Wolf rolled over playfully, Its pink tongue flopping from Its mouth, and Demon was amused. I now knew why Miguel “had” to work during the Boryeong Mud Festival.

“Miguel’s a good role model, you say.” I paused. “Do you know what he did back in America?”

“Yes, people hired him to do their taxes.” Yu Li gave a brisk nod. “Good at math. Another admirable quality.”

Yes, I’m sure he was the accountant of the little gang he ran around with.
I started to laugh. I laughed so hard that I cried. I was doing way too much of that tonight. To hell with makgeolli.

“Why do you laugh?”

I couldn’t answer. Miguel had dug his own grave on this one. And I was…surprised. Yeah, he’d been slow to realize how Una felt about him, even up until the end, but after her sacrifice…that deserved more than a tip of the hat in thanks. Sure, Fred was one of the scarier spirits of Eve, but my brother still had his liver, thanks to Una. I expected more from him.

Yu Li scowled. “Insufferable,” she spat with perfect pronunciation. “You are insufferable, Citlalli.”

“I know Miguel didn’t teach you that one,” I muttered.

“No, your sister Daniella did.” Yu Li gave another smile. “I like this Daniella. She is very smart and a good teacher. And I like this word ‘insufferable.’ It is my new favorite English word.”

“Wait, so now you’ve met Daniella, too?” I gapped. Talk about going behind my back. “Fuckin’ insufferable.”

“Not the correct usage,” Yu Li had the nerve to chide. “We’ll work on it when I come over to your apartment.”

I was ready to catch the next bus back to Seoul right then and there to murder my brother in his sleep, but I’d already paid for one more day at the Mud Festival. A gigantic obstacle course had been arranged, complete with a tug-of-war at the end, and I had a feeling I’d have some anger to burn.

So I said, “Goodnight, unni,” instead, and Yu Li was so pleased to be called
older sister
that she embraced me in an awkward hug that clanged our collar bones together. I took one last look out at the beach. I could still see a lone silhouette down by the water.

Chapter 7: The Pearl

~Raina~

I dreamed of Eve again. The place of my nightmares. The spirit realm in-between where animals spoke, objects moved on command, and my friend Colleen had died. I had been spirited away to Eve by the Vampyre Queen and learned that I had been “chosen” along with forty others to become vampyre brides. I had then been forced to compete against my fellow captives for the hand of one of her seven beautiful but heartless sons. I couldn’t remember another time I had felt so utterly helpless, until my water powers had come to my aid. After Citlalli had helped me and five other survivors come back to the waking world, I had vowed never to return to Eve again.

Yet it continued to visit me.

In my dream, I gazed down on an old fishing shack on an unknown island surrounded by foreboding green haze. Elderly Korean women in diving gear plunged into the frothy sea and came up holding wonders: coral-encrusted necklaces, abalone mirrors, gold rings. My older sister Daniella had told me stories about this unique older island generation who could dive deep and hold their breath for several minutes: they were
haenyeo
, the sea women.

Gentle rain cleaned my eyes and trickled down the ridges of my scales in rivers. The moon shone through the delicate snowflake pattern on my wings. I circled up and around, my head looping through my sapphire coils in excitement. What fun those divers must be having! They had found treasure fit for a queen!

However, as I flew closer, I realized the haenyeo were frightened. Overseeing them was a
haetae
pride, the half-lion, half-dog guardians of justice who could eat fire—and other stuff, like human flesh. However, these haetae looked different than the statues I had seen in Seoul. Their faces were twisted in demonic grins and their eyes glowed eerie green in the dark. The women glanced at them and then grimly returned to their task, littering the gravelly shore with barrels of treasure.

One silver-haired woman emerged from the depths farther out. She raised her snorkel mask and gazed upon the precious stone in her palm warily: it was a gleaming white pearl. I saw her muscles tense, and she attempted to throw the pearl away. However, a haetae spotted her and sent out a warning call.

Instantly, the strange mists overhead collected into fanged faces, which were terrible to behold. The largest mist-monster bore down upon the helpless diver with a bottomless mouth that sucked up both the woman and the pearl.

“Well?”

I cartwheeled backwards in shock. Revulsion whip-lashed me like a wave. I watched the gleaming blond head of Donovan, scheming third son to the Queen who had tried to make me his wife, emerge from the fishing hut. I was a mighty water dragon, and it was all I could do not to turn tail and flee before he hurt me again. The doctors had told me what had been done to my mortal body while my spirit was trapped in the spirit world. I’d forbidden them from releasing that information to anyone else.

The mist-monster blurred for a moment, as if chewing, and then spat out the pearl. The old woman didn’t reappear.

“It is not the one.” Donovan kicked the pearl into a chest with a trove of others. Two limp wings clung to his shoulder blades—not feathery white ones, but ugly skin wings webbed with black veins. A gift from some Dark Spirit, no doubt. Rafael had destroyed Donovan’s real white wings long ago, but the vampyre prince had maintained them as an illusion before the Vampyre Court. I had discovered that the illusion was actually his long-lost soul. I’d captured his soul for Khyber to destroy with his death touch, in order to sever Donovan’s tie with immortality. Now Donovan could die.

The thought made my eyes smolder with hunger.

“Do you see what happens when you don’t do as we ask?” Donovan berated the silently bobbing haenyeo. “Now you must complete the task with fewer numbers. Hurry up and don’t play games. I have someone else to attend to.”

And to my horror, he turned and smiled. “Raina, dearest. I knew you couldn’t stay away.”

I wilted when he crooned my name, and not in a good way. I felt crushed, humiliated, and clogged by an ugly sliminess that built a tower up to my throat. How dare he
speak
to me after what he’d done. How dare he even look in my direction—

But he did. And his gaze undressed me from a fierce armor-clad dragon down to a frightened little girl. I bellowed and fled.

“Seize her!” I heard Donovan command. The barking haetae gave chase below, and the mists surrounded me faster than huntsmen cornering a fox. I saw two holes for eyes and a cavernous throat appear. The demon’s wings beat amidst the shadows in a symphony of
thumps
like an insect’s, and its barbed tails swished menacingly.

A bolt of lightning struck the demon from out of nowhere. For one moment, I beheld the mist-monster fully illuminated in all of its awful glory: It looked like a horse-headed snake with six wings and twelve tails. Its skin drooped over its bones because it was so hungry.

Then a young green dragon with soft, feathery wings and playful eyes the color of rich soil shot down in a blur. She skillfully bobbed in and out of the monster’s slashing tails and then fired another bolt of lightning directly in its face.

“
Yah!
Come on!” she yelled at me, ducking a slice from the monster’s wing. “I’m not Godzilla; I can’t make more lightning in time! Are you a water dragon or what?”

The watery resolve in my chest solidified into something heavy. And hopefully lethal. I wasn’t that helpless little girl anymore.

I called on the winds to funnel my blast of rain at the mist-monster. Its mouth widened in a silent scream. It tried to claw its way through, but my storm was too strong. The gale whipped the monster back out to sea.

The green dragon joined me. She drew up and sent forth another lightning bolt. It streaked through my thunderstorm and electrocuted the demon until it dropped dead and charred from the sky.

“Just kidding,” she said with a wink. “I would not leave our fate to newborn imugi.”

“What did you call me?” I asked.

“Imugi. You are young, three-toed baby wurm—not yet a wise dragon who can wield a yeouiju.” She gazed sadly back at the bay where the old women continued their forced dives. “Come. We cannot help them. This is just a dream.”

“Then how did you get here?”

She looped around me playfully, and I realized she had tied herself to my tail.

“Now you won’t get away,” she said satisfactorily. “You are a hard one to protect, unni. Your spirit left your sleeping body and entered Eve! But don’t worry, your
yeodongsaeng
is here to rescue you!”

My heart warmed, and I allowed myself to be towed by my “little sister” back through the candle doorway she had erected to guide our way home. I woke up back in the hotel’s Iris Room. The sunshine lantern Citlalli had left me was lit, engulfing me and a small, grinning Korean girl in luminous light.

“Pangapseumnida,” she said, her pixie-style bob swishing around her ears. She had a dark complexion like Citlalli and obviously loved being out in the sun. “I am Yong Heesu, the Summer Dragon. And you, Yong Rai Na, are a troublemaker!” She thrust a familiar letter in my face and jabbed at the parchment. “Rule #44! Do
not
shift without one of us present! Rule #72! Do
not
enter Eve without one of us to help! Rule #101—!”

“Technically, you have
‘been present’ if you’ve been following me around,” I said. “This is what I think of your rules.” And I blew a puff of water vapor that turned the letter into a sodden lump.

Heesu looked put out for a moment, and then shrugged and tossed the soggy Dragon Commandments over her shoulder. “I knew you would be fun!” she exclaimed. “Not strict and studious like Ankor, or wicked like Sun Bin! I begged
Appa
to let me guard you.” She paused, suddenly embarrassed, and then clapped a hand over her mouth to hide her giggles. “I am sorry. My English is not so good as my older siblings. I just turn sixteen.”

For a moment I stared at her, in awe of her energy. A pink patch of azaleas had sprouted at her feet while she was jumping around, and a thick beard of moss crept down the curtains. Was that really who I had been one year ago? So full of life that it burst forth from my mouth in a wild laugh and danced in my eyes until I was dizzy from the head rush? I felt like a sullen lump of coal next to her joy.

She began to apologize again, and I realized my rudeness. “No, I’m sorry, Heesu
-ya.
Your English is really good, much better than my Korean. Can you tell me, what was that thing that attacked us?”

Some of her mirth vanished. “Weather demon,” she growled, flint striking in her rich brown eyes. “They used to be good spirits, like the haetae. But something is changing them. Now they are Children of Death, like vampyres. They don’t drink blood, but they do eat crops. Their breath brings drought and famine. Dragons are their enemy.” Her smile returned. “We bring good harvest. Rains for thirsty earth. Sunshine to help crops grow. Everything in balance. We protect all living things.”

I liked the sound of it. It felt like belonging to me. It felt like healing. “Your appa was wise to send you, Heesu. When we return to Seoul, I will come to your house to begin training.”

“
Our
house.
Our
appa,” she stressed. “Yong Mun Mu is your father, too.”

Hope prickled along my hidden wings. What could I say? This was better than any introduction I’d ever dreamed. My younger half-sister was welcoming warmth. She didn’t regard me as a living reminder of a marriage’s broken trust. Her tone was eager, not accusatory of my existence. I could only hope that the rest of the Yong clan felt the way she did, but even if they didn’t—at least Heesu was on my side.

My younger half-sister put a hand on my arm. “Promise, now, you will come to us and train. Many important things will be happening. We have all four Celestial Dragons now, you know: Winter, Fall, Summer, and Spring! I will tell Appa about the haenyeo, and he will find where they are kept prisoner. Maybe he will let us help rescue them!”

And I will kill Donovan.
The resolution brought me much needed calm. Cool and patient, my reptile’s smile surfaced, and I nodded my agreement.

Chapter 8: A Day of Tae

~Citlalli~

“
Kaja!
” one hundred excited cheers rang out, and I plunged into the obstacle course. Sunset ringed the bay, waving like a halo of fire around the last race of the day.

A boy darted ahead of me, a thin shadow easily weaving through the hoops and sliding down the slick bouncy slides. I kept him on my radar, oblivious to the roaring of the crowd. I dove headfirst through a ring, tucked into a roll, and then slid down a rubber slide.

Mud splashed on either side of me. Clearing my eyes, I dimly made out the Korean boy reach the tug-of-war first. A balloon wall separated two cords of rope. Whoever pulled their rope to the bell was the winner—and right now, the Korean boy was competing against thin air.