Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) (11 page)

“Do what you must to survive, mija,” Mami said gently.

“
Now
she’s honest,” I scoffed. “Family is a charade and convenience in numbers when you need it, but at the end of the day, only you matter. I don’t care that you believe in ‘many loves’ or whatever, Mami, but you should have been upfront with Papi. Yeah, you only live once, but so does everyone else.”

I stormed out to wait in the car. To my surprise, it was Raina who slid into the backseat first, a grim shadow of a seventeen-year-old.

“You haven’t explained to Mami that you’re a Triad now, have you?” she asked in a low voice.

“She wouldn’t care.” I lay my forehead against the window, trying to see over the tops of high-rises and failing.

“What did you mean about her sacrificing you?”

I shrugged. “We had just killed Duck Young. His widows wanted someone to blame. Mami turned me over to them in exchange for her and Miguel’s lives. She wasn’t even surprised to see the vampyres. Just thinking about her survival until the very end.”

“I’m sorry.” Raina’s voice sounded forced, and I realized she was on the verge of tears. She, too, stared out the window. “I do know how much you sacrificed for me, ’Lalli. I didn’t mean to attack you, but this whole dragon father thing is freaking me out. I don’t
know
him, Citlalli. I don’t remember how to trust.”

I hesitated and then grabbed her hand. “Listen, I know this is the last thing you need on your plate right now, but something else happened during the Boryeong Mud Festival: I saw Khyber.”

She jumped, and that nervous deer look resurfaced in her dark eyes again. “What?”

“There was something wrong with him, Raina. This boy looked like Khyber, but he didn’t carry a dead smell. His eyes were blinded. They weren’t that strange gray-blue color, either, but a normal black. He didn’t remember English, and he insisted his name was ‘Taeyang’.”

“Khyber’s original name,” Raina said quietly. She began playing with the sun charm bracelet on her wrist. A bright stone glistened amongst the woven bird nest band. The last time I had seen that bracelet, Raina had been soul-stolen. She’d used it to help Khyber remember his true Korean name:
Taeyang
meant
solar
, bright like the sun.

I shrugged helplessly. “This dude was just a young Korean man enjoying the festivities.”

“Or that’s what he wants us to think.” We gazed at each other with mutual resolve. “Whatever Khyber’s up to, we can’t trust a vampyre.”

Chapter 12: Family Dinner

~Raina~

In every story I’d read about dragons, they dwelled in caves far away from civilization. They didn’t live in the upper heights of ritzy Gangnam with a view of the Han River shimmering in the moonlight. And they certainly didn’t live in a villa that looked like a geometric cube with windows that changed color based on the time.

The Yong family housekeeper, a regal young woman named Nyssa, showed us all of these wonders and then the pool.

“I apologize Master Yong is not home yet. He is dropping off Miss Heesu at the
hagwon
,” she said, inclining her head as she typed in the code to the pool deck. I envied her poise. She looked like she was in her late twenties and yet had the noble air and elegance of a queen. Not a single hair was out of place in her French twist. I flushed when she smiled at me. “I trust our hot spring will be an enjoyable place to wait, especially for the young water lady here.”

Mami returned her smile. “Don’t worry about it, dear; the busy Yong family schedule is hardly your fault. Where are you from originally, if I may ask?”

Nyssa bowed again. “Thailand, madam.”

Citlalli sniffed the air. “You’re a shifter, aren’t you?”

“Yes, young miss,” Nyssa said as she gestured us through the door. “Everyone in Master Yong’s household is of the serpent folk. I am a werenagi. Kwan and Sanghee, who you see enjoying the hot spring, are cockatrice.”

“The chicken dragons are here? No way!” Citlalli and I dashed across the deck. Candles and food offerings lay in all four corners of the giant swimming area, which consisted of several bubbling hot springs and a large Olympic-sized pool. Kwan and Sanghee were so large that they flopped in three different baths, their green and white coils partially concealed by steam.

“How can we see you?” Citlalli skidded to a halt before the snoring Kwan. Sanghee opened one eye, saw it was Citlalli, and snorted purple smoke.

“Your favorite dog lives, louder and shriller than ever,” she told her mate before rolling over to go back to sleep.

“Citlalli,” Kwan rumbled, his feathery green head twitching as he rose. “You come with the Alvarez family. I am glad to see you all together and well.”

Mami of all people stepped forward and bowed. “We are honored to make the acquaintance of such legendary dragons, and I am sorry that we did not come with offerings for your pleasure. I understand that I have you to thank for watching over my daughter so many times in Eve.”

The great chicken dragon clucked but he sounded pleased. “You are most welcome, Mother Alvarez. All who call upon us are granted three journeys into the spirit world. Some seek to speak with their ancestors; others to acquire wealth. However, this little one’s requests were always rimmed with fear. I am glad your family found peace. It makes me believe all of Eve will find this rest, too.”

I wanted to flinch every time Kwan mentioned that nightmare world, but I took Citlalli’s arm instead. “Is the Yong home another place like the Rainbow Room? A special portal where we can see into Eve?”

Kwan luxuriated back in the hot spring, bumping a grumpy Sanghee. “But of course. Look at how the deck shines around you. It is made of millions of tiny crystals that reflect our worlds. Now that the Vampyre Queen is gone, the candles are always lit, and the offering tables are always full. Yong Mun Mu is the Dragon King, and we spirit serpent folk are his kin. We can all be together again.” He bowed his great head to Citlalli and me. “Our thanks. All of serpent kind is joyous that the last Celestial Dragon has been found.”

“All of serpent kind,” Nyssa agreed, continuing to fluster me with that kindly smile. These serpent spirits regarded me with such reverence: the final season of a Cycle that could not begin until all four Celestial Dragons entered Eve and began the Trials of Wisdom.

But I was only seventeen and knew nothing about being a dragon—much less becoming a wise one. To me, Eve was a place one was wise to run away
from
, not run to. What if I failed? What would happen to the earth’s crops and the fortunes for the age? It had been raining fine before I’d come along, hadn’t it?

Splashing echoed behind us, and then Sun Bin’s head popped up from the pool where she’d been swimming laps.

“So the mighty Alvarezes decided to brave the serpent’s den after all,” she said, hoisting herself out and trundling over. She rang water out from her long, black hair and then placed an arm around Nyssa’s waist. “Glad we didn’t scare you away.”

Nyssa blushed a pretty shade of pink and pushed Sun Bin’s hand away. “Miss Sun Bin, please. I am still on the clock.”

“You’re always on the clock! Nyssa basically lives here,” Sun Bin gushed, the wicked lines of her face softening as she looked at the nagi woman. “She grew up with us because her father, a friend of Appa’s, was a political dissident in Thailand. She can never go back. When my mother died, Nyssa stepped up as housekeeper, governess,
and
slave driver.”

Nyssa rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and Sun Bin grinned. “She’d hunt me down in the bars and then drag me to violin practice. She’s the reason I got into Oxford. Thankfully now whenever she shows up to drag me back home, it isn’t to study.”

She winked, and Citlalli snickered.

Nyssa sighed. “Miss Sun Bin, this is hardly the type of appropriate conversation your father would approve of having with his guests.”

Mami chuckled and patted Nyssa’s shoulder. “My dear, I agree with Sun Bin: It is time for you to have a break off the clock. While we are two different families presently, I hope this evening can bring all of us closer together. Join us for dinner. I must say, I am pleased that Mun Mu has grown to be more open-minded than when I knew him in the past.”

“Oh no, he hasn’t,” Sun Bin said cheerfully. “But there’s nothing he can do about Nyssa and me.” She snapped her fingers in my direction. “Put that in the plus column of being one of the four Celestial Dragons. Appa needs to keep us happy because there aren’t any replacements. The world has already gone too long without a renewed Cycle. The longer we don’t grow our fourth claw and become dragons, then the more the seasons will drift out of balance. Natural disasters, droughts, unclaimed pearls shattering and strewing curses across the earth… Sounds exciting if you ask me, but you know: that wouldn’t be very responsible.”

She smirked and then sauntered back toward the house. As she passed Mami, Sun Bin whipped her towel across the surface of the nearby hot spring. Water splashed Mami’s dress. Few things ever caught my mother by surprise, but watching droplets trickle down the front of her red chiffon left her blinking for several seconds in shock.

Sun Bin curtseyed mockingly. “It is very nice to meet you, Ms. Alvarez.” Then she disappeared inside.

Nyssa immediately dashed over with an army of towels, apologizing and repeating, “Master Yong will hear about this! You can be sure.”

Citlalli hadn’t stopped laughing. “You know, I think I like your half-sister,” she confided, reaching for a stick of Bubble Yum. “She’s as mature as me.”

“You don’t have to go against Sun in the Trials,” I grumbled.

Citlalli shrugged, popping her gum. “Sun’s transparent. She wears her emotions on her sleeve. You already know what many of her weaknesses are,” my sister said, her eyes darkening until I couldn’t be sure if I was addressing the Alpha of the Seoul werewolf pack…or Demon. “Broken relationship with her father. Taking action without worrying about consequences. Now it’s just a matter of using such shortcomings against her.”

Chapter 13: The Hall of Heroes

~Citlalli~

This was the second time I had ever seen Mami with the man she’d had a secret affair with, a choice that tore our family apart.

It also gave me my half-sister.

“Ileana,” Mun Mu said, his deep bass silky smooth as he ducked into the Yong mansion. Powerful and tall, the Dragon King took my mother by both shoulders and gazed down the full length of her red chiffon dress, which was still damp from hot tub water. “You didn’t go swimming without me, did you?” he asked in amusement.

Sun Bin appeared in the sliding door frame, her arms folded. She had changed into a white shirt studded with silvery beads that shimmered like scales. Nyssa stood like a wary shadow at her side. Mami smiled in their direction.

“I was so clumsy. I spilled water on myself by mistake.”

Mun Mu kissed her cheek. “I suppose that is why you run the restaurant instead of work in it.”

“Yes, bossiness suits Mami much more than grace,” I agreed.

If we’d been at home, my mother would have slapped my cheek raw. In the presence of such majestic dragons, I received her restaurant manager’s terse smile instead. “Citlalli, why don’t you see if anyone needs help in the kitchen. Citlalli’s a wonderful cook,” Mami assured Mun Mu.

He nodded. “Excellent. Sun Bin
-a
, Raina-
ya
, why don’t you help Nyssa set the table? I have something I need to show Ileana.” He extended a hand, and Mami followed him down the staircase. The windows changed color to send sultry red shadows chasing after them.

“Downstairs in his
lair
.” Sun Bin’s eyebrows arched so high in disapproval that they disappeared into her hairline. “That’s disgusting. Both of them are so old.”

“Guess we can’t expect to eat anytime soon.” It was an uncharacteristic joke, coming from Raina. Both Sun Bin and I laughed, and Nyssa flushed.

“Go.” Raina’s older half-sister waved a hand at me. “See what’s keeping my brother in the kitchen. Ankor’s so obsessed with making soup these days, he’s probably fallen in.”

I’d forgotten she had a fraternal twin. However, sneaking food for my growling stomach sounded better than watching Raina tiptoe on eggshells around Sun Bin, so I followed the geometric floor pattern toward the mouth-watering smells of frying garlic, chicken, and noodles.

Two Korean boys were in the kitchen. I stopped dead at the sight of a familiar Seoul National University blazer. Wolf’s ears pricked up, and Demon licked her lips.

Yummy.

That better not be who I think it is!
I raged. But then Minho turned and nearly dropped a bowl.

“Citlalli!” he gasped. His eyes trembled with unabashed longing that made me want to die on the spot.

Round 2?
Demon asked hopefully. I had a hazy recollection of Minho’s gleaming bronze torso heaving on top of me while his gelled black hair tickled my forehead. Yep. Just show me the way to the balcony. I was ready to jump.

“Yah!” The second boy protested, balancing a hot pot of soup in polar bear oven mitts. He looked vaguely like Sun Bin; both twins wore disdainful masks as if catching an unpleasant odor. However, he had coppery-brown skin while hers was porcelain white, and he wore his coal-black hair in a short, rigid military cut while his sister’s flowed free. A stud of what looked like obsidian gleamed in his left ear.

He also had black-rimmed glasses that were rapidly fogging up. Minho blinked and hustled to set a hot pad down.

“Minho, this is a surprise,” I said unsteadily. “Um, how do you know the Yongs?”

“This is Yong Ankor, my best friend!” he declared, smacking the unappreciative Ankor on the back. Raina’s half-brother caught Minho’s hand and then pulled him close, whispering something in Korean. Minho shrugged, and Ankor’s tone turned derogatory. With another cool glance at me, the Autumn Dragon pointed at the soup.

“Meok-eo.”
Eat.
I supposed Ankor hadn’t studied English overseas as extensively as his fraternal twin.