The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea Read Online Free PDF

“Your people suffer not because of any great will of the gods, but because of their own violent acts. Th ey wage the wars that burn the forests and fields. Th ey spill the blood that pollutes the rivers and streams. To blame the gods is to blame the land itself. Look upon your reflection to find your enemy.”
    His words ring out across the hall with a bone-chilling truth.
    I feel as if I’m back in the sea, the icy water pulling me deeper and deeper.
    â€œYou will fail, like all the brides before you,” he says.
    No dragon to save me. No hope to hold on to, the world above winking out like a star.
    â€œIt is inevitable.” He looks away. “It is your fate.”
    My fate?
    Th e feeling of drowning ceases.
    Th is fate was never mine to begin with. I claimed it for myself when I jumped into the sea. But even before then, I wasn’t the one who changed the pattern of the story. It was Shim Cheong, who denied her fate when she wouldn’t let go of Joon. At least, isn’t that why she turned from the dragon? I brush away the thought. I might not understand Shim Cheong’s motives, but I do know my own.
    â€œYou’re right,” I say. Th e boy’s eyes flit back, narrowing as I speak. “I am like the other brides. I know what it is to love someone you would do anything to protect. Who are you to say what my fate is—if I am to fail, or if I am to succeed? My fate is not yours to decide. My fate belongs to me .”
    Th e boy watches me, a slight crease in his brow.
    Namgi whistles low. “Never thought I’d see the great Lord Shin of Lotus House speechless before a Sea God’s bride.”
    A nobleman. Somehow I’m not surprised. Th ough undoubtedly the youngest of the three, Kirin and Namgi seem to defer to him in all things.
    â€œLord Shin,” Kirin says—low, urgently. “ Th e fog lifts.” His eyes are raised skyward, where moonlight breaches the rafters, bathing the hall in light.
    Shin steps back. “Keep your fate, Sea God’s Bride. It hasnothing to do with me.” He reaches to his side and pulls a sword from its scabbard. Th e metallic glide is deafening in the silent hall.
    â€œMy name is Mina.”
    He pauses.
    â€œI am not Sea God’s Bride or No One’s Bride or Magpie,” I say. “I have a name. Chosen by my grandmother to give me cleverness and strength. I know who I am, and I know what I must do.” I raise my great-great-grandmother’s knife. “And I will not let you take my life.”
    Reaching up, Shin tugs at his mask. Th e cloth slips, pooling around his neck. “Mina,” he says, and my traitorous heart skips a beat. “ Th e Sea God’s bride.”
    I swallow thickly. His voice without the mask is clear and warm. He has beautiful features—a straight nose and soft lips. With his sea-dark eyes, he’s breathtaking.
    â€œI won’t take your life.”
    A painful hope blooms within me.
    â€œJust your soul.”
    Wrapping his hand around my wrist, he twists. Th e knife clatters to the floor. With his other hand, he raises his sword and plunges it downward. I scream. Th e piercing sound abruptly cuts off as his sword connects with …
    Th e ribbon.
    He slices clean through the Red String of Fate.
    I gape, watching the slow fall of the severed ribbon like two halves of a broken feather. How is this possible? For a brief second, all is silent and still. Th en my scream rushes back, but thedesperate sound bursts not from my mouth but from outside my body, in the air above. Th e scream swirls and coalesces, a mass of bright colors whirling together. Th e ribbon slips from my hand, rising, followed closely by the Sea God’s half of the ribbon. Together they wrap around the scream, forming a dazzling sphere of light.
    Shin steps forward, his hand outstretched.
    Th ere’s a brilliant flash of color. In the aftermath, I blink away stars. And my ears pick