“Sorry,” he said at last, pushing himself off me.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for. Feel better?”
“No,” he replied flatly. “But I’m out of time. Rena’s putting my arm back on this afternoon. If I miss my appointment, the Gameskeeper will send someone to fetch me, and that’s not something anyone wants.”
I didn’t want to let him go back to that horrible place, but until I figured out how to make good on all my wild promises, there was nothing I could do except help him back to his feet. At least I could make his trip shorter, using the parlor door to open a portal through the forest to the dead-end street at the edge of the woods where he’d left his car. I knew from my own first visit that the walk back wasn’t nearly as long as the journey in, but I didn’t want Nik standing on those injuries any more than he already had.
I watched from the doorway as he got into his car and drove away, staring down the road long after his red taillights had vanished around the corner. Only when I saw other cars stopping to gawk at the door that was suddenly standing at the edge of the woods did I finally close it, collapsing the portal I’d made through the city. When I opened the door again to step through it normally and head back to the kitchen, my father was standing on the other side.
“Jeez!” I cried, jumping a foot in the air. “Don’t do that!”
A normal person would have apologized for scaring me, but this was Yong, so all I got was an exasperated look.
“How long were you eavesdropping?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“The whole time,” he replied without a trace of shame.
I sighed, too battered down by all of this to even roll my eyes. “Then you heard about the curse,” I said, leaning tiredly on the doorframe. “I don’t suppose your twisty dragon brain came up with anything?”
“To get around the curse’s criteria?” He shook his head. “But I did think of something else we could try.”
My face lit up. “What?”
“You won’t like it,” he warned.
“Who cares? I’d eat an entire pumpkin patch raw if it’d get us out of this mess.”
My father smiled at that, then his face grew serious. “It will take some preparation, but your god is in on this as well, correct?”
I nodded. “The DFZ doesn’t care about Nik, but she wants that arena taken down as much as I do.”
“Excellent,” Yong said. “Because we’re going to need her expense account.”
Now I was super curious. “What are you planning to do?”
“What we do best,” he replied with a haughty look. “Go for the head.”
Chapter 10
It was a good thing the DFZ considered this arena stuff top priority, because completing the setup for my dad’s plan took a huge chunk out of my cash card and the rest of the afternoon. In a perfect world, we would have gone to the Skyways for everything, but the upper levels were way too risky after last night’s attack. Fortunately, you could find anything in the Underground if you looked hard enough, and by the time we returned to my apartment for final preparations, we were all set. I just wished I could say the same for myself.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked nervously, staring at the ridiculously ruffled—and ridiculously expensive—dress I’d just pulled out of its garment bag. “It seems reckless, and that’s saying something coming from me.”
“‘Good’ and ‘bad’ are meaningless distinctions,” my father replied, tying his deep-blue tie perfectly without even looking in the mirror. “It’s a practical idea with a good chance of success. That’s what matters.”
I bit my lip. Despite the staggering number on the price tag still dangling from his sleeve, my dad’s severe black suit was a lot cheaper looking than his usual. It was a huge upgrade from his vending machine clothes, though. My dad looked so much more like himself in a suit and tie, it was actually making me nervous. That said, there was definitely something different about him. Something very not “Great Yong of Korea,” and that worried me.
“It just feels crazy,” I pushed, picking up my own costume, a pale-pink dress that looked like something you’d see on the “classy” kid at a child’s beauty pageant. Just looking at it made me feel ridiculous, which was why we’d picked it. The dress was the exact type of thing I used to wear all the time to all my father’s various parties and events. If his plan was going to work, we both had to look the part.
“We’ve been working so hard to keep you hidden,” I went on. “Now we’re going to walk into the Gameskeeper’s office like nothing’s happened? Not to be a doubter, but I don’t see how that’s going to end in anything other than catastrophe.”
“It’s a calculated risk,” Yong said, carefully biting the tag off his jacket with his sharp teeth. “Last night’s attack proves we’re out of time to be timid. Up until last night, I considered White Snake to be our primary concern. As my sister, she has the strongest claim to my territory, but no one would accept her as Dragon of Korea without proof that I was dead. In that scenario, staying out of sight until I recovered was the most logical strategy. Now that we’ve learned she’s run away with her tail between her legs, though, we’re in an entirely different situation. With White Snake out of the picture, Korea
