The Last Fallen Star, Graci Kim [books to read in your 20s .TXT] 📗

what makes me a true Gom. No, it’s my willingness to sacrifice myself for my loved ones. It’s my desire to serve those I care about.

Instead, I play her game. “Oh, Goddess, you’re so funny!” I laugh so convincingly, I should get nominated for an Oscar. “You’re the benevolent patron goddess of service and sacrifice. You would never go back on a promise! Besides, as I believe you once told me, compensation for a divine job completed is stipulated by Godrealm law.” I wink at her. “You wouldn’t break the law, would you?”

I’m not sure where I’m getting the courage to sass a divine being this way, but, if I’m being honest, I kind of like this new me. It has taken me a little while, but it feels good to speak out and trust in my abilities. It feels right. Hattie would be proud.

The goddess grins and slaps me on the back. “Well put, my dear! I’d better start wriggling, then. I don’t want those holy lawyers knocking on my door—they’re a divine pain in the backside!” She rolls up her sleeves and rubs her hands together. “Let’s bring your sister back, shall we?”

As the last muscle of red organ tissue in the vial shrivels into black rot, the goddess plucks something out of the air. It shines like a nugget of gold between her fingers, and she places it carefully on the ground near the Gi cauldron.

The next time I blink, I see a body wearing a long golden hanbok lying on the floor.

My heart soars like an inmyeonjo.

It’s my sister.

It’s Hattie.

“HATTIE!” I CRY.

“Hattie-ya!” my parents shout.

Eomma, Appa, and I run to the body that has materialized out of nowhere onto the floor of the Gi sanctuary.

I fall to my knees, burying my face in my sister’s chest. My parents shed tears of joy and relief, and the feeling is overwhelming, seeing her in the flesh again. It’s only been a few days, but it feels like years since I’ve seen my boss sister. She got so skinny in the Godrealm. Her arms are barely thicker than sticks, and her face is sunken and painted a sickly shade of gray. So much for “safekeeping,” like the goddess had promised. Hattie looks barely alive.

Her eyes flick open like two headlights.

“You’re awake!” I cry out. “I’ve missed you so much, Hat. I can’t believe you’re back. You’re really back!”

Except something feels off.

The light in my sister’s eyes is gone. There’s no Hattie in those eyes. But if Eomma has noticed, she’s not showing it. She hugs Hattie’s limp body to her own, crying into my sister’s bony shoulder.

“Eomma…” I warn.

My hand grasps the cold vial still around my neck, and my eyes flit from Hattie’s body up to the goddess. “Something’s not right!”

The goddess raises an eyebrow. “Hmm, that’s interesting.”

“What do you mean, interesting?”

Hattie twists unnaturally in Eomma’s arms, as if her body is being controlled by a puppeteer. Her eyes lock like a hawk’s on Emmett, and her arms stretch toward him.

“My son,” she croaks, her voice sounding dusty and hoarse. “My son, my son, my son.”

All color drains from Emmett’s face, and he stares at my sister with frightened eyes. “Mom…?” He starts walking toward Hattie, his mouth hanging wide with disbelief.

“No…” Auntie Okja murmurs. “It can’t be.”

“Where is my sister?!” I demand of the goddess, dropping my cheerful act. “You promised her safe return!”

“Gone,” she answers simply. “The young witch’s heart perished, and it seems an opportunistic gwisin has possessed her body. What a shame.” Something changes in the goddess’s face. It’s like her features are shedding their kindliness.

I clutch at my chest. “No, that’s not possible.” I think of what Jennie’s halmeoni gwisin said—that Emmett’s mom had become a vengeful gwisin stuck on Earth, too overcome by the wrongs done to her in life. She was no longer the woman she used to be, and she wasn’t willing to talk to Emmett. Then what is she doing here now?

Emmett kneels down in front of Hattie. His whole body is trembling. “Mom, is that really you?”

Hattie’s eyes blink once, and then, in a blur, everything changes. She is no longer limp on the ground, cradled in my eomma’s arms. She now stands, her body in an unnatural position, like that of a marionette, her arms outstretched. She walks rigidly toward the goddess.

“You!” she shrieks, pointing at the goddess’s face. “You did this. You used me. You made me steal the artifact, and then you made me kill all those innocent people. I was wronged!”

The goddess shrugs her off. “Tsk-tsk, you insolent gwisin. You have the audacity to return from the dead to accuse me of such a petty crime? Don’t you know who I am?” She turns to me and shakes her head. “Can you believe the gall of this ghost? Or should I say, the ghoul of this ghost?” She chuckles and winks at me.

I realize with a jolt that the goddess still thinks I’m on her side.

Emmett hasn’t taken his eyes off Sookhee/Hattie, and now he nears her again, fidgeting with his silver ring. “Mom, what happened to you? You didn’t want to talk to me before. How come you’re here now?”

Sookhee turns around stiffly and focuses on Emmett’s face. Her sunken eyes are still midnight black, but now they shed fat tears. “Oh, my sweet, sweet boy. I was lost in my anger for so many years. But when I found out you were searching for me, I fought the fog with all my might. And when it cleared, I remembered everything. I remembered what it was all for. You helped me find my way back to you.”

I nervously glance over at the goddess, but she isn’t even listening. She has wandered over to the Gi cauldron and is running her finger along the lip of its mouth. She’s whistling the tune to “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” while casually looking around as if she’s sightseeing. I blink twice.