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Naoma stood before me, blocking my view from the prism.

Kim was nowhere to be seen. It was only me and her.

Again.

“Please don’t,” she said.

Ralia: Dokkaebi is split in two. You need to drain her light before destroying whatever she is.

“You see her, too?” I shouted.

“Petya, please.” She held my hands to her chest. “Don’t do this!”

Ralia: Yes. It’s his game. She’s weakening you with each second. You need to drain her light. Pull her essence into you.”

“How?” I shouted.

Naoma started to slap my shoulder. “You promised you would never hurt me! You’re such a liar! I knew you would fail me!”

Ralia: Zhu needs to consume it. It is Dokkaebi, Petya.

I shook my head. I knew it was an illusion, but my heart still wanted to fix whatever I had done to her. My split minds battled between illusion and reality. It was not as simple as a cast image. This was Naoma. Part of me believed that beyond a doubt.

“Let me consume it,” Zhu said.

I started to cry. Real or not, it would result in the same pain.

Zhu was my Bite’s core. Eating teeth was the only thing that kept him thriving.

I grabbed her shoulders, weeping as I prepared to do the thing I promised her I would never would.

I threw her to the ground, reached inside her mouth, and pulled out her perfect teeth. I ate them, feeling bliss and hatred for myself cloud out every other feeling.

Until I started to feed, I hadn’t realized how much this thing was draining me. My reserve was depleting with each emotional impact. I was on the brink of succumbing, but the teeth saved me.

Eating a portion of Dokkaebi through Naoma’s teeth had preserved my atrophying mind.

She was delicious.

I wanted to vomit.

I put my lips to hers, gave her a kiss, then devoured the teeth from their source. We wept together, making each passing second more agonizing than the last.

Chapter thirty-two

Tears in Space

Naoma’s beautifully broken face faded. I was staring at the toothless face of some councilwoman who was well dead.

I stood, wiped my mouth, then flew back into the wall for what felt like the tenth time in the last ten minutes.

I burned my Bite reserve, stood, and jumped out of the way of Kim–Dokkaebi’s charge a breath before impact.

I gazed around the room. My family and friends were gone. The councilmember’s corpses had taken their places.

Black light claws covered my hands and I charged toward the beast of a man.

I dodged his strike and tore apart his chest from the middle with my claws.