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Chapter two: first sight

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Luna

My maid Soojin wouldn't stop prattling on about the surplus of crystal chandeliers in King SeokJin's palace.

Resting inside the upholstered stomach of our carriage, I leaned my profile against the wall and gazed out at the forest, using the view as a distraction and drowning out my chaperone's incessant chatter.

When we first hired her, my father had argued that the woman was a flawless example of "ladyness"—he had a penchant for making up his own words—and I'd do well to learn from her.

The only ladyness about Soojin that I valued was her ability to talk for me. I rarely favored speech, and her mouth swelled with enough dialogue for us both.

"Such a pity we weren't able to get the full advantage of grandeur. Some people don't have an eye for these things," she piped.

I sensed her giving me a pointed look. She was still bitter that I'd rejected the king's offer for us to stay one more night as his guests. We'd already been in the kingdom for three days. I wanted to go home.

Upon my decision, Soojin had thrown a genteel fit. She struggled to hide her outrage beneath a veneer of composure, yet she stomped her foot twice while insisting it was bad manners to fling His Majesty's generosity out the window.

I'd been tempted to throw her out the window.

During our ride, she produced a deliberately mournful sigh that curled to the roof of the carriage, its echo hovering above us like a stubborn cloud. It was similar to the noise she made whenever she wasn't complimented on her style during a gathering.

I fingered my corded bracelet and closed my eyes while listening to the vehicle's wheels grinding over foliage. I loved the forest. There was nothing more inviting than the thick tangle of bark and leaves, the scent of soil, the childish trickle of a brook as it carved through the landscape. I wished I could steal away and live in the woods forever.

I'd recently heard a tale about someone who did. I was too skeptical to believe in legends, but one in particular had caught my attention when I arrived in the kingdom.

On my first night in the palace, female members of SeokJin's court gushed to me about a mysterious man.

People in the kingdom whispered about him taking residence in the woods with a band of thieves, hiding out while committing random acts of kindness, namely stealing from the rich and giving his booty to the poor.

Reports had been circulating throughout the land about aristocrats being ambushed in remote locations and stripped of their finery.

Followed by subsequent reports of starving families finding a pouch of gold coins or gems or game on their doorstep.

The rich huffed and puffed, bloated with outrage at such accounts. To say nothing of King SeokJin's fury.

Whenever these outlaws intercepted His Majesty's own cargo, they left his guards limping and confused.

Many claimed the man who led this band possessed remarkable skill with a bow, that he could spear his target from impossible distances, that no one could match him in grace and speed and accuracy, and his skills with swords that make a castle knight seem like a boy with a wooden stick.

Nor could they stand a chance of finding him. He and his men were said to disappear once their job was done, vanishing like a magic trick.

This made me snicker. No one in this world possessed inhuman skills, perhaps except for Soojin, who never ran out of things to talk about and could certainly go on for eternity.

"He's rumored to be handsome. Uncommonly so," one of the women had gushed to me.

"And dangerous," another female purred.

The women had touched my shoulder, wine sloshing over the rims of their goblets. They blushed, though I hadn't been sure if it had to do with their description of the man or their evident drunkenness.

In any case, the story sounded so absurd, so blatantly manufactured, that I'd considered saving it for when I saw my sister again. My sister loved legends.

Now, with my eyes shut and the gentle rocking of the carriage hypnotizing me, I tried to imagine what this enigma of a man might look like. And a set of decadently dark eyes flashed in my head.

The carriage jolted to a standstill. It happened so fast that it launched my chaperone and I forward, propelling us to the opposite side of our cabin.

Soojin squeaked, straightening her gold brocade cap and helping me back to my seat.

I poked my head out of the carriage. The royal guards assigned to escort us home wrestled to control their horses. The first one to succeed trotted over to me, a hulking statue made up of muscle and frequent scowls, always looking as though he'd just been told a filthy joke.

"Sorry, my lady. The animals got spooked," he said, his eyes scanning the tree line.

I glanced at the sword bouncing against his hip. Apprehension gnawed at my spine. "What's happened?"

"It's best if you stay inside the carriage" was all he said.

I hesitated, distrusting his bravado. Nothing alerted me to a problem more than a calm expression. The guard had tuned into something, a disturbance that hadn't made itself known yet, but he wasn't willing to alarm me.

I pondered why men frequently thought this was the best course of action.

Keeping women in the dark only endangered them further and served no purpose but to pump up their masculine egos to the point of no return.

The guards spread out, their weapons clinking against their armor. I peered at the fringes of the forest and saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. Not even the wind.

A giggle at the rear of our carriage stole my attention. I twisted around and quelled a laugh at the tongue sticking out at me. Jisoo, my friend and companion, had been following us in another vehicle. No one in Busan except my father and my sister approved of Jisoo.

I'd caused a scandal by choosing her as my lady's maid. It was an advanced position in the worlds of servants, and I'd awarded it to someone of a different social status, someone who people believed should be scrubbing floors instead of helping me dress.

Thankfully, I maintained such good social connections within Busan  that no one voiced their opinions to my face.

Jisoo leaned out of her carriage and was presently making funny faces at me. In response, I crossed my eyes at her. At which point, she began to scrunch up her features and flex her arms to imitate the guards.

I covered my mouth with my hand. Then felt a pull on my skirt.

"Lady Luna," Soojin snapped from inside our cabin. "I know what you're doing. This is no time for games."

"There is always time to play," I teased.

"Must I repeat myself? Get back in here."

I rolled my eyes at Jisoo and was about to sink into my seat when an arrow sliced through the air, skewering the side of the carriage, landing right beside my finger, beside my engagement ring. I yanked my hand back in shock.

Before I could register what was going on, our guard started roaring orders. The guards pivoted in different directions.

The horses whinnied and reared back, including the one pulling our carriage, sending us jostling forward and stopping again.

The force threw me halfway out the window, setting my teeth to rattle. Shouts and metal and whistles radiated from all around me. Whipping my head around, my eyes popped wide open as three cloaked men launched themselves from the woods and attacked us.

All except one.

I spotted him above us, perched on high ground, a bow poised in his hands, arrow aimed at our guard. But then his head turned, just slightly, perhaps sensing that I'd caught him.

He shifted his bow, weapon now pointed at me. I wanted to move, but a hint of a smile appeared beneath his hood as if to say, Try it.

He wouldn't miss. I dangled out of the carriage window, frozen, waiting for the inevitable. My body toppled back inside under the force of Soojin's panicked tug.

"What, what, what," she shrieked.

It took me a moment to process. He didn't shoot me. He didn't shoot me.

"I don't know," I shouted. "It's—"

"It's the legend. That man, that thief. He's here to kill us. He's here to—"

I slapped her. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she fainted. I ripped the ring off my finger, relief diluting my terror, grateful for the excuse to rid myself of this trinket. It was the only thing of value that I had with me. I still didn't believe the legend had come to haunt us, but I didn't doubt the ring was what these bandits sought.

A frail scream—Jisoo—pierced my ears.

"No!" I trilled.

I dropped the ring into the bodice of my dress and tore out of the carriage, catapulting toward the sound. A tall figure had Jisoo pinned against the wagon. I rammed myself between them, holding up my hands.

"Stop!" I cried. "I know what you want."

"Oh, I doubt that," the fellow mocked, gray eyes twinkling. He was young. My age.

I fumbled for the jewel, intending to give it to him and demand he leave us alone, but he lunged for me. I rammed my knee between his legs, causing him to keel over and howl. "Son of a bi—"

My leg swung out and knocked him upside the head, so instinctively that I stunned myself for a second. He hit the floor, unconscious. I cast an anxious glance at the battle going on between the guards and bandits. They didn't want my entourage. They wanted my ring.

"Go," I said to Jisoo, aware of her skill with a horse.

"Luna, no," she sobbed, her face covered in tears.

"Take Soojin and make haste. Get home and tell—"

"Not without you. I can't—"

"Yes, you can." I grabbed her face and kissed her cheek and shoved her in the direction of my carriage where Soojin still lay.

I headed toward the fray, but then stopped short. The man with the bow stormed down the hill, halted at the lip of the forest, and in one swift motion whipped two arrows from the pack hanging from his shoulder. Barely having time to aim, he let them fly, knocking swords from the hands of two different warriors.

My dazed mind wondered if everything I'd heard about this so-called legend was true, and whether I was staring right at that legend.

He would take out my protectors in a matter of minutes, with or without his band of thieves. I had to distract him. I had to give him what he wanted, but I also I had to get him away from the apex of the battle.

I manuevered closer to him and waved my arms. "Over here!"

The instant his body swerved in my direction, my blood chilled. His attention was a fist to the chest, capsizing me and wiping me of breath. This without even seeing his whole face. Again, that taunting smile of his.

I produced the ring and wiggled it, knowing he could easily shoot it from my fingers or fire at me. Remembering his last opportunity to strike me down—an opportunity he didn't take—I trained my gaze on him, silently communicating my next move.

Now, you try it.

His smile vanished.

I ran. My lungs blazed as I plowed into the forest, crashing through branches so sharp they cut my neck. I dropped the jewel back into the bodice of my gown. I felt him pursuing me, felt his movements like I felt my own ragged, high-pitched gasps. I craned my head over my shoulder but saw no one, then turned back around.

And smacked into a tree trunk. White spots filled my vision and my head swelled with pain. A thin noise pierced the air. I sprinted forward, desperate to flee, but the neckline of my cape tightened across my neck.

Twisting, I found an arrow lodged into the trunk, securing the hood of my cape against the bark. Only a hair's width to the left and the weapon could have breached my skull.

Hands shaking, I freed myself from the garment and lurched across the grass. He tackled me from behind, forcing us both to the ground where he gripped my forearms and stamped them into the dirt, his body heaving against mine. I lay face first, questions spinning through my mind. What if this man wanted more than the ring? What if he tried to defile me?

A jagged rock lay a few inches from my hand. My knuckles curled.

"Don't even think about it," he warned, his breath moist against my ear, his voice deep and possessing a demand on certain words.

I seized the rock, but he was too fast, flipping me around and landing directly between my thighs as he restrained my wrists above my head. Our chests beat against one another. A guttural sound escaped me, fading into a squeak when the hood fell off his head.

His brown hair glinted in the sun, moist from sweat and curling beneath his ear. A pert nose, straight as one of his arrows. A boyish face. And a pair of dark eyes squinting at me like two misplaced stars. He was definitely handsome.

But those eyes...

Eyes that I'd seen before.

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(a/n)
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