“Why?” he half-snarls, taking her aback. “Because the entire pantheon knew I was looking for you, Kisa. Running myself ragged scouring the earth for a man or woman with your eyes. Angular and wine-brown, with those lashes…Hani’s eyes. And Samsin Halmoni clearly knew—and didn’t tell me. All this time, you were within my reach. But I didn’t get to you before you…”

“Died,” she offers helpfully.

Seokga flinches. “Yes.”

Kisa tries not to think about that night, but the hairs on the back of her neck still rise up, and she can’t stop herself from twisting around. But it’s only the wooden wall.

—Hajun—said—more in common—than—

“That night,” Seokga says carefully, “when you fell…”

“I don’t want to go into any more detail about it,” Kisa replies automatically, and when her mind threatens to go there, to the moment before she fell when it all suddenly seemed so terrifying and hopeless, she yanks it back. “Samsin Halmoni is a kind goddess,” she says. “Perhaps she didn’t know.”

“She knew,” the trickster spits, and Kisa can’t help but wonder if that’s the case. She’d only met Samsin Halmoni a few times, but each time, the goddess had commented on her eyes. Such a pretty color, she’d crooned—and now Kisa feels a sharp sting of betrayal at the memory, and a stab of pity for Seokga. All those years spent trying to find her, for nothing.

Why? Some petty grudge?

“Samsin Halmoni despises me,” Seokga continues. “She always has. She’s one of the deities who never forgave me for the coup, and who never want to see me happy. When I return to Okhwang…” He trails off. “I don’t know if she’ll even be punished. Without Hwanin, I’m…”

—alone—

Kisa’s throat tightens. Seokga shakes his head, averting his eyes. “Tell me something, Kisa,” he says suddenly, desperately. “What did you want?”

She blinks, taken aback. “What?”

“What did you want, in life?”

Oh. Kisa nibbles on her bottom lip. It’s a private question, but she feels strangely comfortable answering. “I wanted a lot,” she replies honestly. “And I got most of it.” Acclaim, accolades, a world of knowledge stored safely in her mind…

“Was there anything you didn’t? Get, I mean?” Seokga’s face is strangely vulnerable as he returns his gaze to hers. It makes him look young, Kisa thinks. Much younger than his immortal years.

“There was…there was one thing, actually.” She kicks a bare foot over the salt floor, suddenly self-conscious. “A dream of mine, I suppose, although an impossible one.” Kisa hesitates, a part of her rather frightened that Seokga will find her dream lacking, somehow.

“Tell me,” he murmurs.