Walking Wind: A Magic City Blues Prequel by Kimbra Swain

Author:Kimbra Swain [Swain, Kimbra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

Searching the alleyways, I found what I needed. Someone had left a broom out on a back stoop of a business. I borrowed it, then smeared my blood on the handle.

I tossed it into the alley, then called for the dokkaebi by name, essentially summoning him. The dokkaebi spirits often manifested while possessing a household object tainted with blood.

“Seong Min, come speak with me. We have business together,” I said to the broom.

It shook on the concrete of the alleyway. I waited, but the vibrating stopped. He didn’t want to face me. As a lord of heaven and with my reputation, I might have to put authority behind my request.

“Seong Min, if you do not appear before me, I will hunt you and destroy your life. No more fun and games. No more tricks. Come speak with me.”

The broom vibrated, then cursed.

“Aish. Meddling hunters,” it said as it transformed into a man shorter than me with two horns jutting out of his forehead. He placed his hands on his hips and glared. “What do you want?”

“What mischief have you been up to lately?” I asked.

“Um, last night some friends and I gave a guy on a subway a night he will never forget. He won every toy in the claw machine and drifted a Ferrari in a parking lot for an hour,” he replied.

It sounded harmless. Dokkaebi only wanted someone to play with them. They became nasty when you didn’t, but I’d never heard of them eating humans. I knew the gumiho was mistaken, but I wanted to investigate.

“Eat any livers lately?” I asked.

“That damn gumiho! She blames me for everything. Dokkaebi don’t eat body parts. We consume happiness,” he said with a broad smile.

They definitely knew each other.

“Why do you hate her?” I asked.

The goblin shrugged. “She’s a stiff.”

“No fun, huh?”

“None at all. She never wants to play, and because she is a fox, she’s denying her true self,” the gumiho stated. The insight made the wheels in my head turn.

“She’s denying her true self because she wants to be human,” I explained.

The goblin’s face screwed up tightly into wrinkles surrounding a frown. “But why? Would you want to be a human?”

“Certainly not, but it is her choice. It’s either be human or be cursed as a liver eating fox. She chose human.”

“You tell her to quit blaming me for things.” He moved closer to me. “But I know this about her. She isn’t a killer. She might be a stick in the mud, but she’s not a killer.”

“Then, who is?” I asked.

He pondered my question for a moment. “I can talk to the guys and maybe we can come up with something for you. You’d have to play with us for the information though.”

“If you find something that will stop these murders, I’ll play,” I said. I immediately regretted saying it, but finding the murderer was top on my list of priorities.

Jiyeon had blamed the dokkaebi, but he’d vouched for her. I suspected that he annoyed her and that’s why she pointed the finger in his direction.

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