Souta was in the training yard when she arrived, a frown on his face as he stared out onto the horizon.
“Good morning,” she said, forcing a bright tone. She wouldn’t let anyone see her pain, it was better to keep these things hidden. No one could hurt her if she didn’t show them her weaknesses.
Souta looked at her with a quirked brow. “Have you not heard the news?” he asked.
“What news?” Suzume replied.
“The Dragon and a group of yokai soldiers are headed off to the tengu fight.”
He’d left, without resolving their fight. Without saying goodbye, as if she meant nothing at all to him. She inhaled sharply and then blew it out her nose. It didn’t matter. He could do as he wished.
Suzume shrugged. “Good for them, shall we get started with practice?”
Souta watched her for a moment, and she felt as if he could read her, as if her feelings were written there on her forehead. If he asked her what happened, she would crack open like an egg. She would fall into an emotional puddle. But he also wasn’t the type to pry, and when he gave a small shake of his head, she knew she was safe from further questioning. And she stuffed her feelings down further.
“Kazue will be joining us today, we need to start working on our resonance as a group,” Souta said.
Her face flushed. She wasn’t sure she could face her, not yet. She hoped to avoid her for a while longer. But seeing her smug, gloating over her win, she might lose control. But she couldn’t protest. She had to put on a brave face and pretend that everything was fine.
“Sounds great,” she said, her smile must have looked more like a grimace.
“Oh good, she’s here.” Souta nodded toward the entry to the training ground. Kazue walked over, her head held high as if she were ruler of this place already. Now that Kaito had Kazue back, would he make her his empress instead?
No. Don’t think about it. Forget it all.
“Since we’re all together, shall we get started then?” Souta asked.
Suzume’s lips were pressed together. If she opened her mouth, she was just as likely to breathe fire and launch herself at Kazue.
They started out practice with meditation to better help them link up their spiritual powers to one another. But Suzume’s mind kept wandering. Over and over, she replayed the kiss. He never really loved her; to him, maybe it was all just a game. And fool that she was, she played right into his hand. Sparks burst along her skin, popping off her like embers in a fire.
“Suzume, focus,” Souta scolded as he patted an ember which had landed on his sleeve.
“I am trying,” Suzume snapped, and flames burst from her fingertips.
She stood up. This was no use. At this rate, she was going to lose all control. She needed more time and space.
She stomped off the training ground, her skin twitching with energy as her angry thoughts swirled into themselves. This was all Kaito’s fault. Why had he decided to play her this way? Why deceive her into thinking she could be worthy of love.
24
The palanquin rocked back and forth, and Ryuu had to brace himself on the wall to avoid tipping over. Across from him, the emperor’s expression was serene with his hands folded in his lap, even as his head bobbed back and forth. Ryuu was not surprised when he’d been summoned early that morning to accompany the emperor on his trip to an undisclosed location. They’d made small talk at the onset of the journey. Ryuu had purposefully avoided asking where they were going at dawn’s first light. After talking to a few courtiers, and hearing reports from his neko spy, he’d heard the emperor did not tolerate questions like he used to. Allegedly, he would explode in a rage when questioned.
Ryuu saw no hint of that now. The emperor seemed no more a threat than he’d ever been. In the long line of emperors who’d followed after Ryuu, the current emperor was the most unassuming. He ruled in a time of peace among humans, he had made no advancements and until recently seemed to lack any ambition. He listened to his advisers in all matters and generally did not challenge the status quo.
It was difficult to believe the rumors looking at him now. If it weren’t for his fervent desire to destroy all yokai, that is. His court would see his desire to fight the yokai as eccentric, but the council should have convinced him to put a stop to it. And yet, he persisted. Rumor had it he had dismissed several prominent council members who’d spoken against him. What had changed, was it Izume’s influence, Hisato’s?
Ryuu pulled back the curtain on the palanquin window and surveyed the passing landscape. When he’d first seen the White Palace, he had chosen it for its beautiful location nestled between rolling hills and verdant forests. Even five hundred years later, it still took his breath away. Though much of the forest and hills had been carved out for rice paddies and small roadside villages. They were about a half day’s journey from the palace now, where could the emperor possibly be taking him?
They were leaving farmlands again, and headed into the more remote forest regions. The deeper into the forest they went, the more a creeping sensation crawled over his skin. This energy, it was familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite place it. Their procession came to a halt at the bottom of steep stone stairs with a torii arch over it. The emperor had brought him to a temple?
“Ah, we’re here.” The emperor’s eyes lit up with excitement.
Ryuu stepped out first before the servants laid out a carpet for the emperor to walk upon.
The scent of old blood polluted the fresh mountain air. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. This place might have been a temple at one point, but whatever the emperor was doing, it had corrupted this sacred place.
The emperor climbed the steps as his servants rolled out a carpet before him, so that his feet never touched the stone. Ryuu followed, a growing dread settling in his stomach. He knew what this unfamiliar energy was now. It was hybrids. The monstrosities created by forcing together a human with yokai energy.
At the top of the stairs, the emperor stopped and folded his hands behind his back.
The scent of decay slapped him hard against the face. Twisted and deformed priests and priestesses shuffled about the grounds, with blank, unintelligent gazes. The spell that transformed them, had stripped them of all their humanity.
“Are they not magnificent?” the emperor remarked.
Ryuu’s skin twitched just being near them. There was this feeling of being watched, but looking over his shoulder, there was no one there.
“What are your plans for them?” Ryuu asked, though he feared the answer.
The emperor turned to face him. “They are my perfect army, the ones who will help us rid this land of yokai.”
A hybrid howled and charged toward them. Ryuu drew Tetsuyama, but it was in vain. The hybrid collided with an invisible shimmering barrier and was propelled backward. Ryuu stared in disgust as the hybrids turned toward the barrier reaching out toward them, grasping with their gnarled and bloody hands. This was the army the emperor was gathering to fight the yokai? It was an abomination. But seeing that fanatic gleam in the emperor’s eye, he knew he would hear nothing against them, he had to tread carefully.
“Can they be controlled?” Ryuu asked.
“The priestess has full control over them. She took a force and is preparing a surprise attack on The Dragon as we speak.”
“You trust this priestess who is creating these things for you?”
“Izume has vouched for her personally, she paid for her training.”
Then it was just as he expected, Izume had been the sponsor who’d paid for the Water of Kazue’s soul. And now she was heading straight for the dragon and Suzume.
“These things seem mindless, I worry they will kill indiscriminately, there is a town not far from The Dragon’s palace...”
“How do you know where The Dragon’s palace is?” the emperor asked.
He’d inadvertently revealed too much.
“I’ve been reading up on reports to better serve you, emperor.�
�� Ryuu bowed his head.
The emperor narrowed his eyes as he studied him. Would he see through his deception? He did not want to have to harm the emperor and lose his foothold at the palace. It would create an even bigger mess.
The emperor looked back to the hybrids. “Sacrifices must be made to protect our people, Ryuu. I thought you would understand that. You built this kingdom, and it was you who put the crown on my head.”
“And my first duty will forever remain to protecting Akatsuki.” Even if that meant waging a war to remove a mad man from his throne.
“Things are changing, the old ways are dying, and a new age is dawning. It would be best if we didn’t cling to our old beliefs. Don’t you think?”
“You are correct, emperor.”
Ryuu had underestimated the emperor’s quiet ambitions. If his power was left unchecked, he would burn through the entire country, destroying everything in his wake. He could leave now and go warn Suzume of the attack, maybe even remove her from dangers. But it wouldn’t save the countless innocents who would get caught in the fray.
He must remove the emperor from his throne, and only he could do that bloodlessly.
By the time they left the temple, Ryuu’s thoughts were storming. The trip back to the White Palace was punctuated by long awkward silences. And Ryuu was glad to be free of the suffocating atmosphere in the carriage. He had called the neko through their bond, and he was waiting for him when he returned.
“What is it now?” the neko said, stretching his arms over his head and fanning out his claws. He was supposed to be finding out what was happening to the missing priests, but he suspected he’d been out lazing about the temple instead. It didn’t matter now, Ryuu knew where the priests were going. To think the emperor was kidnapping his own subjects... it was inhumane.
“I need you to take a message to Suzume.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that.” The neko yawned.
“Tell her that the emperor is gathering an army, and she needs to have Kaito prepare for the attack of the hybrids.”
The neko’s cat eyes grew wide. “Those things are coming for The Dragon, and you want me to head straight there?”
“Would you rather I force you?” Ryuu asked. He pulled on the bond, just a warning.
Forcing the neko to do his bidding exerted more energy and caused injury and pain to him. He didn’t like to do it, but if he had to, he would.
The neko bowed, “I am at your bidding, master.” There was a hint of bitterness to his tone.
“And if the worst is to happen, I want you to get Suzume out of there.”
The neko bobbed his head before disappearing in a flash of smoke. Sending the neko made him uneasy, but there was too much work left to do. Ryuu went to his desk and prepared messages to go out by more human means. It was decades since he had called on his allies among the courtiers. But if he wanted the emperor removed from power without a war, he had to call in a few favors.
A heavy snowfall obscured the mountain top, and the forest before Kaito was swathed in white. This was no natural storm, he could feel it in the wind. He’d run across yuki onna in the past, but never before had he heard of them organizing or forming a siege. When the tengu prince told him, he didn’t want to believe it. But a storm this fierce couldn’t have been created by a single yuki onna.
“The scouts have returned with reports,” Shin said.
Kaito turned away from the mountain to hear the report from Shin and his mate, Akane. There was a dusting of snow on top of both their heads.
“How bad is it?” he asked them.
“Not good, we’re outnumbered three to one,” Shin replied.
He’d broken sieges before, but never through a storm and never against such an unpredictable force as the yuki onna. They were solitary hunters, who normally lived in isolation. It reminded him of the kijo. What could bring them together to fight? Attacking them as he would an organized army, they’d be overwhelmed straight away, even if the numbers were in their favor.
“What are their weaknesses?” Akane asked.
“Fire.” Kaito tapped his fingers on his forearm, his thoughts drifted back to Suzume. She was likely still angry with him. Her flames would have been effective against the yuki onna, but he didn’t like putting her in danger’s way either.
“We could lead with the flame yokai,” Shin suggested.
“The yuki onna have the upper ground, they’d see them before they were close enough to attack.” Kaito paced back and forth.
“What brought them all together this way?” Akane mused.
Kaito’s head shot up, that was right yuki onna were solitary and territorial. But a leader could have brought them together, made them into a concentrated force. “And that leader would be the key to undoing their forces. If we eliminate them, then the yuki onna would be in chaos.”
“You make it sound so simple, but the leader would be at the heart of the camp surrounded by yuki onna,” Akane said.
“I’ll go,” Shin said.
Kaito put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. He was talking about a suicide mission, Shin was more valuable to him as a general, than to risk his life on this mission. He wouldn’t risk his best friend’s life, he would go in alone and assassinate the leader.
“I need you here to lead the troops,” Kaito said.
“Do you really think I’m going to let you go in there alone?” Shin asked.
As usual, Shin had seen straight through him. And he also knew that stubborn look on his face, this argument would drag long into the night if he let it. There was no choice.
“We’ll go together, then,” Kaito replied with a dramatic sigh.
Shin slapped him on the back. “I had a feeling you’d say something like that.”
“Why do you insist on throwing yourself into danger?” Akane said with a shake of her head.
Shin pulled Akane into his arms as she squirmed away from him, casting embarrassed glances in Kaito’s direction. Kaito turned his back on them to give them a private moment.
“I won’t be gone long, keep order until we return.”
It was good to see Shin settled again and so content. But it only further reminded him of Suzume and the state they’d left things. Hopefully, by the time they returned, her anger would have cooled. They would tie things up quickly and then return home. Once the siege was broken, everything would return to how it should be.
25
There was something very satisfying about flinging fireball after fireball at the dummies. Each burst of flame from her fingertips released some of the bubbling rage that churned her gut. And as the fire consumed the hay stuffing and the fabric encasing, she could even imagine Kaito’s unfaithful face in place of the painted leering face on the dummy. Control.
The sun had set while she ceaselessly shot balls of fire. Souta had left hours ago, after trying fruitlessly to get her to talk about what was bothering her. With no one in the practice yard but Noaki, who hung back by the entrance, she didn’t run the risk of hurting anyone if she were to lose control. And better yet, she could let out all her anger and frustration without witnesses, apart from Naoki, who hardly spoke as it was.
Suzume leaned forward, grasping her knees as she caught her breath. She’d nearly used up all her spiritual energy. Warm orange light flickered over her. Almost all her anger spent, she felt nothing but a deep empty ache. Not since she had left the White Palace had she felt this alone. Tsuki and Akira had betrayed her, and now Kaito had abandoned her. The only thing keeping her at the sea palace was knowing that venturing out alone meant being attacked by wild yokai.
Footsteps approached from behind, and she spun around a ball of fire in her hands.
Kazue reached her hands up in the air. Her eyes were wide with fear. It was tempting to launch a fireball toward her and scar that pretty face of hers. But what was the point, Kaito would probably still have chosen her even if she were ugly.
“What do you want?” Suzume snapped an
d lowered her flaming hand before she gave in to her impulse after all.
“I wanted to apologize for what happened the other day.”
Suzume scoffed. “Don’t bother.” She launched her fireball at the dummy, and it struck it straight in the head. Flames caught on the hay, and smoke drifted off it.
“That night I had a little too much sake, I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Her energy was flagging, but she couldn’t face her, she didn’t want to witness the lies. What did it matter if she were drunk, it had still happened. Kazue wanted to start over again with Kaito, who was she to get between them. Her fireballs were much weaker now, as her energy was low. But she kept up at it to avoid looking Kazue in the eye and confirming it was really over between her and Kaito, before it had ever really started.
“I hope you can forgive me for that,” Kazue said.
Suzume turned to face her, hands on hips. “Are you really sorry? Or are you here just to gloat?”
Kazue put on a show of being innocent, and pretending that she wanted to be Suzume’s friend, but she could see right through her. She knew plenty of girls just like her back at the White Palace. Who pretended they were your friend. They would always smile as they stabbed you in the back.
“It was never my intention to upset you,” she said, her eyelashes lowered as she stared at the ground.
“Leave me be,” Suzume said and bumped her shoulders into Kazue’s as she strode past to go grab a staff. Maybe striking a dummy would take off the edge off.
“This isn’t easy for me either,” Kazue said.
Suzume ignored her and took her staff, whacking it hard against the dummy. She thrust, and swung it up and around in a sweep.
But instead of catching the hint, Kazue came over and continued. “For my entire life, I believed I was Kazue’s reincarnation. That I was destined to find and free The Dragon. I thought he and I were meant to be together.”
“You’re not making me hate you any less if that’s your intention,” Suzume said as she jabbed the end of her staff into the ground.
The Fractured Soul Page 19