“Where do you think you’re going?” the first yuki onna asked.
Rin scowled, pretending to be inconvenienced. “I have an urgent report to give the queen. Do not delay me, unless you wish to bring her wrath upon you.”
The guards looked at one another with quizzical expressions. Please let this work.
“What news?” the second yuki onna asked. She scanned Rin up and down, could she see through her disguise?
Rin’s heart thundered in her chest, she hoped it wasn’t audible to them.
“We’ve discovered a spy in the camp. He’s working for the dragon. We need to know how to proceed with the information we’ve obtained from them,” It was a gamble; if either of them looked at her too closely, then she could be exposing herself.
“They caught them then. Good. Was the okami as delicious as he looked?” said the second guard, she licked her lips.
“Oh yes,” Rin said, forcing a devious smile that she had seen on other yuki onna.
They nodded in approval before stepping aside to let her in. Rin swallowed past the lump in her throat and stepped inside. The Queen had her back to her, her gaze fixed on the map in front of her.
“What is it?” she asked without looking up at Rin. This was perfect, with the queen distracted, she could strike before she knew what was happening.
“We’ve captured the spy, my queen,” Rin said inching closer to her. She had only one chance, and she didn’t want to miss her shot.
“Good, and did they reveal any of their plans?” The queen shifted the maps on her table.
“They did.” Rin could reach out and touch her; she raised her hand, the fox flames burning bright in her palm.
The Queen turned, her brows raised, and then transformed quickly. Rin reached for her, slamming her foxfire into her chest. The yuki onna queen screamed as the flames caught and spread across her body. Rin attempted to back away and let her burn, but she grasped her by the neck. The yuki onna opened her jaw, revealing rows of sharp jagged teeth. Rin struggled to free herself, clamping a flaming hand on her arm, but she wouldn’t loosen her grip.
“I’ll suck the marrow from your bones—” the yuki onna queen hissed before she leaned down to clamp on Rin’s neck.
With both hands engulfed in fox fire, Rin grasped the sides of the yuki onna’s head. The fire spread hot and fast, but the queen wouldn’t let go. The queen was drawing out Rin’s energy, weakening her even as the flames burned and bubbled her skin. They were trapped in a game of tug of war, as Rin’s flames weakened the queen, her absorbing Rin’s energy renewed her depleting stores.
The world around her was a swirl of blood and flames as she wrestled against the yuki onna queen. The edges of her vision were going dark. Her flame had consumed all of the yuki onna’s body now, and her fingers on Rin’s neck loosened. Rin collapsed onto the ground as the yuki onna queen melted into a puddle. All that remained of her was a soaked kimono. She’d done it, but now she had to give Kaito the signal. Rin stood, and her legs buckled beneath her. She shook her head and tried to call her fire, but all she could manage were a few meager sparks.
The guards were rushing in. She had to give the signal, or all of this would be for nothing. Gathering the last of her strength, she focused it on her fox fire. She unleashed it upward, it burst through the ice roof of the queen’s tent and flashed against the sky. She prayed it would be enough.
Kaito watched the sky as Shin paced behind him nervously. Akane had to have gotten through to the tengu. He refused to believe anything else. Hours had passed, and there was no news. The army was on high alert, all they waited for was the signal that the yuki onna queen was dead.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Shin asked, his pacing had worn a pathway into the snow.
Night was closing in, and it was getting even harder to see in the storm. Would Rin’s fox fire be strong enough to be seen given the weather? If they missed it, Rin might be captured or worse. He hated putting his friends in danger like this. If the signal didn’t come through soon, he would rush in himself. Blue flashed against the white of the snow fall. It was faint, but that had to be it.
“She’s done it!” Shin tilted his head back and howled.
“Attack,” Kaito shouted to his soldiers.
They roared as they rushed forward into the storm. Even as they approached, the storm was getting weaker. The yuki onna must have realized that their leader had fallen and were abandoning their posts already. As his soldiers crested the snowdrifts on the fringes of the camp, the yuki onna rose up out of the snow. Their song both beautiful and terrifying.
The two forces clashed together. They were outnumbered, and the yuki onna’s power was too strong. The soldiers slowed in their steps, captivated by the yuki onna’s song before they fell upon them.
“Block your ears,” Kaito shouted.
His voice was swallowed up by their song. Some of them heard Kaito and followed him as he cut his way through. The yuki onna’s song floated on the wind, and Kaito felt the pull of its lure. But through pure force of will, he kept moving forward, slashing at the yuki onna who crossed his path. His soldiers fell around him, drained of their spiritual energy, and left discarded in the snow. There was no time to mourn.
Rin’s pained howl ripped through the air, the storm was all but gone now, and he took his dragon form and flew up into the sky. Rin stood in the center of a ring of yuki onna. Blood ran from a wound at her neck and soaked her haori. Kaito dived down next to her, and the yuki onna jumped backward as he landed in a spray of snow.
“Just in time,” Rin said, her eyes were heavy, and he could sense she’d lost too much spiritual energy.
He assumed the yuki onna would scatter once their leader was gone, but it seemed half the camp had surrounded them. He hacked at them with his sword, but for every one that fell, two more were there to take their places.
Down the hill from him, Shin in his white wolf form was tearing through yuki onna, inching closer and closer to them. Once he got to them, they could crush the yuki onna between them. Rin slumped forward in the snow, the cold and exhaustion finally getting the better of her. Kaito knelt down and helped her to stand, her head was lolling to the side.
“Leave me, go and protect...” Her eyes fluttered closed.
Kaito circled in place, holding Rin tight. The yuki onna closed in, their song ringing in his ears. Beyond the yuki onna swarming, he saw Shin slowing to a stop as five yuki onna sang to him. They’d lost. The yuki onna grabbed at him, tugging at his clothes, and he couldn’t stop them. His body was no longer his to control, he’d given over to their control. Maybe dying wasn’t so bad if it were at the hands of beautiful yuki onna.
A horn blasted overhead, and it shook him from the spell. Kaito looked up as a sea of black wings swooped down from above. The tengu had arrived to give them reinforcements. Seeing the tengu army descending on them from above, many of the yuki onna turned and fled. Kaito wasn’t the only one who’d broken free of the spell, Shin came barreling toward him, having knocked out the yuki onna who tried to subdue him. Between the two of them, they knocked out the remaining yuki onna. And the tengu cleaned up the rest.
Many had escaped, but a few had been taken prisoner and were being led to the tengu compound, their fate to be decided by the Tengu Elder.
Kaito carried Rin to the tengu compound. As soon as he was through the gate, Hikaru was rushing over to them, Hikaru took her into his arms, caressing her cheek.
“She’ll be fine with rest,” Kaito said to him.
Rin’s eyes fluttered open, and she reached out to touch Hikaru’s face. “We did it.” Rin smiled wanly.
It was such an intimate gesture, he couldn’t help but feel he was invading on something private. Kaito turned away from the pair, across the courtyard, Akane threw herself into Shin’s arms. He twirled her around as he kissed her. He couldn’t help but feel envious of the joyful reunions, and it led his thoughts back to Suzume. He’d been so focused on breaking the sieg
e, he had not even stopped to say goodbye or explain what had happened between him and Kazue. The victory of battle faded as he thought about the things that hadn’t been said. He never should have left that way or even given her any room to doubt.
“We are indebted to you for your help today,” Mori said, he bowed his head.
“You would have done the same for me, old friend.” They embraced.
Before his fall, Mori had been one of his most trusted advisers, and he hoped they could resume their alliance soon. But right now, there was only one reunion he wanted.
“Come, we shall drink and talk of the future of our two kingdoms,” Mori gestured for him to join him in the inner ring of the palace.
“Soon, my friend. But there’s something I need to do first. “
Kaito transformed and took off to the sky. He had a long overdue apology to give Suzume.
29
Another blast shook the walls, and pieces of the ceiling came crumbling down. Suzume threw up her arms to shield herself from the falling debris as she ran; yokai were running in all directions. Panic on the air made her skin prickle. But the yokai were too concerned with saving themselves to pay any attention to her and Tsuki trying to flee. He led her to a stone stairway that she’d never seen before.
“This way,” he said. The sun was starting to set, and it turned the sky crimson and orange. Against the dying light of day, she could see the hybrids gathering on the opposite shore. If only there was some way they could stop them, but what could she do on her own?
The pathway hugged the side of the rocks that the palace was built upon. And it was slippery from waves that crashed over them periodically. It was a mistake to look over the edge and see the white foam that sprayed over the jagged rocks at the bottom. Suzume clutched the slick rocks, her legs trembling.
“We’re almost there.” Tsuki held out his hand to her.
She’d been in such a panic thinking that the palace was under attack, she’d just been moving forward blindly. But things were starting to fall into place. Tsuki and Akira had told her that Kazue forced them to work for her, she hadn’t wanted to listen because she was so angry at what she had seen as their betrayal. But maybe she’d been wrong about them after all. They had come to save her when they just as easily could have escaped with their own lives or used the chaos to turn on her.
She grasped Tsuki’s hand, and he guided her the rest of the way down the steps. At the bottom was a small sailboat that bobbed on the waves.
“Where’s Noaki, I thought he’d be here with Souta?” Suzume asked.
“They escaped a different way, the boat won’t hold us all,” Akira said using Tsuki’s face.
Suzume glanced back to the palace. Maybe they should go back, just to be sure they’d gotten away safely. A flaming ball arched across the sky and landed on the roof of a nearby building. It spread quickly, and the screams of panicked yokai filled the air. Even if she went back to check, there was no guarantee she would get out alive. She had to just trust Noaki could save Souta.
Suzume got into the boat, which swayed with each step. She threw out her arms to balance her. There was a single seat on the prow and room for someone to man the sails. Suzume curled up into a ball and sat down as Tsuki took control of the sail. The rope tying them to the dock was undone, and after a little maneuver, they were out onto open waters. Tsuki unfurled the sail and they glided away from the palace.
On the water she felt vulnerable, and exposed. The shore was lined with hybrids and war machines. Torches glowed against the growing night. Surely they would see them and sink them. She couldn’t swim, and even if they could get to a shore, neither one was safe. As she looked back at the sea palace, it was ablaze. All of Kaito’s hard work to rebuild what he had lost was going up in smoke.
They sailed past the palace and far enough from the coastline that they couldn’t be seen. Suzume wasn’t sure how much time had passed by the time they came to shore in a small cove. The sounds of the fighting had faded away. As they disembarked on the pebble cove beach. Suzume’s skin prickled. She drew her staff.
“Do you feel that?” Suzume asked.
Tsuki had his blade drawn as well. “Yeah.”
“This was supposed to be the meeting point, right?”
“It is, but it’s possible they were followed.” Tsuki took the lead up a worn dirt path from the cove to a cliff overlooking them.
Souta shouted, and Suzume picked up her pace. A group of yokai had Souta surrounded. He sliced toward them with his wind shoving them back. But it only slowed them for a moment. They needed to resonate, she tried to reach out and create the connection with him, but as she did, a pair of hybrids turned on her and came roaring toward her. She had to abandon making the connection, as she instead swung her staff at the head of the hybrid. Her staff struck solid flesh, and it kept on coming. She backed up but found only a cliffside. She braced for impact, but before the mangled fist of the hybrid could strike her, it was severed from its arm.
It waved its bloody stump at her, spraying her in blood. Suzume jutted the butt of her staff against its gut, and it doubled over. Tsuki sunk his blade into the back of the monster, and it slumped over on the ground next to another hybrid Tsuki had killed.
“That was close,” she panted.
“You can say that again.” He smiled at her.
It felt like old times again. But there wasn’t time for reminiscing. The hybrids had escaped and taken Souta along with them. Suzume ran into the forest, but there wasn’t a sign of them anywhere. It was as if they’d evaporated into thin air.
She spun around in a circle clutching her staff. This had to be Hisato, he’d taken Souta through a portal. But where did he take him?
Tsuki jogged over to her. “Did you find them?”
She shook her head. “They took them. But where is Noaki, he was supposed to be guarding Souta.”
Tsuki scanned the forest. “I don’t sense his spiritual energy nearby. Maybe they got separated?”
Or worse. She didn’t want to even consider it. Noaki had always seemed so invincible. She couldn’t imagine him falling so easy to a few hybrids.
“Maybe we should wait for him and then make a plan to find Souta.”
“If Hisato has him, we’re running out of time,” Akira said, taking control of their body. “He was using Kazue to make these hybrids, and he’ll want to use Souta for the same. The longer we wait, the more people will be in danger.”
Suzume frowned. She had a point. She’d seen what had been done to that village, and the destruction that the hybrids had brought to the seaside palace. There was no more time to hesitate.
“But how do we find him?”
“I think I know where he might be, they wouldn’t have gone too far. They’re likely at the temple you saved us from.”
It was their best shot, maybe their only one, and she would have to take it.
Guilt was gnawing away at Tsuki. When he had agreed to help Kazue, he’d only been thinking about how Suzume had turned on them. But as they led her like an animal to slaughter to Kazue, he was beginning to have second doubts. As much as he wanted to be separated from Akira, was this price really worth it?
“We can’t second guess ourselves now. This is life and death now,” Akira said.
“A life for two lives, is that what you’re saying? What about Father and Souta who we abandoned in the seaside palace,” Tsuki countered.
“What did he ever do for us? While Mother slowly wasted away on that mountain top, where was he?”
That was always her argument, wasn’t it? Even once they’d reconnected with their only living family, the resentment remained. Their mother, Sayuri, goddess of the moon, had fallen in love with a man beneath her station. Her guard, Noaki. When her husband, the Lord of the Sun, found out, she was banished to a mountain temple where her light slowly faded. She gave birth to them in secret, and on that mountain they remained, until Mother’s health took a turn for the worse, and they were force
d to search out alternative energy sources just to keep her alive. Their greed grew too great, and that was how Kazue was able to trap them. They’d been desperate enough to take a risk, and now they were making that same mistake all over again, only this time it was their lives on the line.
How many more people would die, how many more lives would be ruined because of them.
“Once we are free, you will feel differently,” Akira said.
Tsuki didn’t bother to respond, he wouldn’t argue with her, the damage was already done. They’d done as Kazue asked, and lured Suzume back to the temple. He couldn’t save her, not without risking his own life. And as noble as he wanted to be, his desire to live was stronger than his distaste for his task.
The temple wasn’t much further; they would be there before the moon was high in the sky. Soon it would all be over, and then they could restart their lives.
Suzume fell back to walk beside them and cleared her throat, “I didn’t get to say anything earlier, but thank you for your help back there. Actually, I’ve never really thanked you for all the help you’ve given me since we first met. I was wrong to assume you would betray me, I’m sorry.”
His eyes were wide as he blinked at her. Was this another one of Kazue’s tricks. Cause surely Suzume hadn’t just thanked and apologized to them...
“You don’t need to thank me,” Akira said smoothly.
“She really shouldn’t since we’re about to betray her,” Tsuki remarked.
“I do. We’re friends, and I should have trusted you when you told me why you did what you did.” She met their gaze. It was painfully sincere.
He couldn’t do this. They couldn’t turn on her.
“Don’t,” Akira reminded him.
“When this all is over, I’ll make sure I separate the both of you no matter what,” she said.
His stomach twisted. He had to warn her, but Akira held him back, suppressing his ability to talk. This was wrong. There had to be another option, they could all run away together, find a way to fight Kazue together.
The Fractured Soul Page 22