Circle of Shadows (Circle of Shadows, #1)(104)

Grasshopper spells were cast. Taigas jumped down from the ten-story fortress walls, into the melee below. They drew swords and sickles and chains, also dipped with genka.

Some taigas and ryuu would die. The Society would try to spare as many as they could, but stopping Prince Gin’s army was the priority.

In the meantime, Beetle, Firebrand, and other ryuu were making progress on the wall.

Sora trembled under the concentration required to keep the piece of Rose Palace in the air. Sweat soaked her entire uniform. Her eyes were beginning to cross.

But she held on.

Fairy and Broomstick ran past her to fight the ryuu who were landing at the top of the wall.

“Be careful!” Sora yelled after them.

“‘Careful’ isn’t part of the League of Rogues’ motto,” Fairy shouted back.

League of Rogues. Sora liked the sound of that.

But she didn’t have time to respond. Beetle and his insects lunged at Fairy and Broomstick. Hana smirked at Sora.

“You won’t be needing that anymore,” Hana said, as she commanded green particles to wrench the magnifying glass from Sora’s magic’s grip.

It wasn’t even a fight. Sora was already exhausted, and her hold slipped as soon as Hana’s stronger one snatched at the crystal.

The beautiful piece of Rose Palace smashed on the ground inside the Citadel, flattening six taiga apprentices who had been running toward the gates to provide reinforcements. The remnants of the etched Ora crest shattered.

Sora stared at it in horror.

But Bullfrog and the other councilmembers leaped into action.

“Shoot for their eyes!”

“Kill if you have to!”

Stars, no. The new ryuu were just taigas beneath their enchantment. And the original ryuu . . . they were misguided in their beliefs, but they were still Luna’s soldiers. Kichonans.

Sisters.

Hana stalked toward Glass Lady.

“I’m relieving you of command, old lady,” she said.

“Over my dead body,” the commander said.

That only made Hana smile. “Watch me.”

She faded from view and laughed.

Glass Lady gaped, paralyzed for a moment. She didn’t know how to fight something she couldn’t see.

Behind them, Beetle’s insect horde dove down for attack.

“Fairy!” Broomstick shouted. “Now!”

She flung a vial of something into the air. Broomstick hurled a small, liquid-filled sphere at it.

The two collided. The glass of both the vial and sphere shattered, and whatever was inside reacted to the other and hissed before it exploded.

Beetle’s buzzing army dropped dead instantaneously.

He screamed, then drew his sword and charged at Fairy.

Meanwhile, Hana was running at Glass Lady.

“She’s on your left!” Sora yelled at the commander. Sora was the only one who could see where her sister was.

But it was too late. Hana reappeared, whipped out a stiletto blade from her sleeve, and said to Glass Lady, “I told you I’d take command over your dead body.” She slashed it across the commander’s neck and pushed her over the edge of the fortress wall.

At the same moment, Beetle ran right into Broomstick’s sword.

“No!” Sora shouted.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Glass Lady’s jaw dropped as her throat split open, spilling her life in crimson rivulets. Beetle held Broomstick’s blade in his hands, looking down at his impaled stomach in disbelief.

Then Glass Lady and Beetle both fell, ten stories to the ground. Their bodies smashed into the dirt, bouncing at the impact.

Sora screamed.

The ryuu below were fighting back with the full force of their magic. Balls of fire, burning taigas like meat on a spit. Storms of icicles, shot straight through like spears.

The Society was not relenting either. They had numbers on their side. They regrouped in squadrons, each one targeting a single ryuu, and charged. Blades flashed. Darts and throwing stars gleamed as they flew.

Bodies fell.

Hana looked down at them without emotion, her face now a cruelly placid mask. When she turned to Sora, she was equally collected. The eyes that had lit up at seeing Sora perform ryuu magic were now flat, as if she felt nothing for her sister.

“Hana—”

“I don’t have anything to say to you.” She stalked toward Sora, spinning her sword in her palm.

Daemon dispatched the ryuu beside him and came to Sora’s side. He growled, sounding more like a wolf than she’d ever heard before. “If you lay a finger on her,” he said, “you’ll pay for it.” Fairy and Broomstick came up behind him.

“No,” Sora said. “Back away, Daemon. All of you. You won’t see her coming if she turns herself invisible again.”

“We’re not going to—”

“Back away!” Sora shouted. “If I die, the League of Rogues has to continue the fight. Kichona needs you.”

Daemon, Fairy, and Broomstick stood still. Hana watched them, amused.

“Aren’t you going to listen to her?” she taunted. “You’re like a litter of puppies, still following my sister around like when we were kids. Nothing about you taigas has changed.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Sora said. “But I’d rather not change than become a tool for Prince Gin to use.”