Circle of Shadows (Circle of Shadows, #1)(106)

“But she isn’t . . . dead, right?”

Daemon searched for her again. “Maybe she’s invisible.”

Sora shook her head. “I’d be able to see her.” She collapsed against Daemon and exhaled. “She’s not there. She’s not dead on the ground.”

But an instant later, Sora snapped away from Daemon. “What in all hells!” Her eyes were wide, and she stepped backward on the branch, putting distance between them. “What are you?”

Daemon shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m me.”

Sora stared at him, mouth agape.

Their gemina bond was electric, like the times when he’d zapped Sora out of Prince Gin’s spell. But the energy now was even louder, so unruly it hurt his ears, and he didn’t know what was happening.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” He began to panic. Had Hana done something to him?

Sora reached out tentatively, almost as if scared. But then she touched his face. And stroked his hair.

A couple weeks ago, he would have wanted this. But he had just kissed Fairy, and everything was confusing, made worse by the crackling electricity in his bond.

And there was something about the way Sora’s fingers felt in his hair that wasn’t right.

He stiffened.

The caution in her touch, however, began to fade.

“It really is you,” she whispered incredulously.

“I . . . of course it’s me. Please, Sora, what are you talking about?”

She took his hand in hers and lifted it for him to see.

It wasn’t a hand. It was a paw, engulfed in brilliant blue light.

He gasped. “What did they do to me?”

She touched his face again. Stroked his hair. “The ryuu didn’t do this. I think you did.”

Daemon whimpered. He didn’t know what she meant.

A tear trickled down Sora’s cheek, but she was smiling. “You just flew across the sky,” she said, shaking her head in awe. “You’ve spent your life not knowing where you came from and worried that you weren’t good at magic. But that’s because you don’t need to use magic, like the rest of us do.”

“I don’t understand.” He couldn’t tear his eyes away from his paw. His paw.

“You don’t need magic because you are magic.” She waved her hand up and down the length of his body.

Daemon looked. He was a wolf. An actual wolf with paws and midnight-blue fur that lit up with a buzzing, bright light, as if he were surrounded by stars. But inside, he was still himself. He felt the same. He had the same memories. Even his voice was still his own. “What . . . ? How?”

“There’s so much more magic in this world than we knew,” Sora said, and he knew she wasn’t only talking about the ryuu. “Remember the Kichonan myths? The god of night brings all his children to Celestae with him, but they’re allowed to shine like constellations at night so their mothers on earth can still see them. Sometimes, though, the god of night’s children decide they belong down here, among people like their mothers, rather than in the heavens. And when they descend, they take human form and their constellations disappear from the sky.”

Suddenly, a brief scene—a memory?—flashed before him. Daemon was running in the dark, surrounded by stars. The sky rumbled, and the planets shook. His fur stood on end.

Sora’s mouth dropped open again, as if she’d just realized something. “It’s your birthday today, Daemon.”

He’d forgotten. There had been too much going on. “What does my birthday have to do with anything?”

“I don’t know if it does,” Sora said. “But there used to be a wolf constellation in the sky, and it disappeared eighteen years ago. I think you’re one of the god of night’s sons. You’re a demigod.”

Daemon frowned and shook his head. “That’s crazy.”

“Sometimes crazy is true.”

It would explain why he’d been immune to Prince Gin’s spell. Daemon wasn’t an ordinary taiga.

He shook out his fur. There was power in these lupine muscles, the kind he’d envied in his cub brothers and sisters when he was young. But now that he was an actual wolf, all he wanted was to be human again.

But maybe that was the point. Maybe he’d craved being human, and that’s why he came back to earth. But it also made sense why he loved being up in the trees and on rooftops, close to the sky. If it was true that he was one of the god of night’s children, there’d always be a part of him that missed his first home.

And yet none of that mattered right now. Daemon was a taiga—even if he wasn’t a typical one—and that meant putting the kingdom before himself. Whether he was a demigod or something else, figuring it out would have to wait.

To be honest, it was a little overwhelming, and Daemon was relieved to have an excuse to deal with it later.

“Come on,” he said to Sora. “We need to go after Virtuoso and Prince Gin.”

“We might be too late,” she said.

“Maybe. But remember? I can fly now.” He grinned and felt electric, both inside and out. “Get on.”





Chapter Sixty-Nine


The light shining through the crystal in Sola’s temple was even deeper crimson than the last time Aki was here. She kneeled at the shrine, her torn handkerchief before her with a new bloodstain on it now, knees aching from waiting for the goddess’s attention.