Circle of Shadows (Circle of Shadows, #1)(108)

“Then make it official,” Gin said, reaching out and holding her hand. “Give me the throne.”

She smiled at his touch. It was just like when they were children, holding hands as they splashed through fountains and searched the gardens for dandelions to make wishes on. “I don’t want to be empress anymore,” she said. “I abdicate. I give you the throne.”

Gin’s grip on her hand tightened. His eyes glistened, but Aki didn’t understand why. Were they happy tears? And yet, he frowned.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Aki just grinned at him.

He squeezed her hand once more, then released it and turned away without looking at her.

“Virtuoso,” he said to the ryuu who’d been standing behind him at attention. “You know what to do.”

The girl nodded. She looked at Aki and narrowed her eyes.

It happened in an instant. Aki had no clue what had happened, but she gasped. Everything around her seemed tinted, as if a green haze had descended upon the world.

“What did you do?” she asked, gaping at the temple around her. A second ago, the walls had seemed like rubies. Now they were unpolished emeralds.

“You’re camouflaged to the rest of the world,” Virtuoso said. “You still exist, but . . . you don’t.”

Gin, still looking in the other direction, let out a long sigh. The warmth and contentment Aki had felt vanished, replaced by deep chill.

He’d released her from his spell.

“Oh gods, what have you done?” Aki asked.

“I didn’t want it to be this way,” Gin said. “But I have to put the kingdom first.” He glanced over his shoulder at Virtuoso. “Take my sister away and stash her somewhere no one will ever find her.”

“With pleasure, Your Majesty.” Virtuoso produced a length of rope and a gag.

“No,” Aki said, backing up against the temple wall, everything still green. “Gin, don’t.”

“I’ll take care of our kingdom, Aki. I promise. I’ll make our family and all the gods proud.”

“Gin!” Aki screamed.

Virtuoso grabbed her, sinking her fingernails into the skin on her neck, and tied the gag roughly around her neck.

“See you later, princess,” she said. Then she slammed the heel of her hand into the back of Aki’s head, and all the green in the world went black.





Chapter Seventy


Sora and Daemon flew through the air in a bright blue blur. The electricity around him tingled on Sora’s skin, and while ryuu power had felt like sparklers inside her, now she and Daemon literally cast off sparks, and the energy he generated blazed through their gemina bond, powering them with more adrenaline than she’d ever felt in her life.

But the thrill was extinguished as they arrived at the base of the quartzite hill that led up to Rose Palace. The dusty-pink crystal wasn’t there to greet them.

The palace was gone. Mounds of shattered crystal lay in its place.

“Holy heavens,” Daemon growled, as he stopped in midair. He landed on the ground, and they gaped at the destruction in front of them.

Rose Palace had been a part of Kichona’s Imperial City for a millennium. And now it was just a pile of debris.

Sora gasped. “The empress is inside. We have to get up there!”

The ground began to vibrate. The crystal remnants of the palace clinked against each other as the earth shook. Daemon froze, and Sora held on to his fur more tightly.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

Suddenly, spires of bloodstone pierced through the top of the hill, sending rose crystal flying like daggers everywhere.

Sora threw out some ryuu particles. They arced around them like a shimmering, emerald shield, forming a barrier in the air.

The shards of crystal struck with vicious speed.

She inhaled sharply and held on to her magic.

The shield remained steady and caught the crystal spears. They quivered, their momentum cut short.

Daemon let out a long breath.

The hill whimpered. Then there was a deafening crack, as more bloodstone shot out of the ground, like dark fangs puncturing the rocky hill. The moat around it, once clear as ice, now bubbled, thick and murky and green. And the black stone streaked with red kept rising from the bowels of the earth.

A new castle.

Sora’s and Daemon’s jaws dropped. Behind them, the taiga army arrived.

“Gods help us,” Renegade, one of the councilmembers, said of the growing castle. He wasn’t even fazed by the fact that Sora was sitting on a giant, electric blue wolf. After the displays of ryuu magic at the Citadel, the appearance of a magical wolf and a new, black palace were just two more unfathomable additions to the morning.

As they watched, flags unfurled at the top of the bloodstone towers. Most were long banners, yellow and green like Sora had first seen at the Takish Gorge camp. They flicked their forked tongues in the wind. But on the highest towers, a new flag was raised. Instead of the Ora tiger wearing a crown—the symbol that had flown over Kichona for hundreds of years—an emerald dragon held the crown in its claws.

Sora’s stomach pitted.

At the top of the castle walls, the ryuu army emerged. Their numbers had been reduced, but they still peered down the hill at the taigas as if they were the ones with the advantage.