Circle of Shadows (Circle of Shadows, #1)(37)

“Yes, Your Highness,” Sora said.

The moth spell had kept her answer muted so the ryuu couldn’t hear, but Daemon crawled sideways over to her. His eyes were wide with alarm. “What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed into her ear.

“The prince is wonderful,” she said. “I like what he’s offering.”

“Gods, no.” Daemon stared at her for a second, as if not understanding the momentousness of Prince Gin’s return. Then he clamped one of his sticky hands over Sora’s mouth. “He’s got you under some kind of spell. You have to fight it.”

His panic was as sharp as a pike through their gemina bond. But Sora didn’t understand why. Everything was lovely.

She released one of her hands from the wall and pried his fingers off her face. “Prince Gin suffered exile for a decade but then had the generosity to come back to Kichona to share his new gift with us. He wants what is best for the kingdom. Just like we do.” She felt even happier now, explaining it to him. Her insides were all warm and mushy, like a vat of pudding just off the stove.

Daemon grabbed her and wrapped his left arm around Sora’s throat.

“What are you—?”

He jabbed his right thumb into a spot at the top of her head, a place that was soft in newborns but grew hard when the skull solidified. Hard, that is, unless you were trained in hidden pressure points.

Sora let out a strangled cry and writhed against Daemon’s grasp.

He tightened his hold against her windpipe.

She gasped.

And then she went slack.





Chapter Twenty-Two


Sora was limp against Daemon. The dead weight of her body almost made him fall backward onto the ground.

He hastily smacked his right arm back toward the wall, adhering his fingers to the wood, then untangled his left arm from around Sora’s neck.

Daemon looked at her, unconscious but still attached to the wall by her gecko spell. What did Prince Gin do to you?

It had all been so swift. One moment, Sora had been alert and focused. Then the next, the emotion emanating through their gemina bond had muddled, like a carafe of milk ruining a clear pot of tea. Prince Gin had put Sora under some kind of hypnotic spell, and the girl Daemon had known better than anyone else suddenly wasn’t herself anymore. He could hardly breathe.

He had knocked Sora unconscious so he’d have time to think. He also didn’t know how he’d managed to stay free of the spell. But until he could figure that out and teach it to Sora, he couldn’t let her scuttle up onto the roof to offer herself to the ryuu.

Daemon pressed himself against the wall and forced his lungs to work. He couldn’t pass out too.

He looked at Sora again while he breathed. Her hair swung like a fringe curtain as her head bobbed limply. But she was safe, for now.

His heart calmed enough that he could think straight, and he remembered why he was here. To collect as much information as he could about what Prince Gin was up to. And to stop him if at all possible. Daemon climbed up the wall a little and listened to what was happening above.

“I’m so happy you’re all eager to begin our work together,” Prince Gin was saying. “Now I’ll gift you with the ability to see ryuu magic, and you’ll join us.”

Daemon inched closer to the roof, in danger of being spotted. What did it mean to “see” ryuu magic?

“Taiga power stems from the exact same magic as ryuu power,” Prince Gin said, “but taigas don’t know how to use it to its fullest potential. They don’t understand that magic is tangible, visible.”

Daemon’s jaw hung open. Magic was visible? Did that mean that any taiga could perform ryuu-level magic, if they could see the source? Maybe not someone as clumsy with spells as Daemon, but someone like Sora . . .

Prince Gin continued talking to the captured taigas. “You see, mudras and chants are crutches the taigas need to focus their attention, in order to even find magic. But we ryuu already know where it is. It is all around us, like emerald dust. Once I give you Sight, your vision will be more attuned to the magic, and you’ll be able to see the ryuu particles for yourselves. Then all you’ll need is a thought, and the magic will do your bidding.

“I’ll touch each of your eyes,” Prince Gin said. “When you open them again, look for the green particles that float all around you. That is magic.”

Oh. Daemon’s hope sank. There wasn’t a simple solution. A taiga couldn’t simply start using ryuu magic by virtue of knowing it existed. There was still some special Sight that Prince Gin had to give them.

A solemn silence swept across the rooftop as he approached the first taiga to touch her eyes.

Then there was a loud, long gasp, like the sound a branding iron makes on sizzling skin. It tapered off to a quiet chill, like the steam that rises off the surface of snow.

The same sound repeated itself, starting hot and ending cold, over and over until the Dragon Prince had touched all fifty-four taiga warriors.

Daemon shivered and held tight to the wall.

“Now,” Prince Gin said, “step to the front edge of the roof, and we’ll finish your initiation.”

Daemon frowned. What else could be involved in transforming a taiga to a ryuu?

He glanced over at Sora. Her body sagged away from the wall, but her hands and feet still held on. Assured that she was all right, Daemon climbed his way toward the front of the building until he was at the corner.