Circle of Shadows (Circle of Shadows, #1)(75)

“I’m not leaving your side,” Broomstick said. He fiddled with a new kind of fuse he’d been working on. The taiga weapons masters were always looking to improve the Society’s arsenal, and Broomstick had offered to help with developing a new smoke bomb. But his hands were shaking too. Their entire gemina bond was.

Wolf polished his sword furiously. It was already as shiny as a mirror. “You’ve been insisting that we leave since I got here—and probably before that—but stop. We’re not going to let you die. Or if you do, we’re going to die with you.”

Fairy’s eyes welled with tears, and she stopped trying to fix her crooked makeup. Maybe it was selfish, but if this was the end, she really did want her friends by her side. She nodded, unable to say anything.

“Do you think they’re close?” Broomstick asked. None of them believed Prince Gin would follow instructions and send only two ryuu.

She dabbed away her tears—the eyeliner was a mess now, but who cared—and said, “The Imperial Guards will sound the alarm once they see the ryuu approach.”

“We still need to be on alert,” Wolf said, staring intently at the velvet curtain. “The ryuu aren’t like ordinary soldiers. Once they arrive, we might not have much notice. They could just blow in here like a sandstorm. Or an actual sandstorm.”

They didn’t say anything for a moment. Fairy put the eyeliner away and pushed around the other makeup in the cherrywood box but didn’t apply anything else. Broomstick pretended to concentrate on his fuse. Wolf kept polishing his sword with such ferocity, it was as if he were trying to grind it into a different, smaller blade.

Everything was quiet.

Too quiet.

Fairy started to hum an Autumn Festival song to fill the silence. It was about a poor farmer whose wheat had not grown, and his neighbors who brought him gifts of bread and new seeds to help.

The velvet curtain behind her lifted. A familiar voice interrupted her song.

“Hello, Your Majesty.”

It was Spirit.

Fairy’s heart leaped. In the same instant, though, horror suffocated her hope as she processed the sadistic bite in Spirit’s tone. She must be under the Dragon Prince’s spell.

“Stop! I’m not—” But before Fairy could finish, she was yanked out of her seat and put in a headlock. A knife pressed against her throat, although there was no visible arm to hold it. Fairy tried to cry out, but the pressure on her neck had disabled her voice box.

“Freeze, Sora!” Wolf shouted, as he and Broomstick jumped up from their chairs.

The arm around Fairy’s neck materialized. If she’d been able to, she would have gasped. Spirit had been invisible.

“Daemon? Broomstick?” Spirit said, confused.

“What are you doing here?” Wolf asked.

“I’m here to kill the empress.” Her voice was fire, not like the same kind of flame it usually was. This was hot in a zealous kind of way, like a forest fire on a rampage.

Fairy tried to jab her with her elbow, but Spirit just tightened her grip.

“Prince Gin hypnotized you,” Wolf said. “You’ll do whatever he says.”

“Shut up,” Spirit said, jerking Fairy against her body. “I’m my own person. I do what I want, and what I want is to help Prince Gin usher Kichona into an age of glory. And then, if we succeed, Kichona will become a paradise, and we will be immortal.”

Broomstick took a cautious step closer, at the same time giving Fairy a warning look not to struggle, because their friend was unpredictable. “That’s just a myth, Spirit,” he said gently. “It’s not real.”

“It is real. We just haven’t achieved it yet because there hasn’t been a warrior worthy of turning Kichona into the vast empire Zomuri wanted. But now we have Prince Gin, and he’ll do it. He’s already pushed magic beyond what taigas have known for centuries. He’ll push our kingdom beyond what we know too. He’ll make the Evermore real.”

“Sora . . .” Wolf said, taking a step closer.

“Shall I slit the empress’s artery and kill her right away, or slice her in a hundred different, shallow places and let her bleed slowly to death before your eyes?”

“Spirit,” Fairy said. Or, she tried to say it, but her roommate’s chokehold was tight, and she could barely get out a whisper.

“I don’t want to hear from you,” Spirit said. The tip of her knife pierced Fairy’s skin.

“You’re hurting her!” Broomstick said. “That’s—”

But Wolf had unhooked his bo. He lunged at Spirit, trying to reach her around Fairy.

Spirit dodged. She threw Fairy into the air, and somehow, Fairy remained floating there, where no one could reach her. A strip of her dress tore itself off and gagged her.

Broomstick gawked.

“Try to get her down!” Wolf instructed him.

Meanwhile, Spirit drew her sword and advanced on Wolf with rapid slashes.

He spun his bo up, down, left, and right, to block the blows. “You’re not yourself, Sora. Think hard. Remember Kaede City? Do you remember what happened to the taigas there?”

“I remember wanting to join Prince Gin.” She faltered. “And . . . you prevented me!” In anger, she rushed at Wolf.

He thrust the end of his bo into Spirit’s stomach. It forced the air out of her, and she doubled over.