something different than his words conveyed. “What are you not telling us?”
“Nothing,” he said, a little too quickly.
Sora frowned. “Daemon?”
He smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Do you believe in me?”
“Of course.”
“Then will you let me keep this secret if I promise to tell you later? I just need it to be mine for now.”
She bit her lip but nodded.
Hana sighed. Love could really muck up your brain. Nevertheless, she trusted Sora, and Sora trusted Wolf, so Hana let it go. Besides, Hana wasn’t the one in charge anymore. She was a taiga now, not a ryuu.
Before he left, Wolf conjured enough food and water for everyone. Then he shifted forms and nuzzled against Sora’s face. It was probably the lupine version of a kiss, but it was a bit too sweet for the rest of them, and Hana, Fairy, and Broomstick groaned and turned away. Wolf laughed, said goodbye again, then took off into the sky.
Broomstick opened his mouth, about to say something.
Sora held up a finger. “Not a word. You tease me, and I will make you sorry.”
He pinched his lips together, pretending to zip them while obviously trying not to grin.
Hana watched them with longing. This is how her sister and her friends had always been, a tight-knit group supremely comfortable with each other. Hana had always wanted to be a part of it.
But now I have a chance, she realized.
Fairy administered the poison to Tidepool, then woke her with salts that were part ammonia, part something even more noxious.
Tidepool opened her eyes groggily but snapped into a fighting stance when she saw her captors.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Hana said. “You’ve been given a poison that will dissolve all your internal organs unless we give you an antidote every two hours. If you want to live, you’ll do as we say.”
“You bitch,” she said as she held her hands up in surrender. “I always knew the emperor should have made me his second-in-command.”
Hana flinched. For most of her life, Prince Gin’s esteem had been the measuring stick for her worth.
But now she’d have to find that elsewhere. Or in herself.
She quickly went over what they wanted Tidepool to do—bring over one of the ships from Dera Falls, use the ocean to sail Empress Aki, Fairy, and Broomstick to Caldan, Brin, and Fale Po Tair, and hopefully lead their navies back to Kichona to stop Prince Gin before his war bled past Thoma and into the rest of the world. Tidepool kept trying to get in snide remarks, but after a while, Broomstick started pantomiming painful deaths caused by the dissolution of his insides, and Tidepool shut up.
“Do as Empress Aki tells you,” Hana said, “and when you’ve returned with our allies, Fairy will give you the permanent antidote to the poison. Agreed?”
Tidepool let out a violent string of Shinowanan curses but finally nodded.
“Good, then. Get started.”
Half an hour later, the fiercest of the warships that had been guarding Dera Falls arrived onshore. Hana and Sora joined Empress Aki, Fairy, Broomstick, and Tidepool on the beach to see them off.
“Here are some messengers,” Sora said, giving Broomstick a lantern full of glittering green eagle rays. “Send us updates at every kingdom.”
Broomstick took the lantern. “I can’t believe I’m voluntarily going to the kingdoms where the Lake of Nightmares said I’d cause so much death.”
“I can believe it,” Empress Aki said. “Self-doubt is a ghost that feeds on fear. Starve it with bravery, and you’ll prevail.” She patted him on the back. “As you have.”
“Good luck, Your Majesty,” Hana said, bowing.
The empress thanked both Hana and Sora, then boarded the ship. Fairy and Broomstick said their goodbyes and took Tidepool on board with them.
And then they were gone.
The space between Hana and Sora suddenly seemed both empty—without Fairy’s constant chatter and Broomstick’s laughs—and too full. There was so much Hana needed to say, but she wasn’t ready to yet.
Sora seemed to feel it, too, because she kept looking straight out onto the ocean, even after the ship was far enough away that it looked like a toy in the distance.
Finally, she turned inland, and dread filled Hana at the questions and accusations that were sure to tumble forth.
Instead, Sora smiled kindly and said, “Want to make some dinner for Papa while you tell me what you know about the bloodstone castle?”
It was as if she knew that Hana couldn’t say all her apologies, couldn’t handle all the regrets and tears right now. And