Shadow of The Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,145

is close.

I could feel the pulse of dark power in the air as we stepped through the frame, and I tightened my hold on Hakaimono. The demon fought me, knowing something was close, wanting to feel blood and flesh sliding over its blade. Bloodlust surged through my veins, filling me with the urge to kill, but I was also acutely aware of Yumeko, walking close at my side. I could see her from the corner of my eye, feel her presence in the space around me, and was torn between the almost painful desire to protect the girl and tear the head from her neck.

Focus, I told both myself and Hakaimono. Your objective is getting to the priest.

The room beyond the door was musty and warm, the air stale. Boxes, sacks and wooden barrels were stacked in rows throughout the chamber, with garden implements stored against the walls and atop the crates. A single lantern hung from a wooden beam, casting a flickering orange light over the floor, but the rest of the storehouse was shrouded in darkness.

“Where’s the witch hiding?” the ronin muttered into the silence.

A soft chuckle answered him, creeping out of the shadows. “No need to be rude. I’m right here. This way, little ducklings. Follow the sound of my voice.”

Cautiously, we did, easing around the stacks of crates and barrels, inching toward the back wall, where a faint crimson glow began emanating from the far corner.

Lady Satomi waited for us at the end of the last aisle, her features cast in a red glow. It came from a tall, full-length mirror in the corner of the room, the glass reflecting the smiling woman in its depths. A dirty sheet lay crumpled at the base of the mirror, indicating it had been covered a moment ago, and the entire structure seemed to pulse with a subtle malevolence.

Yumeko took one look at the woman in the corner and leaped back, brushing my arm as she darted behind me, making my senses spike. I glanced at her, confused. She had made herself very small against my back, as if she were afraid of the mirror itself. I supposed she, too, could feel the darkness radiating from it, the sense that it was something unnatural.

“What trickery is this, witch?” the shrine maiden said, raising her ofuda like a sword.

“This? It’s called a mirror,” Satomi replied with exaggerated slowness. “Commonly used to make certain you are presentable to the rest of society. Perhaps you should get one for yourself?”

“That’s not what I meant! Where is Master Jiro? You said you would take us to him.”

“Did I? I suppose I did. Well, then...” The woman reached up and carefully drew a hairpin, long and pointed with an ivory ball on the end, from her hair. For a moment, she held it before her, the thin metal glimmering in the light, before raising her other hand and jabbing the point into her index finger. Her face remained serene as she drove the needle tip into her skin without flinching.

A drop of blood welled from the puncture wound, swelling like a tick on the end of her finger. As we watched, Lady Satomi calmly raised the injured hand and pressed the spot of blood to the surface of the mirror. As the glass rippled, like a stone dropped into a puddle, the woman smiled.

“Your precious master is through here,” she said to the shrine maiden, and lifted her gaze to all of us, the challenge in her voice apparent. “Save him if you can.”

And with that, she stepped forward, into the mirror, and vanished through the glass.

The ronin let out an emphatic curse. “Wait, what? The hell just happened? Everyone saw that, right? You all saw her get sucked into the mirror. What was that?”

“Blood magic,” I said grimly, as Yumeko peeked around my arm. The reflection in the mirror was distorted now, the images hazy and twisted. A single spot of red still marred the glass, floating on the surface. “Lady Satomi is a blood mage,” I confirmed, as our grotesque reflections gazed back at us, swirling in unrecognizable circles. “A powerful one, if I had to guess. The mirror serves as a gateway to another place entirely. That is not the spell of a novice.”

“A gateway?” Yumeko continued to hover at my back. “Where does it lead?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Again, the shrine maiden stepped forward, her face determined. “If Master Jiro is on the other side, I will find him. No matter