Shadow of The Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,151

and fell backward, slashing wildly with his blade, his helmet came off, rolling across the planks, and stopped in front of a pillar.

Darting around the edges of the chaos, I peered through the bedlam for the real Chu and Reika, hoping they were all right. The shrine maiden stood in the center of the room, purifying ofuda in each hand, hurling them at passing demons. Where they touched, there was a burst of power, and the amanjaku writhed away into smoke as they were exorcised. Chu rampaged around her, swatting the demons that got too close with huge clawed forepaws or crushing them in his teeth. For now, both looked like they were doing fine. The hitodama hovered overhead, casting the room in hazy light, waiting for us.

I sprinted to where the helmet lay forgotten next to the pillar, snatched it up and put it on my head. Fox magic flared, and in a puff of white smoke, my appearance changed. Gazing down at myself, I no longer saw the elegant white robes of the onmyoji; I saw a squat, ugly body with festering red skin, tattered rags and hooked claws. I chuckled, and it sounded evil and raspy in my ears.

A green amanjaku rushed up to me, snarling and chattering, making frantic gestures back toward the room. I couldn’t understand a word it was saying, if it was even using words, but it clearly thought I was the commander of the horde of amanjaku, which was unfortunate for it. I stabbed the demon in the chest with my tanto and it blinked at me in shock, before writhing into tendrils of smoke and vanishing into nothing.

Well, that’s useful.

Bounding back into the chaos, I began slicing unwitting demons into smoke clouds while they were distracted by the dozen or so replicas still dancing about the room. Fortunately, amanjaku didn’t appear to be terribly smart, and would chase illusions of me around the room with maniacal persistence, hacking at them until they popped with a puff of white smoke and a single reed, drifting to the ground. When this happened, the amanjaku seemed to think it a victory, for they would jump up and down, pumping their fists in the air, before hurling themselves at the next replica. Slipping through the confusion, I stabbed one demon after the other, sending them back to Jigoku.

An angry shout made me pause. I looked up, just in time to dodge the wakizashi of the amanjaku commander whose helmet I’d stolen. The demon hissed and ranted at me, baring his fangs and swinging his blade in short, furious arcs. I dodged and parried with my shorter dagger, backpedaling across the room until I hit one of the pillars, then instantly ducked as the amanjaku swung his sword at my head. The blade hit the beam, lodging in the wood for a split second, and I snatched a leaf from the floor as I rolled away. The amanjaku commander yanked his sword from the post, spun around and came face-to-face with two more of himself. One wearing a helmet, and one not.

For a moment, he squinted in confusion, trying to decide which was which. Then with a howl, he lunged at me, the demon with a helmet, sinking his blade deep into my chest.

Or so he thought. The amanjaku wailed, clutching at the sword, before it exploded in a puff of white smoke, the helmet falling to the ground with a clank. The amanjaku commander barely had time to blink in shock before I lunged through the smoke and stabbed him in the heart.

As the demon snarled and twisted into fading wisps of darkness, I became aware of the silence in the room. Feeling hostile eyes on my back, I spun around to find myself in the shadow of a growling Chu, his lips pulled back from his enormous fangs, tensing to lunge.

“Chu, wait! It’s me.” I shook off the illusion in a puff of smoke, noting how very large the dog spirit was up close. As the mist dispersed, I yanked the leaf from my head and held it in front of his nose. “Not a demon,” I told him, as his nostrils twitched. “Just a kitsune. One who has thought nothing but nice things about you since you appeared in tiny dog form. See?”

The komainu looked wholly unimpressed; with a snort, he turned and padded back to Reika, standing alone in the center of the room. An ofuda was held between the shrine maiden’s