Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,141

What was wrong with this picture?

I breathed in slowly, and suddenly I knew. There was no smell. No scent of death, no sweet aroma of blood on the air, no reek of offal spilling from the bodies. I touched a tongue to the blood staining my claws and tasted nothing but my own sweat and skin. Amusement flickered, but beneath that, I felt the faintest ripple of unease.

Another illusion.

I clenched a fist and felt the Dragon scroll crinkle in my hand. Like paper? Frowning, I glanced down at it.

It was no longer a scroll.

Opening my claws, I stared in disbelief at the bundle of ofuda in my hand, dozens of them, resting in my palm. And each one of the slips of paper bore the words of a binding ritual in stark black ink. As I gaped in shock, the words flared red with power.

“Kuso!” I dropped the bundle like it was on fire, but it was too late. Like a swarm of moths, the ofuda spiraled upward, becoming streamers of light that swarmed around me. I felt the bite of chains once again, what felt like hundreds of links wrapping around me, anchoring me to the ground.

At my feet, the body of the kitsune vanished, fading to nothing in a puff of white smoke. With similar pops, the bodies of the tengu and slaughtered humans disappeared, as well. Beneath my boots, the wooden floor exploded into smoke, the walls, pillars, altar, ceiling, all turning to mist around me as I stared in shock.

The entire temple was an illusion?

Stunned, I gazed down at the massive binding circle surrounding me, seals upon seals, with me in the very center. As the smoke cleared, I looked up to see the dozen tengu standing around the edge, their voices rising in one unified chant.

Enraged, furious at the elaborate trick, I tried lunging forward, straining against the bonds holding me down. But this circle was huge and enormously powerful, drawing strength from the earth and the chanting of the tengu surrounding it. The longer I had stood inside its borders, the weaker I’d become. This entire ruse was created to keep me within the ring, to distract me as I wasted my time murdering illusions, as the real binding circle sapped my strength and grew more powerful by the second.

The chains around me grew even heavier, tightening around my limbs and squeezing the breath from my lungs. Clenching my jaw, I planted my feet and braced myself, determined not to kneel, not to be forced to the ground. I would not submit. The tengu could chant until their throats shriveled and the voices left their bodies, but I would not be beaten. And I would kill any who got close enough to try to end my life.

As the last of the smoke faded away, the ring parted, and a familiar face appeared at the edge of the circle. Alive. Unharmed. Minus a gaping hole where her heart should be. Her gaze met mine over the binding circle, and she stepped forward.

I smiled as she drew closer. “That…was an inspiring ruse, fox girl,” I said, gathering my strength to lunge when the time was right. “I’m almost impressed. I didn’t think you had the power for that sort of elaborate deception, but you are kitsune, after all. So, now the question becomes…are you cold-blooded enough to kill me?”

Her jaw clenched as she drew close, a shadow of both fury and anguish crossing her face, and I chuckled. “Can you do it?” I murmured. “Drive your knife into my heart and send me back into the sword, knowing your precious Tatsumi will die and his soul will go to whatever afterlife awaits?”

The kitsune shook her head, and her eyes gleamed as she looked up. “No, Hakaimono,” she whispered, stopping just a lunge away. “I’m not going to kill Tatsumi, but I am going to send you back into the sword. On my life, you will return to Kamigoroshi, even if I must destroy my own soul in the process.”

I snarled and lashed out, fighting the chains to sink one claw into the loose fabric of her robes. At the same time, the kitsune lunged forward, startling me, and grabbed my face with both hands. Her lips parted, mouth gaping wide, as a glowing mist shaped vaguely like a fox emerged between her teeth and hovered before me. With a jolt, I realized what she was doing and tried shoving her body away, but the fox-shaped mist