Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,156
red smoke rose from his skin, fragments of his spirit coiling away into the darkness. But he was far from defeated, and the grin on his face, lit an eerie blue in the snapping of foxfire, was chilling.
“Is that all you got?” he asked Yumeko, whose ears flattened at the sight of the First Oni, striding out of the inferno seemingly unharmed. “Granted, I’ll give credit where it’s due—that hurt like hell. But you’re forgetting something, fox.” He raised his arms, kitsune-bi dancing up and down his flesh. “The fires of Jigoku flow through the veins of all oni. Our very souls are suffused with its power. You can’t kill a demon with fire, even obnoxiously bright foxfire, any more than you can drown a kappa. But congratulations, I’ll stop toying with you now.”
He flourished his sword and raised it in front of him, and the kitsune-bi dancing along his shoulders flared a sullen black and red. Hakaimono breathed deep, as hellish flames erupted from his skin, swallowing the foxfire and bathing the oni in a red glow. They flickered down the length of his black sword, turning the weapon into a fiery brand, and the heat radiating from the demon became palpable. Lowering his head, he gave us a smile over the flaming sword.
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve, too,” Hakaimono said, as Yumeko backed toward me, kitsune-bi springing to life in her hands once more. “Shall we see whose fire will burn the hottest? I’m betting it will be mine.”
Grimly, I raised my sword, and Yumeko pressed close, her features dancing with foxfire, as the burning, blazing form of the First Oni sauntered toward us. Hellfire snapped along his shoulders, flickering off his horns, and his eyes were a terrible red in the demonic flames.
He was only a few yards away, close enough to feel the monstrous heat radiating from his skin, when the void overhead erupted with light.
A glowing sphere appeared above us all, floating in the darkness like a tiny moon, casting us all in hazy luminance. As we watched, curious and mesmerized, it drifted closer, trailing a long tail behind it before, in a shimmer of light, it changed. A young woman in simple robes hovered before us, her long hair floating behind her like it weighed nothing at all. She was translucent, pale as rice paper, and glowed softly against the void.
I blinked in shock. A hitodama, a wandering human soul that was unable to pass on after its body died. What was it doing here? I had never seen this girl before.
Hakaimono snorted, throwing up his hand in disgust. “Another one?” he exclaimed. “Are we giving off a signal somehow? It’s getting crowded in here.” Curling a lip, he glanced at me. “Your soul is very popular today, Tatsumi. Maybe you should start charging rent.”
“I know you,” Yumeko whispered, and the yurei turned her gaze toward the girl. “You guided us through Satomi’s castle when we were looking for Master Jiro.” The floating specter ducked her head, casting her gaze to the ground, and Yumeko took a step toward her. “You…are you Suki?”
Hakaimono gave a dark chuckle. “I don’t care who it is,” the demon said. “But I’m getting tired of random spirits showing up to interfere. If you’re here to possess this one,” he pointed his sword at me, “get in line. Otherwise, get out before I rip you into tiny ghost ribbons and scatter you to the wind.”
The hitodama raised its head. Her eyes were huge now as she stared at all of us, her gaze lingering on Yumeko. “Ge…Genno,” she whispered, making both Yumeko and Hakaimono jerk up. Her voice was shaky, fragmented, but the name was very clear. “Reika-san…sent me here…to warn you. The Master of Demons…his army has invaded the temple.”
“Here?” Hakaimono demanded, just as Yumeko asked, “What do you mean?”
“Genno’s…army,” continued the hitodama, wringing ghostly hands. “They’ve…breached the temple walls. While you were fighting…they invaded the Steel Feather temple. They’re killing everyone right now.”
Yumeko gasped as I turned a furious glare on Hakaimono. “You brought the Master of Demons here?”
“No,” growled Hakaimono. “That wasn’t the bargain we made, and you know it. The deal was that I retrieve the scroll for him. He wasn’t supposed to send his damn army. If they’re here, he’s taking matters into his own hands.”
“They’re killing everyone,” repeated the hitodama. Her pale eyes widened even more, as if she saw something we could not. “They are…oh! Oh no!”