Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,161

a moment, it was just Kage Tatsumi kneeling before me and no one else. Leaning forward, he touched his forehead to mine, closing his eyes. “My life is yours now,” he whispered. “After you came so far to save me, I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

My vision flooded with tears. Grabbing the back of his head, I squeezed my eyes shut and held him a moment, feeling his glow surround us, pulsing faintly against the dark.

Abruptly, he pulled back, breaking free of my hold. “Go on,” he ordered harshly, sounding uncomfortable now. “I’ll join you if I’m able. Stop Genno—that’s all that matters.” I still hesitated, and his voice became a guttural snarl. “Move!”

Lacing my ears back, I reverted to my fox spirit form and fled, feeling Tatsumi and Hakaimono’s gaze on me the whole way. Leaping out of the void, I flew straight up, passed through Tatsumi’s outer shell and came back into the world.

It was eerily empty. The courtyard where we’d staged the ambush was abandoned, though the signs of battle were everywhere. Bodies lay scattered about, bleeding and motionless on the stones, demons, yokai and tengu alike. A winged tengu warrior slumped with his spear thrust through the chest of a minor oni, though it seemed that the demon had landed a fatal blow as it died. Horrified, I gazed around at the carnage. The bodies of a shrine maiden, a noble and a ronin were not among the dead, that I could see. A group of amanjaku lay on the ground, familiar black-feathered arrows jutting from their chests and between their eyes, indicating my companions had taken part in the battle. Where were they now? And where was the Master of Demons?

When I glanced over my shoulder, my heart went cold. Tatsumi lay on his back in the middle of the binding circle, the front of his shirt and the stones around him covered in blood. Kamigoroshi lay beside one limp hand, the blade dead and dull, and his eyes were closed. He looked wholly and completely dead, and I barely stopped myself from plunging back into his soul to see if he was still there.

My body, I noticed, was also gone. It had been lying beside Hakaimono when my spirit left it to possess Tatsumi, but now the binding circle was empty save for the motionless demon.

Well, that’s going to be a problem. Where did my body get to?

A boom from the main hall of the temple made me jerk up, just in time to see a cloud of fire explode through the wall, scattering wood and stones everywhere. Smoke poured out of the main doors, billowing into the sky, and tongues of orange flame flickered through the holes in the wall and roof.

And suddenly, I was there again. At the Silent Winds temple, surrounded by flames and blood, watching a demon army slaughter everyone I cared about.

Flattening my ears, I raced across the courtyard toward the main hall, realizing halfway there that I was actually flying over the stones in spirit form. The thrill of that discovery was overshadowed by the roar of the fire and the sounds of battle through the open doors, shadowy silhouettes darting back and forth within. I glided up the steps of the temple and into the main hall, then halted and gazed around in horror.

More bodies littered the ground, scattered among flames and streaks of blood, tengu warriors, yokai and demons alike. The once elegant, spacious hall had been destroyed—enormous pillars snapped like kindling, the statues of human heroes fallen from their plinths and lying broken on the floor. Fire burned, filling the air with smoke, and hazy figures darted through the clouds, blades and teeth glinting in the hellish light. A tengu swooped between two pillars, landed behind a giant snake and plunged its spear through the yokai’s back. The huge snake hissed as it died, and the tengu spread its wings to take to the air again, but a horde of amanjaku demons swarmed over the pillar and flung themselves on the warrior before he could escape. Biting and stabbing, they bore him to the ground, and blood spread over the polished wooden floor as the warrior died.

No, I thought, seeing demons swarming the Silent Winds temple once more, dragging Satoshi to the ground. Master Isao, rising to face the murderous oni as the temple burned around him. This can’t be happening again. Flying up to perch on a snapped pillar, I searched frantically for my