needed to put some distance between them, just for a bit, so he could cool down. Thinking about glacial pools took him only so far. “You stay here.”
“And do what?” She crossed her arms.
“Um . . . try to see those green ryuu magic particles?”
“I don’t have Sight.”
“But you’re good at magic.”
She shook her head. “As a taiga, not as a ryuu.”
Daemon frowned. “Well, unless you’re planning to knock on the Dragon Prince’s cabin door to turn yourself in, which I doubt, we need to find another way to learn about their magic. Prince Gin might grant Sight to the recruits, but he had to have discovered the particles the first time, right? What if it’s possible to use ryuu magic without Sight, but it’s just harder than with it?”
“You mean, if knowing the magic is there is half the battle?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “To be honest, I’m making it up as I go along.”
Sora nodded. “Me too.”
They stood there by the trunk for a minute, contemplating the recklessness of their plan. They could be caught at any minute and either executed or hypnotized into service. Daemon may have been able to fend off Prince Gin’s charm once, but there was no guarantee he could do it a second time, and Sora was certainly susceptible to it.
But they hadn’t really had a choice. Or, at least not a choice that Daemon and Sora wanted to pick. Before the ryuu left the Kaede City outpost, they had destroyed all the taigas’ dragonfly messengers, just as they had at Paro Village. Even if Daemon and Sora had stayed behind, they wouldn’t have been able to communicate with the Citadel. At least on the ship, they could attempt to gather more information so that the next time they landed somewhere with a Society post, they’d have more to share.
Plus, there was Sora’s plan to poison the ryuu. They had originally plotted to target only Prince Gin, but now that they knew how loyal his soldiers were, it seemed wiser to take them all out. And frankly, they were more likely to succeed if they aimed for all of the ryuu instead of specific ones.
He shuddered to think about killing everyone on board. Many of them had been loyal taigas just a day ago. And all Daemon had was the taigas. He didn’t have family. The Society was it.
But he also thought about the rira disks that he and Sora had stashed away. Taigas would rather die than allow themselves to be captured. If the ryuu recruits knew what had happened to them—that Prince Gin had made them prisoners within their own minds—they would prefer Daemon and Sora poisoning them over continuing as mind-controlled tools of the enemy.
Poisoning all the ryuu on board really was the best option for everyone. There was no other way that two apprentices were going to be able to stop them.
Daemon’s stomach interrupted the downward spiral of his thoughts by growling again.
“You were on your way out to get us some food, right?” Sora asked.
“Um, yeah,” he said, coming back to the present. “I’ll go now.”
“While you’re at it, why don’t you break into Prince Gin’s cabin and find out all his plans too?” Sora asked. It was supposed to lighten their mood, but given how much was at stake, the joke came out a bit flat.
Daemon appreciated the effort, though, and tried to play along. “Is that a challenge?” he asked.
She smiled grimly. “Work hard, mischief harder. You break into the Dragon Prince’s quarters, and I’ll find a way to access ryuu magic without Sight.”
He nodded. “Challenge accepted.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sora sat cross-legged on the ground. She was hidden by the cargo nets, so if someone came into the hold, she could dive into the trunk.
How do I find this godsforsaken magic? She stared intently at the air in front of her, brows knit together and eyes narrowed. All she saw was nothing.
Prince Gin had said the particles were everywhere, and the only reason taigas didn’t see it was because they didn’t know the magic was tangible.
But now I know, Sora thought. “Magic . . . come out, come out, wherever you are.” There was a beam of light coming in from a hairline crack in the wall. She focused on it. Maybe it would be easier to see the ryuu magic there.
And then . . .
Aha! A particle!
Sora smiled.
When she looked again at the beam of light, though, the particle was gone. And come to think of it, it had