“Sound the alarm. Alert Prince Gin and the others that we have a stowaway, and search the ship to see if there are more. I suspect that, at the very least, this taiga’s gemina is on board.”
The steely prick of panic pierced Sora again, although this time, it was her own. But Daemon would feel it and know they were after him now.
Please, please, get off the ship.
The ryuu rushed off to carry out orders. Hana turned back to Sora.
“You say you remembered me,” Hana said, the harshness of giving orders still lingering, “and yet no one tried to come after me. If you and the Society cared as much as you claim, someone would have pursued us. We were tenderfoots, for gods’ sake. I waited for you that Friday night for our sleepover, and you didn’t come. You just left me in the nursery for them to take us.”
Sora staggered at the anger in her sister’s eyes, as savage as a tempest. This was not the Hana she’d known.
“What do you mean, let them take you? Who is ‘they’? I thought you died. The nursery burned down that night. I . . .” Sora could hardly choke out the words. “I saw all the little bodies.”
Her sister scowled. “Some tenderfoots died, but Prince Gin’s warriors took others.”
“Why?” The question came out as a whisper.
“Because we were small and they could hoist us over their shoulders as they retreated. Why would Prince Gin leave an entire generation of talent for the Society, when he could have them for the day when he returned to Kichona?”
If not for the mist snake holding her up, Sora would have collapsed onto the ship floor.
“I’m so sorry, Hana. I didn’t know.” The memory of that night came rushing back, as well as all the heavyhearted nights thereafter when Sora would relive the decision to go with her friends on the dirigible instead of getting Hana for their sleepover. Sora would wake with tears soaking her pillowcase, only able to calm down after Daemon soothed her through their bond.
“But I’m here now,” Sora said. “And so are you—”
“Just because I wanted you to be with me ten years ago doesn’t mean I want you now,” Hana said flatly. Her features were pinched, as if saying this cost her something. “Prince Gin raised me. The ryuu are my family. And stop calling me Hana. I go by ‘Virtuoso’ now.”
If it were possible for Sora’s heart to sink, it was happening now. Straight out of her chest, through the bottom of the ship, to the ocean floor.
She slumped against the mist snake’s coils, looking at her sister and trying to reconcile the strong-willed sixteen-year-old before her with the eager-to-please, clingy little girl she’d been a decade ago.
“Enough talk,” Hana said. “I can’t deal with this right now. And Prince Gin will want to see you. He can be very . . . charming.”
But Sora already knew that. She wriggled in the snake’s grasp, to no avail.
She was about to lose her mind to the Dragon Prince. Again.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Daemon dove into the sea just as the alarm was sounded on the ship. He wanted to stay on the surface, to look back at where he’d left Sora, but he couldn’t. The future of the kingdom was at stake, and he’d promised Sora he would do his part, even if it meant leaving her alone.
But if anyone can take care of herself, he told himself, it’s Sora. Daemon tried to take comfort in the fact that Prince Gin probably wouldn’t kill her. He wanted to recruit more taigas, and he would bewitch Sora to join him.
Maybe I can do whatever it was that I did last time to jerk her out of his spell, Daemon thought. Even though he wasn’t quite sure what it was he’d done.
Daemon kicked his legs and swam as hard as he could in the frigid water. For once, his pathetic magical ability had cooperated, and he’d successfully cast a sailfish spell on himself, which would allow him to hold his breath longer. He pushed and pulled with his arms, diving deeper, putting more space between him and the ship.
Suddenly, a shock wave rattled his gemina bond and colored it black, like ink injected into water.
Sora! Daemon gasped and swallowed seawater. He choked and his lungs burned. His legs instinctively kicked upward.
When he broke through the surface, he coughed and gulped for air.
Ryuu swarmed the ship’s deck. Some were up in the rigging. One was