her head.
“Nooo!”
Genno’s shriek echoed over the wind, high-pitched and desperate. His face was no longer triumphant as he lunged forward, throwing out a ghostly hand. “Fox, do not dare!”
Yumeko gave a savage smile. “For Master Isao,” she whispered, and brought the stone down hard.
The skull shattered. Tendrils of black and purple light rose from the pieces, spiraling into the air as the power was released, and Genno wailed. His body seemed to dissipate, fraying apart like mist even as he clutched at it, desperately trying to hold himself together. But he grew fainter and fainter, until he was only the vaguest outline of a man hovering before the Dragon.
Genno.
The voice wasn’t the Dragon’s, but it seemed to echo in the clouds, in the rolling thunder all around us. I recognized it; even after a thousand years, it was impossible to mistake that voice for anyone else.
O-Hakumon, the ruler of Jigoku.
Master of Demons, the voice droned, a terrible rumble in the clouds. The fading yurei cringed, eyes wide with terror as he looked toward the ocean. You have failed, and by our contract, your soul is once again forfeit to me.
With a final scream, the ghost of the Master of Demons became a crimson ball of light that rose swiftly into the air and streaked toward the horizon as if demons were chasing it.
It hadn’t gone far, however, when there was a blast of heat, and a pair of flaming wheels with grinning faces soared overhead. Cackling, the wanyudo demons sped after the fleeing soul, which darted and flew like a terrified dragonfly, trying to escape them. But the demons were faster, and as one wanyudo caught up to the frantic soul, its huge mouth opened, gaping wide, as it clamped its jaws around the ball of light. A tiny scream emerged from the tainted soul as it was dragged from the air in the grip of the demon, who sped toward the ocean without slowing down. I tensed as they approached, but the wanyudo dropped past us in twin balls of fire, plunged into the waves and jagged rocks far below, and vanished from sight.
26
The Harbinger
Yumeko
We...we did it.
I held my breath as the screams from the flaming wheel demons faded into the wind. For a moment, I stood motionless before the altar, my heart pounding in my chest, waiting for something to happen. For Genno’s furious spirit to rise back into the air with a maniacal laugh, mocking us for being so foolish to think we had beaten him. But Genno did not appear. The storm continued to rage, and overhead, the terrifying visage of the Great Dragon still hovered in the clouds, his eyes shining like moons as they watched us.
My legs shook, and I sank to my knees on the rough stone. The rain beat down on me, and there was a prickling sensation where a jagged piece of skull pierced my calf, but I hardly felt it. It was hard to believe, after everything we’d been through, the hardships we’d endured and the sacrifices that had been made, but it seemed that we had won.
“Yumeko.” Tatsumi knelt in front of me, and I collapsed into him, pressing my face to his haori as he pulled me close.
“We did it.” My voice came out choked, and I closed my eyes. Beneath my hands, Tatsumi was shaking, too. “Genno is gone, Tatsumi. It’s really over.”
I felt him take a deep, steadying breath. “What about the Wish?” he mused. “What will happen to it, now that the summoner is dead? Will the Dragon disappear, or will he give it to someone else?”
“I don’t know.” I swallowed and peeked up at the huge Dragon god, still coiled around the mountaintop, uncaring of mortals and their short existences. “Maybe we should ask him.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
The low, familiar voice echoed behind us. I peered up to see Seigetsu standing at the edge of the circle, his hair and tails whipping behind him in the gale. He wasn’t looking at us, however, but at the Great Dragon looming overhead, endless coils flowing in and out of the clouds.