Night of the Dragon (Shadow of the Fox #3) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,2
through with Kamigoroshi, and left him to die on the field of battle. To save us both, the souls of Kage Tatsumi and Hakaimono had merged, allowing Hakaimono to use his full power to heal the body and keep it alive. Impossibly, it had worked, and I had been able to kill most of Genno’s army before they could slaughter everyone. But in my weakened state, the temple had been destroyed, and Genno had left with all three pieces of the Dragon scroll in his possession.
The Master of Demons had everything he needed to summon the Great Kami Dragon and make the wish that would herald the end of the empire. We had to find Genno and stop him from using the scroll, but it was going to be a long, treacherous journey, and some of us might not survive. Even without the concern that my demon half could emerge at any time and tear my companions apart.
“Tatsumi?”
I looked up. Yumeko had broken from the rest of the group and now stood before me with the firelight against her back, casting her in a faint orange glow. She still wore the elegant red-and-white onmyoji robes from the night she had performed for the emperor, though the billowy sleeves were tattered now, her long hair was unkempt, and dirt stained her face and hands. She did not look like a revered diviner of the future. She looked like a peasant girl wearing a costume, except for the tall, black-tipped fox ears poking out of her hair, and the bushy, white-tipped tail behind her. I knew her fox features were invisible to most humans, but ever since the night she had invaded my soul, they were always visible to me. A reminder that Yumeko was kitsune, a yokai. She wasn’t completely human.
But then again, neither was I.
“May I sit with you, Tatsumi?” she asked in a soft voice, large eyes glowing a subtle gold in the flickering shadows. I nodded, and she carefully picked her way across the stones to sit beside me, that bushy orange tail brushing my leg as she settled against the cave wall. Odd that the contact didn’t make me shy away like it used to.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“I’m alive,” I told her in an equally quiet voice. “That’s about all I can say for certain.” She stared at me, her gaze searching, questioning, and I felt my lip curl in a faint, bitter smile. “I know what you’re asking, Yumeko. And I can’t answer. I feel...different. Strange. As if...” I tried to find the words to explain the impossible. “As if there’s a hidden rage inside me, this...savagery that needs only the barest push to come out.”
Yumeko blinked, looking thoughtful. “Like when Hakaimono was living in your head?” she asked. “You were always fighting him for control—is this the same?”
“No.” I shook my head. “We were always separate, two individual souls fighting each other for control of one body. If...if I am still Tatsumi, I feel as if Hakaimono is part of me now. That his viciousness and bloodlust could come out at any time. And, if I am Hakaimono, I feel that Tatsumi has infected me with his human thoughts, fears and emotions.” I raised a hand before my face; it looked human enough, but I remembered the deadly talons that had curled from my fingertips the night I fought Genno’s army. “Maybe it’s best if I take my leave,” I muttered. “If I am part demon, none of you will ever be safe.”
I shot Yumeko a sideways glance to see if any of this frightened her, but her golden fox eyes seemed only sympathetic. “No,” she said bluntly, making me blink at her. “Don’t go, Tatsumi... Hakaimono...whoever you are. You promised you would help us find the Master of Demons. We need you.”
“And what if I’m not Tatsumi?” I asked, turning to face her. “What if I am Hakaimono? How do you know whose soul is stronger, or if Kage Tatsumi even survived the merging of human and demon? Even I don’t know the answer to that.”
She continued to gaze at me without fear. Watching her, I felt a jolt of shock as light fingers came to rest on my arm, sending a ripple of heat coiling