Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 92392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“I’m already steps ahead of you on that thought. I’m making sure she gets off after this.”
“Then, we’ll do it together.”
“No. You will give her a hug, then go off to Reo and I will do the ritual and make sure—”
“We will do everything together. Tonight, brother, I am your shadow. I am the cold breeze against your neck. I am the fucking—”
“Annoying ass little brother that won’t let me think.”
“That too.” I nodded.
Kenji smiled and gazed at the road ahead. “Hurry up, Yoichi. We don’t have much time.”
“Yes, sir.” Yoichi increased the speed.
The cart shook.
Stay alive, my Tiger. Just stay alive, and I'll carry you off this island myself.
I looked over at my brother again.
Kenji watched the road, but I knew he wasn't really seeing the path ahead. His jaw was too tight, and his thumb moved slow along the silver guard of his gun, back and forth.
He’s afraid for her too.
In all the years I had known my brother, through every battle, war, and the piling up of dead bodies, I had never once watched a woman put that look on his face.
Women came and went from the Dragon's life like weather. Most arrived on warm winds and departed with the changing seasons, though each believed herself destined to linger.
Some drifted through like spring rain, gentle, forgettable, and leaving behind little more than the scent of flowers and damp earth.
Others arrived as summer storms, fierce and dazzling, all lightning smiles and thunderous promises, only to vanish before the skies had fully cleared.
There were the small few that struck like typhoons against the shores of his empire, certain they could reshape my brother through force, devotion, or desire.
None ever succeeded.
The Dragon endured.
The weather moved on.
Perhaps our Tiger was a hurricane. Surely, she tore through his carefully ordered world and uprooted so many pieces of him he never intended to surrender.
Shit. She uprooted so many pieces of. . .us.
I slipped my finger along the locket, and suddenly I heard the sound of a loud engine, higher and farther off.
Huh?
I turned that way. “Do you hear that?”
Kenji blinked. “Hear what?”
The noise was a thin metal whine that slid down from the north and climbed over the trees toward us.
Oh fuck.
“I think.” My spine went straight. “A plane is coming.”
Beside me, Kenji's hand drifted to the holster at his hip and rested there. “Don’t worry. The guns will be ready.”
“The war is starting now.”
“Not yet. That’s Akiro’s scout plane. We knew it was on the way.”
“But you didn’t know that Akiro would bomb Tokyo.” I let out a long breath, thinking about all the innocents who were already lost tonight. “Why would he do that? It doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s not our focus right now—”
“You control Japan. It needs to be—”
“One thing at a time, brother.” He scowled at me. “I am only one man.”
“No. You are the Dragon. That means you are more than one man.”
Kenji looked away, and. . .for some reason. . .that made my gut twist. I didn’t know why, but he was off.
All of this just felt. . .fucking off.
And for this war, we needed to be fully on.
A minute later, the plane sounds grew louder to the point where Kenji and Yoichi could finally hear it too.
Kenji’s thumb settled on the silver guard of his gun.
I checked the sky and saw the lights. Two red ones and a white one blinked in the black sky over the water, swelling larger by the second.
Fuck you, Father. We will win tonight. No matter what.
The shape behind those lights stayed dark. Seconds later, the moon caught the long line of a wing, then a curved belly, then the thin tail, and the rest of the plane held the same black as the night around it.
The sound rose into a thick drone and began to shape into a hard, flat buzz, filling the sky, crawling down through the trees, and pressing against my chest.
I gripped my mask.
The plane’s engine roared.
Louder.
Closer.
Growling, Yoichi increased the speed on the cart.
Scout or not, we need more time before the battle. And we have to get Nyomi off the goddamn island!
I gripped the locket tighter.
Soon, the antiaircraft gun let out a long, tearing boom that rolled across the water and shook the leaves over our heads.
A second gun answered it.
I turned toward the guns.
Come on. Do your fucking job! We need a win in this night of losses.
The antiaircraft shells streaked into the sky. They were bursts of white flashes that lit the clouds and went dark just as fast.
Come on. Please!
One shell hit the plane.
Fuck yeah.
Kenji let out a long breath.
The plane spasmed in the sky and its engine's roar broke into a high, ragged scream. Metal tore against metal.
Is the plane completely fucked?
My heart slammed against my vest.
I came up out of my seat to get a better look.