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 shivered. “How will I get control?”
“The Soul Bond.”
“What the fuck is that?”
“A lot, Kenji. So much that when you get there. . .simply do what you’re told.”
I sneered. “Nyomi and Hiro better be safe.”
“They are.” Yoichi turned the wheel hard.
The cart swung off the gravel and onto a narrow dirt path that cut straight into the forest, and the trees swallowed us.
The canopy closed overhead and blotted out the moon.
The cart’s headlights shrank to two thin beams swallowed almost as fast as they reached.
Branches clawed at the cart's frame on both sides, scraping the metal, raining leaves down over us, and the dark pressed in so close I could have reached out and put my hand through it.
Next, the cart lurched to a stop.
Yoichi turned off the engine and jumped out. "We have to go on foot from here."
My guns were out before my boots hit the dirt. "This is only fucking woods. Where are Nyomi and my brother?"
"Kenji, trust me." Yoichi got ahead of me. "There is no threat to your brother or your Tiger—"
"I'll fucking decide that." I rushed after him through the dark.
"These are your people. Our people. Their only life purpose is to protect you."
So deep in the forest, low branches raked my arms. Huge roots grabbed at my boots.
If they touched her. . .
I let the rage finish the thought.
I had buried my mother. I had buried Jobon. The ground of this world had already swallowed too much of what belonged to me, and tonight I would not let it have Nyomi.
If my mother's people had laid a single hand on Nyomi, I would empty both guns into every person in this forest.
I did not care whose blood ran in their veins.
I did not care that my mother had probably loved and trusted them with her bloodline.
As I walked in the forest, I had already decided that I would kill her people over my Tiger.
As if he knew those thoughts, Yoichi glanced over his shoulder and scowled. A dark sigh left him and then he looked forward and walked on.
Soon, the trees opened, and a clearing spread out under the moon and red figures filled it.
What is this?
Dozens of people.
Hooded.
Cloaked.
Still as gravestones in a cemetery.
I gripped my guns and pointed at them. "Where are my brother and my Tiger?"
The hooded figures inched back.
One of them pulled down their hood, revealing a woman with gray hair. She gave me a sad smile, broke from the crowd, and walked toward me. She did not look at the barrels or slow for them either.
"Dragon." Her voice came old and even. "I am the Death Guardian. Your mother chose me herself, to watch over you whenever she left this earth."
My eyes cut across the hoods, searching for my brother and finding only red. "Where is Hiro?"
"With the Roar, the Claws, and the Fangs."
"How?"
"A few of us carried him there."
The guns stayed up. "Carried him?"
Yoichi stepped between us with his hands open and his palms out. "You can trust them, Kenji."
Trust?
There was none of it left in me tonight.
There was only Nyomi and Hiro.
“Okay.” I switched to fire.
“Let’s try this a different way.” My fingers tightened, and I pulled the trigger.
Flame ripped from both barrels and lit the clearing red. The fire threw the hooded figures into hard black shadow and rolled its heat back across my face. "Where is my Tiger?"
Some murmurings spread across them.
Further back someone cleared their throat.
Then they all went silent, and the red figures parted.
And there she was.
What? No!
Four hooded figures held Nyomi up. Her head hung forward. Sweat beaded her forehead and ran down the side of her throat. A red robe hung loose off one shoulder.
Then, the smell of blood hit me.
I did a long inhale.
The scent of blood was everywhere.
Thick.
Close.
Wrong.
Fast, I turned off the fire, shoved my guns into their holsters, and crossed the clearing. "Tora!"
The Death Guardian spoke. "Kenji, this is not a reunion. We need to do the ritual."
“Tora?” I caught her against my chest.
Two of the figures holding her backed away, while the other two helped Nyomi balance against me.
“K-kenji. . .” She shivered. “We have to start—"
“What happened?”
“I’m okay—”
“You’re not.”
Her weight grew soft and small in my arms. Right now, she was nothing like the woman who walked into my war room long ago and bent that space to her shape. "Kenji. . .I'm okay. We need to do—"
"I'm going to kill everyone here!" I scanned the hoods over her head and tightened my grip on her. "Every last one—"
"No." Her head fell to my shoulder and she shivered again. "They're on our side. We have to finish the ritual—"
"Where are you hurt?" I pulled back to find her face. My gaze ran down her, hunting for the cut, the tear, the wound, the fucking place the blood came from—and caught on the pin on her robe.