Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
I peered at her. “What would that be?”
“The little tiger.”
“Excuse me?”
Yoichi sighed. “She doesn’t even know she is pregnant.”
The old woman gave me a sad smile. “But you know now.”
My bottom lip quivered as I placed my hand on my stomach. “I’m pregnant?”
“You are. Very new. Barely there. No heartbeat, but the animal spirit hovers over you, waiting for that heartbeat to come. It’s a little tiger spirit.”
I had difficulty gathering myself.
Yoichi blew out a long breath. “Give her time to process.”
“We don’t have time, old man.”
Yoichi growled again.
She turned back to me. “Sacrificing that little tiger will boost the Dragon’s control and cut all the time of the Burial Ritual. The little tiger's life force will become his, woven into his spirit beast.”
“And. . .what will happen to our baby?”
“Your child will die, but she will live inside the Dragon, merging with his power.”
“She?”
“Yes. She.” The Death Guardian gave me a sad smile. “This spell calls for an ancient bargain. A massive sacrifice.”
I looked down at my hand on my stomach.
“You sacrifice the child to save the man.”
I turned to her.
Her gaze went wild. “If the Dragon loses, the Fox wins, and the Fox will take Kenji alive and capture this island. The Fox will take your child anyway, but not as a spirit-gift. He’ll keep you alive just so you can have that little girl. And when she is birthed, well. . .she will live a small, broken life in captivity.”
So many scenarios spun around in my head.
Back in the elevator, I had made a vow to Kenji, our love, and our people no matter how cold the decision would be. I’d committed to abandoning normal society’s rules of decency and go deadly cold if I needed to.
And now the universe was calling my bluff.
The old woman leaned back in her seat. “Or the child can live forever inside the Dragon's power, woven into his immortal spirit, never alone, never separated from him. And you will see that little tiger as you see his dragon spirit.”
But. . .killing our child?
I looked back down at my hand on my stomach.
“Will you do it, Tora?”
I closed my eyes and even with them shut. . .tears spilled.
Will I?
I opened my eyes and did my best to not imagine our little girl. My heart already ached so much. To think of her. . .it would be cruel. . .it would make me too soft with emotion. . .
The cart kept moving.
The trees kept passing.
A little tiger spirit is above me waiting to enter our child. Waiting for a heartbeat that may never come.
More tears spilled and I couldn’t even lift my hand to wipe them.
Sacrifice.
How unfair. . .that all this time I had tried to save Kiko’s unborn kids to now be faced with killing mine?
I’m going to kill Kiko. That I know. . .
The full moon watched.
Shigo-sha watched.
Yoichi went stiff as he kept our cart going forward.
The Dragon I loved was somewhere on this island, preparing to die for me without knowing what I was being asked to kill for him.
The boom of the antiaircraft guns rolled across the trees again, and the little tiger spirit waited to know its fate.
Fuck. . .