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)
The clearing went white, then silver, then black at the corners, and through all of it I held Kenji's face and the face of the daughter I had just buried in every year she would have lived, and I gave the bowl exactly what it begged for.
Chapter six
Something is Off
Hiro
Yoichi would not tell us anything, even after Kenji threatened to kill him and I promised to maim him.
Yoichi simply kept saying that we did not have the time for answers.
“If something is wrong with our Tiger. . .” I pointed to Yoichi. “I will torture you before I let you die.”
“Duly noted, Hiro.” Yoichi continued to drive us along. His hands stayed loose on the wheel and his shoulders remained relaxed as if he were guiding us toward a late dinner instead of some odd ritual in the forest.
The headlights cut a thin yellow road through the trees.
The silver-white moon hung over all of it.
The cart rolled down the gravel path with my brother on one side of me, my mask in my lap, and a fresh lollipop in my mouth.
Pink.
I pulled the lollipop out and stared at it.
“Hmmm.” I looked at Kenji. "What do you think they were having?"
My brother’s gaze remained on the night sky. “Who?”
“Sora and Nao.”
Kenji snapped his gaze to me and frowned. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It does.” I placed the lollipop back in my mouth.
My brother went rigid beside me. His jaw worked once. He looked down at the Wanyūdō mask in his hands, then out at the trees. "Don't do that, Hiro. Not tonight."
“Do what?”
“Take on every death like you personally murdered the person.”
“I only do it if it makes sense.”
“The blood is on Kiko’s hands, not yours.”
“You truly believe that?”
“Of course.”
“Hmm.” I put the lollipop back in my mouth and rolled the pink candy over my tongue.
The island slid past, and all around us, armed men got into position.
A group of Scales dragged a gun belt between them and fed it into a mounted weapon at the tree line. One of them wiped his palms down his thighs before he gripped the handles. His hands shook.
Further up the slope, a man knelt behind a low stone wall and laid his rifle across the top of it. He sighted down the barrel toward the water, then lowered it, then sighted again, hunting for the angle he liked.
Three more men crouched at the mouth of a footpath, passing a single canteen down the line. Each one drank, wiped the rim, and handed it on. No one spoke.
On the right, a young Scale I didn't know stood alone against a tree with his eyes closed and his lips moving. He was probably saying a prayer, a name, or a goodbye.
I looked away before I could decide which.
The whole island was loading itself like a gun.
The path turned. A black wall of forest rose on our right. Salt cut through the smell of gun oil.
The night felt almost peaceful.
For a moment, nothing happened.
The cart hummed beneath us. The tires turned over the gravel in a slow, even crunch. Wind moved through the high branches and let them settle again. Off in the distance, the ocean pushed against the rocks and pulled back.
My brother calmly breathed beside me.
Does the island know what’s coming? Can the trees and soil feel it?
The lollipop went sweet and small against my tongue, and the dark slid by, and for those few seconds the whole island held still around the three of us.
I didn't understand how our Tiger had ended up with the Silent Ones. She was supposed to be gone and far from the blood we were about to spill. All the other women had done so.
Yet, somewhere between the evacuation order and this cart heading her way, she had found the Silent Ones and remained.
Why? And what is this fucking ritual shit Kenji keeps talking about? Have they both lost their minds?
I had carried a lot of fear in my life. Fear of the dead. Fear of my father. Fear of what I might become before the night ended. But this fear for our Tiger was a new type of fear. It was sharp, cold, and came with a deafening scrape against my eardrums.
I can’t lose Nyomi too. . .I can’t. . .
I couldn't even think about the possibility of Nyomi being harmed. Anytime my mind tried, my heart immediately shut the door.
Because if I let myself follow the thought to the end. . .Nyomi as a ghost. . .haunting me. . .her standing in a corner with a wound she shouldn't have, smiling a too-wide smile and waiting for me to notice her.
No.
My hand went to my vest, and I pulled out the locket and squeezed it. “When we get to our Tiger, I’m going to let you do whatever this ritual is and then I’m personally making sure she gets off this island.”