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)
Goryū’s voice entered my head. He’s here. Sleeping behind this tree.
What the fuck?
I headed off.
Reo followed. “Where are you going?”
“To Hiro. My dragon-shadow is with him.”
Chapter thirteen
The Worst Sort of Ghost
Kenji
Goryū remained a few yards deeper into the forest, away from the table and gunfire.
Here, the trees closed in tight, and the canopy sealed overhead, forcing the moonlight to give up entirely.
The Silent Ones must have placed Hiro here.
Yes.
Sleeping?
Yes.
Reo spoke at my side, “Can you talk to Goryū?”
“I’m talking to him now.”
“Fascinating, and what was the ritual?”
“I barely know. I had to drink something.”
“What?”
“It tasted like blood. I think it came from Nyomi. We didn’t have time for the details.”
“Our Tiger bled for this war?”
I clenched my teeth, got close to Goryū, and then I saw Hiro. They had propped my brother up against the base of a wide trunk with his back straight, his head tipped forward, and his legs stretched out in front of him.
His mask rested in the dirt beside his right hand.
His left hand held a gold lollipop unwrapped as if the Silent Ones were trying to apologize for an unintentional inconvenience.
His chest rose and fell with the slow, full rhythm of a man in deep sleep.
I stared at him for one long second.
A boom rolled across the island.
The ground shook.
Hiro did not move.
Reo studied him. “How is he sleeping?”
“I don’t know.”
“And someone placed him here?”
“The Silent Ones. You didn’t see them?”
“No. I think I would have noticed people carrying Hiro to us.” Reo shook his head. “Even more. . .who’s going to be the poor bastard to wake Hiro up and not die because of it?”
I’m surprised the Silent Ones didn’t die transporting him.
My brother was surely more dangerous asleep than he was awake.
Footsteps arrived behind us.
Then the Claws materialized from the dark—Kaede first, then Toma, Daisuke, and the twins arriving side by side the way they always did.
The Claws took in Hiro sleeping against the tree. Then they looked at me.
Kaede tilted his Tengu mask. "Where is the Tiger?"
"She is safe."
"But respectfully, Kenji. . .where is she?”
One of the twins spoke, “Is she safe and off the island?”
I considered lying to the Claws, but I’d already lied about the bombing of Tokyo being Akiro’s fault. I let out a long exhale. “She’s in the Bamboo Garden’s basement with the rest of the medical staff and Yoichi."
The temperature among the Claws dropped several degrees. The twins stirred. Toma's hand moved to the grip of his rifle and stopped there. Daisuke said nothing, which from Daisuke meant more than anything the others could have said aloud.
Kaede stepped forward. "She is on the island. In a basement. During a war."
"She is surrounded by guards and with Yoichi." I held his masked eyes. "She is the safest person on this island right now."
"She should be off—"
"She should be." I kept my voice flat and even. "She is not. The war arrived before she could leave."
Kaede stepped closer. "Then one of us goes to her. Right now. We fight better knowing—"
"No." I held his masked eyes. "Every one of you is needed at that tree line. Yoichi is with her. My mother’s people who are very strong are on this island watching over her. My Tiger is the most protected person here."
I looked across all of them. "The war ends faster with all of you in it. That is how you protect her. Understood?"
A beat passed. Long enough that I felt the weight of every opinion in that dark circle. They were not happy at all, but they would not fight me on this tonight, not with the war right around us.
The Claws exchanged the wordless language they had built over years of standing beside each other in bad places, and one by one they edged back.
I returned my gaze to Hiro. “Anyone want to wake Hiro for me?”
They backed up some more.
I sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
Slowly, I crouched beside him and gripped his shoulder. "Hiro."
His eyes stayed shut.
I firmly shook him once. "Hiro. Wake up."
My brother moved before the words finished leaving my mouth. And it was pure violence, arriving fully formed, with the economy of a man whose body had learned to kill before his mind woke up to supervise it.
His left leg came off the ground in a tight upward arc, ankle rotating for maximum force, the heel of his boot aimed at the exact point where my jaw met my throat.
A kill shot.
Delivered from a dead sleep.
By a man who still had a fucking lollipop in his left hand.
I was not as fast as I should have been. The ritual had taken something from my legs.
Fuck!
I dropped backward and felt his boot pass so close to my throat that the leather brushed the air from my skin. If I had been half a second slower, my men would have watched Hiro break my neck before he opened his eyes.