“Why don’t you get some rest, and we’ll continue your practice tomorrow,” Souta said.
She wasn’t going to get anywhere practicing in this headspace anyway. She headed for the exit of the training grounds, where Noaki had been on guard.
“I have a favor to ask,” Noaki said.
He so rarely asked for anything, or said anything for that matter that she was immediately intrigued.
“What is it?” Suzume asked.
“Akira and Tsuki have asked for you to speak with them.”
She recoiled at the statement. The last thing she wanted to do was to speak with them. As far as she cared, they could rot in a cell forever. They’d not only stolen from her, but betrayed her trust. She thought they were her friends, and once it was convenient, they had turned to Hisato. And now that they were at her mercy. Well, she had none left to give to them.
“I’d rather not.” She strode through toward the courtyard, but Noaki didn’t follow. There were yokai lingering around the courtyard, and after she had set the palace on fire and killed several yokai, she was afraid to go near them without a guard.
She turned back to Noaki. “Let’s go,” she gestured to the courtyard.
Noaki was unmovable as a mountain. “I think you should at least hear what they have to say.”
He never pushed his own agenda upon her before. If she wanted, she could order him to obey, to never speak their names in her presence ever again. Tsuki and Akira were his children, but all this time they’d been together, he’d never really shown any interest in their well-being. Even when they’d betrayed her, he hadn’t spoken out in their defense. Why now? She had to admit, seeing as Naoki was being uncharacteristically stubborn, she was curious.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ll listen to what they have to say, but I make no promises.”
Noaki inclined his head to her, his expression still a blank mask.
The prison of the seaside palace was underground. The stairway led downward into a dark pit, the walls dripping with water from the ocean, and there was a strong scent of salt and fish. As of now, the only prisoners who were being held in these walls were Akira and Tsuki, and the water of Kazue’s cell. Extra layers of protection had been placed around the water of Kazue’s soul’s cell. But as Suzume got closer, she felt the call. A deep yearning in her core, to be reunited, to be made whole once more. Flames flickered along her skin, as if the Kazue inside her was waking and stirring.
The water of Kazue’s soul must have felt it as well, because as Suzume passed her cell, she came to the bars, watching Suzume with wide dark eyes, framed by long lashes.
She spoke not a word as Suzume passed, which made her all the more eerie. It wasn’t certain if she were working for Hisato, or if she had been his prisoner. Suzume was glad she remained in that cell, because she wasn’t ready to confront her, not yet. Suzume passed her cell by and went to the end of the hall where Akira and Tsuki were being kept. Akira had control of the body they shared, and was kneeling against the far wall on a dirty pile of straw. But despite their dreary surroundings, Akira still held her head like a queen.
“Thank you for coming,” Akira said in greeting. She didn’t bother to get up. Did she have no remorse at all for what she had done?
“Noaki says you have something to say. Well, do it quickly.”
Akira did not even flinch. If anything, it only made her angrier.
“We wanted to explain why we did what we did.”
This was it. Would it change anything, maybe not? But maybe it would ease some of the anger that continued to bubble inside her.
“The day of the hybrid attacked, we met the last piece of Kazue’s soul.”
Suzume’s gaze flicked over to the cell which held the last piece of Kazue’s soul. She was watching them, her expression impossible to read. Then she hadn’t been mistaken, it was the water of Kazue’s soul that had saved her that day on the beach.
“Why didn’t you tell me back then, you knew we were looking for her?” Suzume asked Akira and Tsuki.
“That day, she infected us with something. A darkness that threatened to destroy us from the inside out. We had no choice.”
“You did have a choice,” Suzume’s voice rose, the anger was boiling inside her. “We could have tried to find a cure together.”
“Just how you’re quick to rely on others?” Akira arched a brow.
It was like a slap to the face. Was their entire friendship a lie. Had they only helped her until she was no longer useful to them, until someone more powerful came along.
“Don’t be cruel, Akira,” Tsuki scolded, taking control of their body. He moved closer to the bars and grasped them, looking at Suzume with what was meant to be a sincere expression. “Suzume, believe me, I wanted to tell you, but Akira wouldn’t let me.”
She shook her head. They were both liars. “I don’t care what your intentions were. You stole from me and didn’t tell me the truth when it mattered most. Were you ever really my friends?”
Tsuki lowered his gaze. It was all the confirmation she needed. She turned to walk away, and Suzume passed by Kazue’s cell. She lingered there for a moment.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
The water of Kazue’s soul canted her head to the side. “I only tried to get back what I thought was mine.”
Suzume unconsciously reached for her staff on her back. “How can you say it’s yours, this belonged to Kazue.”
“But I am Kazue.”
A creeping sensation was crawling over her skin. There was so much conviction in this woman’s gaze it terrified her.
“Kazue died hundreds of years ago.”
“Yes, on the mountain top where she split her soul apart to gain immortality. But one part of her soul was reborn in me. I am her reincarnation.”
Suzume took a step back. That wasn’t possible. Kazue had never really died, she couldn’t be reborn. Souta’s words came rushing back to her. She’d had her fire ability suppressed when she was young, but what if this woman had been born with the water of her soul within her, then the memories of her past life would have seeped into her soul, to where you couldn’t tell where one part started and the other ended.
She didn’t want to face her and instead turned and strode out of the dungeon. She didn’t even turn to make sure Noaki was with her. She walked blindly. She had to get far away and now. If Kazue was reincarnated, what did that mean for her and Kaito? Would he choose to go back to the woman he had first loved?
Who was she to get between them?
“Whoa, where are you going in a hurry?”
Suzume glanced up to see Kaito, his hands on her shoulders. He couldn’t know about Kazue; she would only lose him if he learned the truth. The idea of losing someone else she loved, she couldn’t bear it.
“I was looking for you, actually.” She forced a smile on her face.
“Oh were you,” he cupped the back of her neck, and she tilted her head up to kiss him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. She couldn’t keep him close enough. She was terrified if she let him go, she would never get him back again.
“Did you miss me, it’s only been one afternoon?” he said against her lips.
“Let’s go back to your room,” she said, panting for breath.
He growled at the back of his throat. “What’s gotten into you?”
She kissed him again, putting all her need and desperation into it. There were no more protests from Kaito as they hurried back to his room. And for a while, she got lost in the oblivion of his embrace.
When they were finished, Kaito’s eyes slid closed, and she studied his sleep face, tracing his jawline with her finger. Kazue might have his past, but she had his present, and she wouldn’t give that up without a fight.
At some point, she dozed off, because the next thing she knew she was waking in a tangle of sheets, she reached for Kaito but found only a warm spot where he had been. She sat
up, clutching a blanket to cover her naked body. Kaito was up and getting dressed.
“Are you going somewhere?” she asked.
Kaito turned as if he hadn’t realized she was there. “Duty calls. A few of my emissaries have returned from their missions, and I need to hear their reports.”
“That sounds boring, why don’t you spend all day in bed with me?” Suzume said in her most seductive tone she could manage. The thought of him leaving her filled her with fear. She wanted to keep him close, by any means necessary.
“Oh?” He quirked a brow and sauntered over to her. He straddled her over the sheets. “That does sound much better.”
Suzume wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close as he kissed her.
Someone knocked on the door, and Kaito sighed.
“Ignore them,” she whispered against him.
He sat back. “I can’t, believe me, I want to very much. But this is important.”
He was leaving her. Panic tightened her throat. She’d never clung to anyone before, but right now, she was feeling very vulnerable. Letting him in it had cracked her open and exposed her soft interior. “What is so important that it can’t wait?” She didn’t mean to, but her tone rose.
The knock persisted.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” he snapped at the door and then frowned at her. “I thought you understood, I’m the ruler of Akatsuki, I have responsibilities.”
“Then, I’ll come with you.” She grabbed onto his hand.
Kaito pulled away gently. “You know that’s not a good idea, it would only be a distraction to the council.” He kissed her forehead once more. “Wait for me, eat breakfast, you’ll need your energy for later.”
He strode to the door without another word. Suzume stared at it for several long minutes. Never in her life had she begged someone. What was he doing to her? Did she have no shame? Without meaning to, she’d let Kaito worm his way inside her heart. Her feelings for him had blinded her, it was making her weak and desperate. And though she swore she would never become her, she realized she was becoming her mother.
19
There was nowhere Ryuu could call home. Rin and Hikaru, who had raised him, had done their best to make him feel welcome and loved. But from a young age, he had been restless and eager to see the wider world. Along his travels, he thought uniting the humans of Akatsuki under his rule would fill the emptiness inside him. But after decades of rulership, unchanged and unaging while those around him grew old and then died, the emptiness only grew. He gave up his position of emperor and retired to the White Palace, where for a time he had been happy, but that soon lost its glimmer. As a half-yokai, he aged much slower, and there was no escaping death for mortals.
He’d left the temple, wandered the countryside, assuming new names and faces until curiosity brought him back to the White Palace, this time, he did not reveal his true identity. And instead lived under an assumed name, and for once, he was happy. And so for centuries, disappearing for decades when he became restless. No matter how far he roamed, he always came back here, this was his home. He knew it like an extension of himself because, in a way, it was a part of him. When a kami dwelled in a temple, their spiritual energy became entwined with their shrine. For Ryuu, it was much the same. And when he entered the temple grounds, the air felt charged. There was an uneasiness that had seeped into the very soul of these sacred grounds, and it flowed back to him on his return.
Priests sweeping the steps greeted him with a smile. Nothing had physically changed, but the deeper into the shrine grounds he went, the more the uneasy feeling choked his throat. He’d only intended to make a quick stop, gather his things from his quarters before heading to the White Palace, but something told him he should speak with the head priest first.
The current head priest, Nariuji’s quarters were at the heart of the temple. Ryuu rapped on the door with his knuckles. The unsettled feeling was worse here. As if the concerns of the head priest were polluting the entire temple. Things must be serious if even Nariuji was rattled. He was typically a very serene individual.
“Come in,” came a rasping voice.
Ryuu slid open the door. The head priest sat behind his desk and twirled the end of his long white beard. His bushy brows were furrowed as he studied the letter on the table in front of him. Ryuu recognized the seal at the bottom, it was from the minister of religion. One of the highest-ranking officials and advisor to the emperor.
“Am I interrupting?” Ryuu asked.
The old man’s eyes snapped up toward him, and a smile broke out across his face. “Ryuu, I thought we had seen the last of you when you left months ago.”
He gestured for Ryuu to take a seat across from him, and Ryuu settled himself onto the cushion opposite from the elderly head priest. Few could sense his true nature, and to most, Ryuu kept that side of himself hidden. But Ryuu still remembered the wiry young man who’d first come to the temple from his fishing village. Straight away, he’d seen through Ryuu’s disguise and kept it a secret from the others without Ryuu needing to make threats. The decades passed to fast; in the blink of an eye, humans aged and died. Just thinking of it filled him with wistful regrets. He should have stayed around longer, gotten to know Nariuji better.
“I won’t be back long, I’m afraid,” Ryuu said.
There was a knock at the door.
“That’ll be my tea, will you share a cup with me?” Nariuji asked.
Ryuu nodded.
“Come,” Nariuji said to the acolyte outside.
They entered with a pot and two cups. Word spread fast in the temple, and it had likely already leaked outside the palace. His absence would not have gone unnoticed by the emperor. It would not surprise him if he were summoned to the White Palace soon.
The acolyte set the tea kettle and the two glasses down and then lifted the pot to pour for them both, but Ryuu dismissed them with a wave. He set the pot back down, before bowing and exiting the room. Ryuu filled the glasses for him, and the head priest, and the fragment aroma of herbal tea filled the room. Nariuji took his glass and inhaled the steam.
“I should be the one serving you, not the other way around,” Nariuji remarked before taking a sip.
“Nonsense, you are head priest here,” Ryuu replied, he held onto his glass but didn’t drink. His attention was on the acolyte that continued to linger just outside the door. He would need to be careful with his words.
The head priest set down his glass with a gentle thud, his expression was grave. “Since you’re back, I assume there is something you are seeking.”
“Is it so hard to believe, I would merely wish to visit with an old friend?” Ryuu asked.
The head priest gave him a wry smile. “I’m too old to fall for your flattery. You disappeared without a word around the same time as princess Suzume, and with the emperor’s… condition getting worse, you’d have me believe you come just for a friendly visit?” He tsked.
“You’ve caught me,” Ryuu twisted his cup in his hands to kill time. “The emperor is unwell then?” Ryuu said carefully. Though he had nothing to fear from the emperor, he didn’t want treason accusations to impede his search for the missing soul piece.
The head priest sighed heavily. “I thought you’d left to escape the uproar at the palace. The empress has been sent away, along with the crown prince and younger princes.”
Ryuu’s eyes widened. The emperor had never been an impulsive man, and everything he did was done with strategy and purpose. The empress’ family was one of the most powerful clans, sending her and her sons away was as good as declaring them illegitimate. The empress’ family would be out for blood. What was he thinking?
“Why was she sent away?” Ryuu asked.
“Officially, for her health. The court physician thought she needed rest. The crown prince joined her and his younger brothers, to assure she was getting everything she needed. She and the princes are staying at a mountain shrine in the north.” The head priest looked at Ryuu, saying m
ore with his gaze than words could.
“And unofficially?” Ryuu prompted.
“The empress expressed concerns about the emperor’s war against the yokai. There are those at court that see this war as insanity. They think he is chasing his own delusions.”
For the common courtier, the yokai were nothing but fairy tales, and to declare war on them, the emperor must have seemed like madness. The emperor knew as much and had been trying to keep the efforts private. It seemed the secret was out. Even if it was and the empress, or her family opposed, the emperor was not so afraid of distension to banish the empress over. There was more to it that Nariuji wasn’t saying or potentially couldn’t say. He must know that they were being listened to. This feeling of dread that was soaked into the temple, must have been coming from the head priest whose prayers and leadership guided the temple.
“I feel a visit to the emperor is overdue. He must be grieved to be without his beloved wife,” Ryuu said.
“He is not often alone, Consort Izume has returned to the main palace. And rumor has it she is staying in the empress’ old quarters.”
And there it was, just as he feared, Izume had sunk her claws into the emperor and ousted the empress just as she had always wished. Once more, he regretted not seeing her ambitions sooner.
“It is fortunate he’s not alone then.” Ryuu pulled a piece of paper off the head priest’s desk and wrote a quick note: the energy at the temple is there anything else I should know? Have you encountered an exceptionally powerful priest or priestess?
He slid it across to the head priest who glanced it over.
“That he is. I hope you will stay awhile now that you’re here. The temple is not the same without you,” Nariuji said as she scribbled a reply.
He slid it back across the table, and it read: No one has come to the white palace, but priests are going missing. I do not know where to, anyone I send to investigate never comes back. Tread carefully, the emperor is not himself.
“I will be here a while, I think,” Ryuu said as he brought the note to the nearby brazier and lit it on fire.
The Fractured Soul Page 15
