Page 46 of Circle of Shadows
What bravado Aki had presented when talking to Glass Lady, she shed now.
“My kingdom has been attacked, my lady, but I don’t know what it is that we face. What should I do? Who is this enemy? Will Kichona be safe?”
While Sola considered this, the chamber heated up more as the sun focused its beam on the temple. The crystal acted as a magnifying glass, and Aki grew light-headed. She heldon to the shrine’s table to steady herself. The only other time she’d come—to consult Sola about what would become the Blood Rift—Aki had nearly passed out under the goddess’s fiery gaze.
But Aki hadn’t fainted, and she wouldn’t today, either.I am as strong as I was then,she thought.Or stronger. Even if I don’t feel it.
Sola strolled over to the dais where Aki had offered her blood and lit incense to send her request to the heavens. The goddess picked up the handkerchief.
“I do not like to be called upon to settle petty human disputes.”
Aki fell to the ground and bowed again. “I’m sorry, my lady. I didn’t know where else to turn.”
Sola scrutinized her. The intensity of her stare was like the heat of a bonfire.
Just as Aki felt as if she would be roasted alive, the goddess relented. “You are young, and therefore unsure,” Sola said. “But I see in you great love for Kichona and unwavering conviction. Stay true to your compass, and you will prevail.”
Aki looked up from the floor. “Thank you, my lady. But you didn’t tell me—who is this new enemy we face?”
The goddess glanced at the handkerchief in her hand. She traced a finger across the silk, ending at the embroidered Ora tiger. “You don’t need me to tell you. You already know.”
She released the handkerchief and let it flutter to the ground, landing in front of where Aki lay prostrate at the foot of the shrine.
Suddenly, flames shot through the center of the silk in aviolent, thin line, precisely where Sola’s finger had traced. Aki jumped backward as the handkerchief flew in the air.
The fire extinguished a moment later. The incense stick snuffed itself out. The temperature in the temple dropped back to normal.
Sola was gone.
Aki collapsed back onto her hands and knees, sweat dripping from her forehead. The handkerchief lay on the floor, cleanly singed and split down the center. Half of the Ora tiger had fallen to Aki’s left, and the other half, to her right.
Her heart nearly stopped.
She had learned how to hold herself up like a proper empress over the past ten years, to deal elegantly with whatever challenges presented themselves, but this...
Aki could make excuses about interpretations. She could come up with ways to explain away what Sola had meant.
But it wouldn’t change what was right in front of her—the Ora tiger, torn in two.
Could it be?
Aki pulled on a chain around her neck, freeing an abalone shell locket from beneath her collar. Inside were two portraits, side by side, of a gold-haired little girl and her twin brother, the pictures done in profile so it looked as if they were smiling at each other.
She ran her finger over the boy’s portrait. They had been inseparable once. That is, until he began training as a taiga. Because he was royalty, he was taught privately in Rose Palace, rather than with the other apprentices at the Citadel. But being a magical warrior in the making went to her brother’s head, especially since Aki was not blessed with Luna’s magic. Arrogance and avarice movedin between the siblings. Gin gained a taste for power. Aki lost her best friend.
She didn’t want to breathe. Her brother could be alive. How many nights had she lain awake in bed, dreaming that she hadn’t stood up to Gin back then, imagining a world where the Blood Rift hadn’t happened and she’d let him wear the crown instead of fighting him for it. A world where she still had a brother, a twin.
“Is it really you, Gin?”
But then she remembered what happened when those fantasies intersected with reality: if Gin were on the throne, he would chase Zomuri’s legend. He’d use the Society to attack and colonize other kingdoms, and this peaceful, steady life established by their father and the Ora rulers before him would cease to exist. War was not conducted in a vacuum. Bloodshed on the shores of other kingdoms meant bloodshed on Kichona’s shores in return.
So if this split handkerchief meant what Aki thought it meant, then what was coming wasn’t just a reunion between brother and sister. If Gin was the one who possessed the new magic, he’d have a chance to get what he always wanted—the throne, Kichona, and the Evermore.
Aki pressed the locket to her chest.
Her brother would destroy everything.
Chapter Twenty-Six
