Page 92 of Cloak of Night
Then someone appeared a few feet behind them, visibleonly to Sora because they shared the same kind of magic: Hana, wide eyed as if she was a lost little girl instead of the Dragon Prince’s second-in-command.
Sora’s gaze met her sister’s for an instant.
But then Prince Gin pulled out his knives.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Hana trembled as she watched Emperor Gin push the blades against her parents’ throats. She hadn’t seen them since she was six—something inside her had resisted visiting them before this moment, as if she was afraid of what they’d say when they found out she was no longer a taiga, even though she had good reason for helping the ryuu pursue the Evermore. But now her parents were here, and they could die any minute, and she’d never had a chance to say hello to them before she had to say goodbye.
“Let them go,” Sora said to Emperor Gin, her voice shaking.
It was more than Hana could do. She’d never been more petrified since the Blood Rift raid on the tenderfoot nursery—not in the middle of battle, not when she was fighting her sister, not when she found out that her own soul was damned. All those things were terrifying, but Hana was a warrior; she was supposed to be in the path of danger.
But Mama and Papa weren’t. They were innocents.Hana should have thought to protect them. She should have taken them away from Samara Mountain and hidden them somewhere safe.
The emperor’s orb transported Mama and Papa to the rocks beside the waterfall, and the sphere vanished. He pressed the blades harder against their throats as he sneered at Sora. “You’ve dismantled more than half my skeleton army, Spirit. I’m very unhappy about that and think I should be recompensed.”
“You don’t need my parents,” Sora said, shaking even harder than before. “Please, I’m begging you. Let them go. We’ll do whatever you want.”
“You coward,” Mama sneered at Sora. “Grow a backbone.” Hana knew it was Zomuri’s influence tainting her words, yet it still made her flinch. But she understood that her mother wanted Sora to stand up to Prince Gin.
How could her sister do that, though? She wouldn’t risk her parents’ lives.
Emperor Gin’s lip curled at Daemon. “Spirit, tell your pet to release his electric shield around you and your fairy friend.”
Daemon snarled. “I’m not a pet.”
“No... ,” the emperor said thoughtfully. “You’re something more, aren’t you? If you join me, you could go down in history. Imagine it—the Dragon Emperor riding a magical flying wolf to victory as they bring the Evermore to earth. There will be songs sung in your name and myths passed on for centuries. We would be glorified for eternity.”
“I’d rather die now than be associated with you for even a day, let alone an eternity.”
Hana didn’t know what to do. Daemon and Sora werestanding up for their principles. But what did Hana believe in? She’d thought she’d known, but now, with her parents at Emperor Gin’s mercy, all her previous doubts weighed more heavily than before.
“Don’t give in,” Daemon said to Sora.
But wasn’t a huge part of saving the kingdom about protecting the ones they loved?
Sora leaned close to Daemon’s ear and whispered something.
Then she jumped off his back.
“Spirit.” Fairy gasped. Hana almost did, too, but she managed to restrain herself, to stay invisible as she tried to understand what she was supposed to do.
Sora bowed to Emperor Gin, and there was no deception in her movement. “I surrender. Just don’t hurt Mama and Papa.”
He laughed. “I suspected you’d give in. Your heart is too soft. Glass Lady didn’t train the sentimentality out of you well enough.”
Shackles made of ryuu particles clamped around Sora’s wrists and hands, connected by glowing green chains. Whatever spell the emperor had used to make them, it was stronger than Sora knew how to fight. It didn’t matter, though. Hana could see that Sora had meant it when she made the bargain to surrender, and it pained her to see her sister so beaten. Sora had always been full of fight. But now she was just... deflated.
But Sora still shouted at Daemon, “Go!”
It was too late, though. Chains bound him, and Fairy, too. They rattled as Daemon tried to shake them off, to no avail.
Why wasn’t Emperor Gin controlling their minds, though?
“You can keep your shield against my powers of persuasion... for now,” the emperor said, shrugging. “You’ll tire eventually, and then I’ll have you.”
That blue glow around Daemon must be protecting them, even if it didn’t know how to break through Emperor Gin’s shackles.
