Page 22 of Dragon 7

"I'm coming with you."

"You're not."

"I am." Hiro kept my pace.

“She’s with my mother’s people.”

“The Silent Ones?”

I smiled at his nickname. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Go with Reo. He’ll need you.”

"Tonight, I'm not leaving your side." His mouth twitched. "I just. . .can't. I need to make sure you are always safe."

“I’ll be fine.”

“Because I’m next to you.”

I sighed.

Hiro held up a finger. “And I should say goodbye to our Tiger. I’m sure she’s nervous about not hearing from me.”

“Yes.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure that’s exactly what she’s been thinking about this whole time.”

“I’m going to give her a long hug.”

“You’re going to fucking behave as we do this ritual.”

“Ritual? What?”

“Just watch and stay silent. I don’t know what she has me about to do but. . .I fucking trust her more than I want to admit.”

“I trust her too.”

Silent, we moved through the emptied corridor side by side. Our masks remained in our hands at our sides.

My boots ate the floor. Hiro matched me stride for stride.

I didn't know what Nyomi was doing out there with my mother’s people.

What sort of fucking ritual? How different is it from the Burial Ritual? And what is the cost?

Chapter five

Now Comes the Pain

Nyomi

I sat on a stone gray slab in a thin red robe with my legs open to the night air. I’d placed Reo’s soul pin on the front of the robe, just to keep me balanced and because it was so important.

I was naked under the robe. Most of it covered the space between my legs.

Still, cold climbed through the fabric, settled into my spine and the backs of my thighs. Into every place the robe left bare. Goosebumps ran up my arms. My nipples ached against the silk. Each breath came shallow and thin, like my body refused to give the cold any more of me than it already had.

Or perhaps it wasn’t the cold at all.