Page 30 of Dragon 7

So much hot burning pain.

I screamed again.

The first hand could not hold all of it, and a second hand came down over the first, and the two of them sealed the sound inside me.

The Death Guardian held me tighter.

The world narrowed to the pain as I thrashed and even bit down against the palm over my mouth and tasted my own breath coming hot and fast through my nose.

Tears ran sideways into my hair and pooled cold in my ears.

Screaming under the hands some more, I opened my eyes and the torches blurred into long smears of orange.

The pain owned every inch of me, every nerve, every thought, and it burned the timelines, my memories of my daughter, and even Kenji's face down to ash, until nothing remained inside me except the agony, stone, and hands on my mouth.

My vision swam at the edges.

The moon doubled and slid across the black sky.

"The Dragon will not stand alone as the only one who rises tonight in power." The Guardian’s voice followed me down into the darkness. "Your sacrifice was not just for him.”

He can never know. . .what this cost. . .I’ll carry this one alone.

And the rod’s needle stabbed at me more.

Warm blood spilled and slid down the inside of my thighs.

“You rise with him.” The Death Guardian tightened her hold on me even more, squeezing some of the pain out of me. “And when you both have risen, the Fox will surely die."

The clearing went white, then silver, then black at the corners, and through all of it I held Kenji's face and the face of the daughter I had just buried in every year she would have lived, and I gave the bowl exactly what it begged for.

Chapter six

Something is Off

Hiro

Yoichi would not tell us anything, even after Kenji threatened to kill him and I promised to maim him.

Yoichi simply kept saying that we did not have the time for answers.

“If something is wrong with our Tiger. . .” I pointed to Yoichi. “I will torture you before I let you die.”

“Duly noted, Hiro.” Yoichi continued to drive us along. His hands stayed loose on the wheel and his shoulders remained relaxed as if he were guiding us toward a late dinner instead of some odd ritual in the forest.

The headlights cut a thin yellow road through the trees.

The silver-white moon hung over all of it.

The cart rolled down the gravel path with my brother on one side of me, my mask in my lap, and a fresh lollipop in my mouth.

Pink.

I pulled the lollipop out and stared at it.

“Hmmm.” I looked at Kenji. "What do you think they were having?"

My brother’s gaze remained on the night sky. “Who?”