Page 31 of Dragon 7

“Sora and Nao.”

Kenji snapped his gaze to me and frowned. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“It does.” I placed the lollipop back in my mouth.

My brother went rigid beside me. His jaw worked once. He looked down at the Wanyūdō mask in his hands, then out at the trees. "Don't do that, Hiro. Not tonight."

“Do what?”

“Take on every death like you personally murdered the person.”

“I only do it if it makes sense.”

“The blood is on Kiko’s hands, not yours.”

“You truly believe that?”

“Of course.”

“Hmm.” I put the lollipop back in my mouth and rolled the pink candy over my tongue.

The island slid past, and all around us, armed men got into position.

A group of Scales dragged a gun belt between them and fed it into a mounted weapon at the tree line. One of them wiped his palms down his thighs before he gripped the handles. His hands shook.

Further up the slope, a man knelt behind a low stone wall and laid his rifle across the top of it. He sighted down the barrel toward the water, then lowered it, then sighted again, hunting for the angle he liked.

Three more men crouched at the mouth of a footpath, passing a single canteen down the line. Each one drank, wiped the rim, and handed it on. No one spoke.

On the right, a young Scale I didn't know stood alone against a tree with his eyes closed and his lips moving. He was probably saying a prayer, a name, or a goodbye.

I looked away before I could decide which.

The whole island was loading itself like a gun.

The path turned. A black wall of forest rose on our right. Salt cut through the smell of gun oil.

The night felt almost peaceful.

For a moment, nothing happened.

The cart hummed beneath us. The tires turned over the gravel in a slow, even crunch. Wind moved through the high branches and let them settle again. Off in the distance, the ocean pushed against the rocks and pulled back.

My brother calmly breathed beside me.

Does the island know what’s coming? Can the trees and soil feel it?

The lollipop went sweet and small against my tongue, and the dark slid by, and for those few seconds the whole island held still around the three of us.

I didn't understand how our Tiger had ended up with the Silent Ones. She was supposed to be gone and far from the blood we were about to spill. All the other women had done so.

Yet, somewhere between the evacuation order and this cart heading her way, she had found the Silent Ones and remained.

Why? And what is this fucking ritual shit Kenji keeps talking about? Have they both lost their minds?

I had carried a lot of fear in my life. Fear of the dead. Fear of my father. Fear of what I might become before the night ended. But this fear for our Tiger was a new type of fear. It was sharp, cold, and came with a deafening scrape against my eardrums.

I can’t lose Nyomi too. . .I can’t. . .