I take off my mask and toss it to Sonam, who easily catches it. I stretch out into my fox form, flexing my claws and uncurling my tails, grateful to no longer be cramped in the tunnels.
“I suppose farewells are in order,” I say, attempting to keep my tone light. “Since I’ve had just about enough of you all.”
Wen approaches me first. “You know,” he mumbles, “I had you pegged all wrong. You’re not so bad, Fox.”
“I suppose you could be worse, too,” I reply with a smile.
Sooah is the next to step toward me.Thank you, she signs before reaching up to scratch behind both my ears. She presses an affectionate kiss to the side of my muzzle. Sooah then brings three fingers up to her cheek, bending them like claws before rotating her wrist.
“What does that one mean?” I ask.
“She’s calling you her big sister,” Sonam translates.
Warmth blooms in my chest. Embarrassingly, my tails wag behind me, betraying my thoughts outright. I’ve never been anyone’s big sister before, but if there’s anyone for whom I’d be willing, it is Sooah.
They turn toward their captain expectantly. Sonam couldn’t appear more uncomfortable even if he tried.
“I would like a moment alone with her,” he says gruffly, his gaze cast to the ground.
Sooah and Wen shuffle off toward the staircase leading up to the gate, though they can’t go very far. It’s a good thing they weren’t hired as spies, because they do not possess an ounce of subtlety. Sonam makes several false starts, clearly struggling to put his thoughts to words.
I offer him a reprieve. “You don’t have to say anything—”
“I want to.”
I shift uneasily. “Speak plainly, then.” I know I won’t want to hear his next words.
Sonam casts his gaze down, his dark eyes swimming in conflict. “Once we’ve warned the king and dealt with the Maskmaker… I want you to run. As far as the uncharted lands in the west, if you must.”
I flinch. “You’re sending me away?”
“You know this is the only way I can protect you,” he says. “Once this fight is won and the king commands it… I will have no choice, should our paths cross again. I’m asking you—” Sonam takes a deep breath and lowers his voice to a whisper. “I ampleadingwith you: do not force my hand.”
I should have expected as much. Sonam is too honorable, too stubborn—which also happen to be his best traits—for this to have gone any other way. It’s even worse that his eyes speak an entirely different tale from his words.
It occurs to me then, how accustomed I’ve become to the harsh lines of his face. We’ve been in Hell for far too long, because I can no longer recall a time before Sonam marched so fiercely into my life. Where I resigned myself to my loneliness, I’ve grown spoiled through his companionship. Now he wants me to leave, and I cannot find enough anger to fault him, because there is no fault at all. He is right. Sonam is protecting me.
And breaking my heart all the same.
“Is that truly what you want?” I ask, so softly I barely hear myself. “To never see me again?”
There is much that can be learned in a man’s silence. The next few moments are as suffocating as they are cold.
“Yue, I—”
A snarl interrupts him. Not my own, but from somewhere a distance behind us in the darkness. My ears twitch and my eyes go wide. I can smell them coming.
Demons. Too many to count.
They emerge from the shadows like ink drawn from wrung cloth, coming at us in one massive tidal wave.
“Up the stairs!” I scream at the humans, but they reach for their weapons instead.
We are easily overpowered. At close range, Wen’s bow is rendered useless. It takes seven demons to pin Sooah down. I’m outnumbered and overwhelmed. With every head I bite off, it feels as though two more grow in the place of the fallen. My captain fights with every ounce of ferocity that I’ve come to expect from him, cutting his way through beast after beast in the hopes of coming to my aid.
“What are you doing?” I growl, my teeth no doubt coated in black. “Get out of here!”
Before he can respond, an imposing shadow looms over Sonam, bringing with it a terrible chill. The Maskmaker, pure fury in his eyes and a manic grin ripping at his lips. He wraps his hands around Sonam’s throat and squeezes with a vengeance, his forward momentum sweeping the captain off his feet. I try to get to him, but the demons won’t let up, practically climbing over one another at the chance to tear at my flesh.
