Amabie’s expression softened. “If I could sneak you out of the castle and get you back to the surface, I would,” she said, taking my hand. “After what you did for my mother, it is a small price to pay. But theUmigameis your fastest way back, so there is little point in doing anything until he is ready to go. And besides, we reallywouldlike you to come. It has been an age since we have last celebratedanything.”
She squeezed my hand, a little harder than necessary, and in that one gesture, I understood. This moment was important to Amabie, was important to everyone in the palace, and if one of the guests of honor decided not to show up, it would ruin the whole thing. The feast was in celebration of the dragon queen’s return to good health, and my absence would steal the spotlight away from that. Trying to run away was a selfish thing todo.
“I understand,” I said, bowing my head. “I’ll bethere.”
“Excellent.” Amabie beamed, and for once, her fangs didn’t seem quite so scary. But the expression quickly disappeared as her hands flew to her face. “Oh no!” she shrieked, her eyes widening almost comically with horror. “I spent too much time focusing on you. I still have to finish getting ready!” She whirled around, and I jumped back to avoid getting smacked by her fins as she hightailed it back to her room. Naturally, because I have the best luck, my back slammed into Shota’schest.
“Umm.” I turned around before I gave in to the urge to lean into him. “I guess I should finish getting readytoo.”
“Huh?” Shota cocked his head, giving me a puzzled look. “I thought you were alreadyready.”
“Well I was, until…” I lifted a hand to my cheek, then remembered that my makeup was waterproof. None of the tears I’d shed had stained my cheeks or ruined my smoky eyes, because I was underwater. Really, the only thing that I’d messed up was my hair. It was hanging loosely around my shoulders now, instead of twisted up into the knot Amabie had secured earlier with aclip.
“Aika,” Shota said, taking me by the shoulders. He tilted my chin up, forcing me to meet his gaze. “I promise, you’re going to be the most beautiful woman at that ball tonight. You’ve got nothing to worryabout.”
“And how do you know that?” My voice was steady despite my tripping pulse. This man did things to my heart rate that should probably beillegal.
“Because,” he said, “I can’t take my eyes offyou.”
The simple sincerity in those words knocked the breath out of me. No guy had ever said anything like that to me, and in that moment, I wanted to let my guard down. What would it be like to have a man in my life I could rely on? The concept was completely foreign to me. It had always been me and mom—I’d been so little when my father had passed away, I didn’t remember him at all. I’d had a few boyfriends, but nothing serious, and once my mother had been diagnosed, my love life went completely out thewindow.
My mother had done her best to take care of me, but she couldn’t always be there for everything. I’d learned to become self-reliant, to stop looking to other people to solve my problems for me. I’d come to understand that if I wanted to accomplish anything, I had to do itmyself.
Friends were nice to have if you wanted a good time, or if you needed the occasional ear. But they couldn’t fight your demons for you. They couldn’t solve your problems. Those were things you had to do on yourown.
And yet, it seemed that Shota and Raiden were helping me doboth.
“Aha!” Raiden called, startling us both. Shota instantly jumped away from me, looking guilty as hell as Raiden came around the corner. “I was wondering where you were.” He looked me up and down, his dark eyes gleaming. “You lookbeautiful.”
“T-thanks,” I stuttered, warmth rippling through me. There was no denying the admiration in his eyes, and yet the moment was dampened by the way Shota was standing off to the side, staring resolutely ahead. Why was Shota acting like he’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar? I tried to meet his gaze, but he refused to look atme.
Was I insane? Had we not been having a moment just a few seconds ago? Why had I suddenly ceased toexist?
“Is everything okay?” Raiden asked cautiously, glancing between us. Suspicion glinted in his eyes. “Were you guys in the middle ofsomething?”
“Not at all.” Shota smiled at both of us, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. And he still wouldn’t look at me directly. “You two look fantastic,” he said, gesturing to Raiden’s outfit, which was similar to his but in deep red. “I’m going to go ahead of you. See you guys in theballroom.”
“Okay…” Raiden trailed off as Shota walked away. He turned to me, a quizzical expression on his face. “Are you sure nothinghappened?”
“Nothing at all,” I said, tucking my hand into Raiden’s arm. I was tired of letting Shota twist my feelings into knots. For once, I’d let myself enjoy Raiden’s company without feeling guilty. “Shota had just come by to tell me you were looking forme.”
“That I was, and boy, am I glad I’ve found you.” Raiden smiled down at me, and my skin tingled with anticipation as he gestured to the stairway ahead. I had a feeling there was a double meaning to his words. “Shallwe?”
I smiled back, deciding that for once, I was not going to overanalyze. “Weshall.”
18
For someonewho supposedly hadn’t celebrated anything in decades, Ryujin sure knew how to throw a party. The moment Raiden and I descended the curved staircase leading down to the foyer, we were instantly enveloped in a sea—pardon the pun—of guests who had all managed to flock to the palace on such short notice. I’d thought they would all be varieties of underseayokai, but to my surprise there were lots of regular marine animals as well. Manatees, sea lions, otters, sharks, penguins—even a few orcas were inattendance.
I wondered how wise it was to put so many predators and prey in the same space. An orca was eyeing one of the otters with an unhealthy amount of interest. But it turned out I had nothing to worry about—heads instantly began to turn toward us, and whispers spread through the crowd likewildfire.
“Guess they’re not used to seeing humans down here,” I murmured to Raiden as we merged with the crowd. Servants were taking coats from the guests and directing the flow of traffic toward theballroom.
“Ryujin did say it had been ages since a shaman last visited,” Raiden pointedout.
One of the servants spotted us and quickly snatched us out of the throng. We were ushered to the entrance and handed off to aningyodressed in a brilliant silver gown. She introduced herself as the hostess, then took our hands and led us to a balcony at the top of the staircase. We stepped just inside the double doors and found ourselves overlooking theballroom.
“Honored guests,” she sang, drawing the attention of the guests down below. They all turned to look at us, including Ryujin and his wife, who were seated on thrones. To my surprise, the two of them had shrunk themselves down into smaller forms, likely so they could mingle and dance with the guests. “Please welcome Takaoka Raiden and Fujiwara Aika, the shamans who helped save our queen’slife.”
