“It won’t matter,” I said, swallowing hard as I realized the truth. We couldn’t beat him. At least not while the darkness was healing him, anyway. Worse, if it kept up, Raiden would get himself killed. After all, Kai just had to get himonce.
“Yeah.” Shota tightened his grip on his weapon, and I could tell he was going to try anyway. Whether it was to stop Kai, help Raiden, or something else entirely, I couldn’t tell, but either way, he was going to attack. That wouldn’t helpthings.
“Stop!” I rushed forward, putting myself between Kai and Shota. “Both of you, please. I’m beggingyou.”
“No,” Kai said, and there was such finality in the word it stole my breath away. He met my gaze, the cold, dead look in his eyes turning my stomach to lead. “Haruki must die if we are to moveforward.”
“My name is not Haruki!” Raiden cried as he drove the crackling lightning blade in his hands straight into Kai’s stomach. I screamed as the blade burst through Kai’s back in a spray of black ichor that hit the ground before bursting into clouds of sulfur-smellingsmoke.
“I did it,” Raiden wheezed, his chestheaving.
But Kai only shook his head, casting a scornful glance at him. He didn’t seem the least bit fazed. “No, Haruki. You only did what I let you.” He lifted his blackkatana, and cold horror spilled through me as I realized Kai was about to deliver the killing blow. And with Raiden’s sword stuck in Kai’s guts, there wasn’t a thing he could do to defendhimself.
“Shit.” Raiden’s face paled, and he stumbled back, releasing his hold on the mythical blade. Kai laughed, following Raiden, completely unconcerned about thekatanasticking out of hisbelly.
“Enjoy the afterlife, Haruki,” he said, and brought the bladedown.
“No!” I yelled, launching myself forward without thinking. I slammed my shoulder into Raiden, pushing him past the blade’s arc and to safety moments before Kai’s blade connected with myback.
“Fumiko!” Kai screamed as the blade ripped my flesh open. My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the ground, blood gushing all over me. “What have youdone!”
“Aika!” Shota yelled. His footsteps pounded against the floor as he ran to my side, and his face was twisted in grief and anger as he dropped to his knees next to me. “Aika, no!” His voice was choked with tears as he pulled me into hisarms.
Gasping in agony, I touched thefuricharm on my bracelet. Theyokai’spower pulsed inside me, filling me up with its warmth and leeching the pain of the wound away. I held my breath, hoping with all my might that thefuriwouldn’t die by taking the wound in my stead. I couldn’t die, not like this, but I also didn’t want theyokaimy father had given me to dieeither.
As Shota cradled me against his chest, the pulses of power gradually grew stronger inside me, until they finally built to a crescendo. I felt a flash within my chest, and then very slowly, thefuriretreated back into the charm. After a moment, I let out a breath of relief. He was alive, butbarely.
“You…” Kai lowered his sword, astonished. Blood spattered his clothes and skin from where he’d sliced into me with his sword, and tears shone in his dark eyes. “You’re nothurt?”
“No,” I said, pressing a hand against the freshly healed wound. Shota’s hand covered my own, and I looked up to see him staring at me with the same astonished look asKai.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” he said. “You should bedead.”
I gave him a lopsided smile. “I guess thisyokaishaman gig isn’t so bad afterall.”
“It was still foolish,” Kai snapped, his gaze growingstormy.
“The only one being foolish here isyou,”I scolded, getting to my feet. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t have a repeat of history. You can’t kill Raiden, Kai. You can’t kill Shota either, for that matter. That isn’t going to solveanything.”
“So you’re choosing them over me,” Kai said bitterly, looking away. “You would truly damn me to thishell?”
“Kai…” I lifted my hands to his face, finally giving in to the ache to touch him. “I want to help you,” I said, stroking his cheek. My fingers smeared my blood across his skin, and somehow the gesture seemed like an oath. “But marrying me isn’t going to do it, not on its own. You wronged Haruki, Kaga,andFumiko with your actions. If you want to be free of Amaterasu’s curse, you have to atone forallof thosesins.”
Kai sucked in a shuddering breath, closing his eyes. His dark lashes fanned against his cheeks, and I ached at the tortured expression on his face. He looked both euphoric and devastated, and as I reached for theofudain my pocket, I suddenly found myself struck bymisgivings.
Was sealing Kai awayreallythe right thing todo?
“I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for you to look at me like this again,” he whispered, cupping the side of my face. “But I don’t know if I have it in me to forgive Haruki for what he did. I know I need to atone for what I did to you,” he said, briefly looking at Shota, “but Haruki…hetookyou from me, Fumiko.” His voice trembled as he spoke the words. “And I was left to suffer in this tomb for two thousand years, simply for daring to loveyou.”
A tear slipped down my cheek at the anguish in his voice, and I suddenly knew that even though I might not be the woman Kai had loved, Ididcare about him. I couldn’t let him suffer like this. He’d done terrible things, but he didn’t deserve for his soul to be tortured for all of eternity, held fast in Amatsu’s darkclutches.
“If you really love me like you say you do,” I said as Raiden struggled to his feet behind me, “then you have to forgive all of us. We’ll never be able to be together if you don’t.” I wasn’t promising to marry Kai, not by a long shot, but I didn’t want to detract from the point by mentioning that. Breaking this curse was more important, and I instinctively knew it hinged on Kai letting go of the hatred in hisheart.
Some of the darkness in Kai’s eyes lifted. “I would do anything for you,” he said fervently. He dropped his hand from my cheek, then turned to Raiden, who was staring at us both with a shell-shocked look on his face. “Haruki,I—”
A loudboomechoed throughout the chamber, and I shrieked as a black hole opened behindKai.
“Dammit!” Kai roared as a huge black arm with swirling red runes reached out of the vortex and grabbed him around the waist. He fought against his attacker as he was pulled back, slashing at the huge black arm with his sword, but the strikes were completelyineffective.
