Keep fighting. You must keep fighting.
But it was so hard. He was tired, and now the blood soaked him. His body was turning cold, and the light around him grew darker.
Don’t give up!
Those were his last thoughts as the darkness came and wrapped him gently in her sweetest embrace...
* * *
Ryukage froze as he saw Tatsu raise his sword to behead his son.
The twin kami were there, too, urging Tatsu on.
“No!” he shouted. Using his powers, he blasted Tatsu, then ran to his son.
The boy was dying. And it was all his fault. Images of Haruka went through him. This boy had been her greatest gift to him.
Protect our child. Those had been her dying words. Even now, he could see her as the life drained from her beautiful eyes.
He’d made her that promise, and now he’d broken it. Grief and agony ripped through him with a ferocity that made a mockery of what he’d felt when Haruka died.
This was his last part of her.
The best part of himself.
“Wake up, child!” He commanded the boy to rise, but yet again his child ignored him. “Don’t you dare die!”
Panic raced through his dark heart. He didn’t have the power of life. He was dark, and all he could do was watch helplessly as his son died.
His real legacy.
Never before had he felt so powerless. So weak.
Pathetic.
Turning human, he knelt beside the boy and pulled him into his arms. “Please, Ryuichi. Say something... anything. Spit at me. Yell at me. Curse my name. But please, don’t die.”
Like the errant child he was, his son ignored him.
Because he’d allowed the world to taint the only goodness he’d been able to create.
What have I done?
He glared at Tatsu, who stood there, emotionless. “You must kill him,” Tatsu said. “It is ordained.”
Ryukage rose with his son in his arms, ignoring Tatsu. “You are wrong.”
His gaze went to the humans. To the one demon who would protect his son.
But at what cost?
One of us has to die. In order for something to live, something must die. Yin and yang.
All his life, he’d chosen himself. Even when it’d come down to his existence or Haruka’s. He’d chosen her over him.
Tsukiya laughed cruelly. He and his sister had planned it this way.
I’m forever a pawn.
