But this wasn’t how he wanted to meet him. As much as he wanted to be an obedient son, he shook his head. “No.”
“Disobedience!”
Ryuichi cringed at that mighty roar. It went against everything he’d ever been taught. No son should ever defy his father.
It was wrong. But so was what his father planned to do. “I cannot allow you to harm the world.”
Light flared across the darkness, blinding him as his father appeared in front of him. Huge and dark, he was a mammoth beast. Scary as all get-out. No wonder everyone was terrified of him. He could only imagine facing his father on a battlefield. “It’s the gods I want. I care nothing for the humans.”
Ryuichi shook his head. “I cannot let you tear down the gods.”
His father scoffed at him. “You cannot stop me.”
That certainly depended. “If you need me to open the gates to release you, I can.”
His father laughed in his face. Fire sprang up around them, forming a horrific wall between him and his classmates’ shadows.
“Do you see the human world, Ryuichi?”
His throat tightened as he realized that inside the fire he saw scenes from his school. And while he might have summoned his friends’ shadows to his side, his friends were still at the school, going about their lives. “I do.”
“Then you see whatIcontrol.”
That was terrifying. Ryuichi gasped as he saw the demons descending upon the school.
“Hanzo and his students are no match for my spies... or my allies.” His father took a step toward him. “I will kill them all, boy. Make no mistake about that. Release me or see your friends dead. Your choice.”
His certainty that his father would spare him began to crumble. Was Masaru right? Killing a son was a horrible thing.
But then his father was also a horrible thing.
His father laughed at his despair. “Which is it to be? Yoursacredprinciples? Or the lives of the people you care about most?”
Tears swam in his eyes. But he knew what his father had done.
Ryuichi had no choice.
There was no mistaking the determination in his father’s features. The mercilessness. It was true. The Ryukage had no feelings. No humanity. He didn’t care about anyone. Not even his own son.
Heartbroken, he opened the gate.
Ryukage laughed, then vanished.
Still, the school burned inside the flames. “Wait!” Ryuichi cried. “What about your word?”
It was too late. His father was gone, and so were the flames that had surrounded Ryuichi.
And the other monsters were on the move. Coming for the throats of all those he cared about. Everyone who meant anything to him.
His heart pounded as he looked through the flames to see his friends besieged by his father’s monsters, while he was unable to do anything.
I have to stop them!
He had no idea how, but he had to find some way. Ryuichi rushed back to Masaru and the others, who were fighting off the dragon and the dogs. “We have to leave these and get back to the school.”
Koichi scowled at him. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Keiko pointed to the shadow castle on the hill, which was also on fire. “It’s burning. What happened?”
