Page 14 of Son of Shadows

Valley of Lost Souls? As in souls were sucked out of bodies? Given what he’d just witnessed with the hungry, bird-eating trees, he could only imagine how horrible it would be to have your soul stolen from you.

Especially for someone like him, who had already lost control of his shadow.

That’s precisely why that cursed urn was something Ryuichi didn’t want to go near, despite Koichi’s encouragement.

Haruki cackled from her horse. She was leaning back, her legs outstretched instead of in the stirrups. “The valley is beautiful this time of year. You’d have a great time there, child. Just not a very long one.”

That didn’t sound promising at all.

“Masaru, there’s no Valley of Lost Souls nearby, right?”

Please let him be lying.

Masaru turned back in his red-lacquered saddle to wink at Ryuichi. “The foundation of the spirit world isn’t as concrete as the mortal one. The terrain can change rapidly here. You never know what you might stumble upon.”

Ryuichi tried not to let on that his heart was pounding in his chest.

As they cleared the forest, he saw an average-looking castle on a small hill made of raised dirt. One surrounded by a hastily constructed wood wall with spiked stakes that seemed to glisten in the dim light.

The tengu slowed his horse as they neared the wooden gate. “Welcome to Castle Monmi-jō. Aptly named for watching over the spirit realm side of the portal. My master had it hastily built after your little incident with your father.”

Heat flooded Ryuichi’s cheeks. He’d opened the gate without the ability to reseal it.

Under duress, or not, it made no difference.

He tried reminding himself that he had no choice.

Ryukage would have killed everyone he loved otherwise. But Ryuichi still couldn’t stop wishing he’d been smart enough to come up with another solution, one that hadn’t left the world in such dire straits after he helped save it.

As Ryuichi and the others stopped before the castle’s entrance, they were suddenly surrounded by a large flock of tengu who dropped from the skies or appeared from wisps of purple-and-gray smoke that shot up from the ground, forming a perimeter around the castle.

Haruki sat up and laughed. She was so giddy about this turn of events that Ryuichi was surprised she wasn’t applauding.

Koichi drew his sword, the metal making a whooshing noise as it was pulled from its sheath. Keiko drew her horse closer to Ryuichi. She positioned herself in front of him as soon as these new tengu unleashed their swords and angled them in his direction.

Masaru didn’t flinch, and Ryuichi’s shadow merely stared at the birdlike yōkai, waiting to see what they wanted.

Their guide held his hand up. “Halt! I’ve returned with the Ryukage’s very own flesh and blood.”

Dressed in a green yukata, the tengu leader stepped forward and raked their guide with a withering stare. “How do we know you aren’t a squawking traitor who brought some hapless human here to try and trick us and our lord? What tengu allies himself with humans, after all?”

Masaru spat on the ground. “Careful who you insult, birdling. You need to take a more respectful tone around your nonhuman superiors.”

The tengu loosened their grip on their weapons as they realized Keiko and Masaru were not human, but inari.

To prove her prowess, Haruki raised her hand up and summoned a lightning bolt from the cloudy sky with just a snap of her fingers. A ripple of shimmering energy danced around her body, highlighting the embroidery on her kimono. “Bow before your betters, scum.”

The tengu immediately fell to their knees.

“I still don’t trust any of them,” one of the tengu mumbled.

Haruki immediately plucked another lightning bolt from above and turned the offending tengu into deep-fried karaage. “How dare you come out here and confront us in such a manner.” She leveled all of them with a haughty glare. “The spirit world has really let itself go in the Ryukage’s absence. When he was in charge, things like this never happened. Underlings knew their place!”

Masaru snorted at her words. “Please. They happened all the time. You just never bothered to interact with regular tengu.”

She gestured at the group. “After looking at this pathetic display of disrespect, is it any wonder why? Unlike you, I never tolerated such behavior.”

Faster than Ryuichi could blink, Keiko sidled up to Masaru, grabbing his left sleeve to keep him from striking out in anger. “Let’s not retaliate against Haruki. She’s technically an ally.”