Page 21 of Son of Shadows

Ryuichi felt his heartbeat quicken. “And my parents trapped him.”

He nodded. “I’m sure he’ll want revenge on both of you.”

Now he was absolutely terrified.

* * *

Orochi shook all eight of his heads. Finally, his brothers were awake.

And filled with the same hatred.

Ryukage’s heir was in this realm. He’d felt it the moment Ryuichi had crossed over through the portal. As soon as the boy arrived, his last head, Venom, had risen and glared at him.

“We will not be defeated!”

Those words were now their rallying cry.

“Vengeance is ours!” Orochi bellowed. “Ryukage and his bloodline will be no more!”

Six of his brothers roared in satisfaction.

Water, however, wasn’t as enthused. “Brother, we are no longer in chains. Why can’t we just enjoy our freedom?”

Fire bit him.

“Hey!” Water returned the favor.

When Fire went after Water again, Earth wrapped around Fire to hold him back while Light did the same to Water.

“Enough!” Orochi growled. “The realm is for the taking, and if we are to seize it, we must stand united.”

Because if they weren’t, he knew it would be a lot more difficult to fight the enemy if his brothers were also fighting each other.

Water spat at Fire, then nodded. “Fine. Together. Then can we rest?”

“Yes. But we can’t let our army know that we’re not together in this.”

If they sensed any weakness . . .

Evil turned on evil. That was the only problem with being on the side of hatred. Loyalty was a foreign concept. Fear was the only way to keep others in line.

With eight dragon heads, Orochi excelled at instilling fear in anyone who laid eyes on him.

Fire continued to glare at Water. “Can someone please brush his teeth?”

Venom nodded. “As the one closest to him, I agree.”

Orochi shook his own head. Brothers . . . they were always annoying. “Can we stop terrorizing each other and save it for the humans?”

“I am hungry,” Earth said. “I miss the taste of human children.”

“Agreed.” Venom bowed to Orochi. “Lead us to victory.”

“That’s my plan.”

Clearing his throat, Orochi headed over to the edge of a cliff, where they stood over a camp of thousands of soldiers. His army of miscreants contained oni, yōkai, and kaiju—many of whom couldn’t fly, so that would slow their advance a bit. Haruki had banished them to a wasteland that was so far away their journey to the gate would take days.

But that wouldn’t matter much in the end.