Page 55 of Son of Shadows

The World Eater no doubt had his own spies here, gathering information and searching for them. If he was to do this, he needed to be discreet, which was why he decided to handle this part of their mission alone.

Suddenly, he had a weird feeling. Like someone or something was watching him.

Koichi spun around.

Nothing.

Still, he felt this horrible, nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

He scowled at the shadows cast by the streetlights. “Ryuichi-kage?”

The shadows twitched.

“Are you following me?”

They twitched again.

“Get out here. Now!”

With a sheepish grin, the boy stepped out so Koichi could see him.

“What are you doing out here?”

Ryuichi-kage shrugged. “You might need a sidekick.”

“I don’t need help from a kid.”

“But Ryuichi needs me. More than you want to know.”

Koichi raised an eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Let’s just say the sooner we’re reunited, the better. That’s why I’m here. To speed things along. If you let me, I can be a real asset to you. No one will expect a human to have a shadow warrior hiding in the background.”

There was something about his tone that put Koichi on alert. He sounded a little desperate and scared, which was very unlike the shadow twin.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

Ryuichi-kage looked away, as if he couldn’t bear to tell Koichi the truth to his face. “If Ryuichi and I are not reunited soon, there will be horrible consequences.”

“Like what?”

Ryuichi-kage sighed. “I’ll cease to exist, and Ryuichi will revert to the heartless beast he was. There won’t be any way to help him, so you’d be forced to kill him.”

All the color drained from Koichi’s face. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How long do we have?”

“A week, at most. I can feel myself starting to fade.”

Koichi clenched his fists. “And you’re just telling me this now?”

“Masaru thought it would be better if we kept this a secret.”

“Oh, so Masaru has known this whole time?”

Ryuichi-kage shrugged. “He said he was working on a way to reunite us and didn’t want everyone to worry. And then we got separated.”

Koichi shook his head. “Just when I thought we might be catching a break.”

“You should know better than to be optimistic,” Ryuichi-kage said.