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Demons. Magic. Me.

“I should return,” he said. “The Hornet’s Nest will be buzzing, and I don’t want to miss anything important.”

“What are they saying about me?” I asked. My father had tried to protect me, but I trusted Takkan to share the truth.

He hesitated. “The ministers have been wary since you disappeared for Ai’long. Your brothers and I tried to make excuses, but when rumor spread that you were a sorceress—and the bloodsake—there was little we could do.”

I leaned against the veranda, my face half in the shade and half in the sun. “They hate me. They just won’t show it to my face because of Father.”

“Shiori…”

I didn’t give Takkan a chance. “When I was in Ai’long, I was granted a glimpse of home.” My throat closed up. “I saw the forests burning…. I saw Bandur come out of the mountains.” When I said the demon’s name, a cold tendril snaked over my heart. “He was free.”

“So you know. Your father didn’t want you to.”

“Tell me everything.”

Takkan inhaled. “Gindara slept for weeks even after you were gone,” he said at length. “But when spring arrived, and everyone woke, it was clear that magic had returned to Kiata. People panicked, and some of the villagers started reporting that the trees in the forest were dying. They heard wailing and laughter deep in the night from within. Your brothers and I went to investigate, and we found a tear along the face of the central peak.”

The same tear Raikama had cleaved to free me from Bandur’s clutches. I wouldn’t have escaped the mountains without her.

“We call it the breach,” said Takkan. “All day and night it glows. But so far as we know, only Bandur has the ability to pass through. The other demons remain within.”

The magic I worked upon the mountains will not hold forever, Raikama had warned me.

If only I’d listened. Using the pearl had cost her her life, and for what? Half a year later, Bandur had already found a way out.

I wished she were here. She would have known what to do.

“He’s been seen prowling the villages that border the Holy Mountains,” said Takkan. “There have been reports of attacks on the townspeople, but he seems weakened, and cannot stay out of the mountains for long. So far there’s been no sign of him in Gindara.”

“That’ll change now that I’m back,” I said through clenched teeth. “He’s been waiting for me.”

I said nothing more, but Takkan could read the warring emotions on my face: I shouldn’t have come back. I should have stayed in Ai’long.

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t,” he said quietly. “This is home. This is where you belong.”

These were words I’d clung to during the long months I’d been under Raikama’s curse, alone without a voice and without a home, and while I’d been in Ai’long, yearning to see my family again. I desperately wanted to believe him, but deep down I knew: until magic had a place in Kiata, I never would.

There was no use moping. What was done was done. I’d come back, and I needed to face the consequences. First things first, we’ll have to send Bandur back into the mountains, I thought. The sooner the better.

“Will you take me there?” I asked Takkan. “I want to see the breach for myself.”

“When?”

“Not today,” I said, considering. “It’ll be dark soon, and I’m expected at dinner with my father. I’ll go tomorrow.” I hesitated. “You’ll be joining us, won’t you? At dinner, I mean.”

Takkan blinked. “I’ve never been invited.”

Of course he hadn’t. Dinner with the emperor was a high honor, and the last interaction I remembered of Father and Takkan involved me jumping out a window to escape our betrothal.

“You are now,” I said. “Come eat with us. Reiji leaves for A’landi at the end of the week, so we’ll have little time for family meals.”

I blushed, realizing I had inadvertently called him family.

Even if I hadn’t, it was an invitation laden with meaning. Everyone would assume that we were resuming our betrothal.

Takkan must have sensed my realization. He started to speak, uttering a jumble of polite nonsense about how I didn’t need to invite him, but I cut him off with a gesture.