Inside the Citadel, Sora commanded the ryuu particles to set her massive magnifying glass against the inside of the fortress wall. Sweat poured down her temples from the effort of floating and steering the crystal from Rose Palace. It had taken longer than she wanted, not only from being careful, but also because she’d decided it would be safest if she and the magnifying glass were invisible. Doing so drained nearly everything Sora had in her.
But the commotion of gathering troops at the main gates roused Sora. She hurried over, pushing past squadrons who were still assembling, ignoring the surprised calls of apprentices who hadn’t known that she was back home. She stopped only when she found Broomstick.
A moment later, Daemon and Fairy appeared, framed by the rising sun. An avalanche of relief roared through Sora when she saw her roommate. “You’re all right!”
Then she noticed that Fairy and Daemon were holding hands, and a different kind of avalanche crashed down on her, one that made her sick to her stomach, even though she had no right to feel that way.
Gods. Sora blinked as comprehension set in. It was jealousy.
She looked at Daemon’s and Fairy’s fingers intertwined, and Sora realized that, in the back of her mind, she’d always assumed he was hers. She had taken their togetherness for granted. She’d mistaken her attachment to him as mere partnership.
But now, seeing him with someone else, she understood. She’d loved him since the day he arrived at the Citadel like a wolf cub, with his unkempt tufts of hair and feral eyes, the way he crouched on all fours and snarled at the other tenderfoots. She had imagined him as a boy out of one of her mother’s Kichonan fables. Everyone else had wanted to tame him. Sora had been the only one who wanted him to keep his wildness.
Fairy cocked her head at Sora, as if to ask if everything was okay.
Sora took a deep breath and forced herself to smile. What else could she do? Sora hadn’t tried to make a move on Daemon. Besides, the Society wouldn’t have allowed it. Geminas couldn’t get involved with each other like that.
So she nodded. Yes, it was fine. Everything was fine.
Besides, she couldn’t afford to waste time on her feelings right now. Glass Lady always said curiosity killed the cat, but sentimentality killed the taiga. Maybe this was what she meant.
“I heard about your sister,” Daemon said. For once, he didn’t pick up on Sora’s emotion through their gemina bond. Or, more accurately, the fact that she wanted to shut off the spigot of her emotions. Maybe he was too wrapped up in Fairy to feel the subtle change in his and Sora’s connection. “I thought the reason you left Copper Bluff was to keep Fairy safe,” he continued. “But now I also know it was because of Hana.”
Sora sighed and closed her eyes. It took a second before she opened them again and answered.
“Yes. She’s alive. She’s on the wrong side, but she’s alive.”
Daemon looked at his feet and shook his head. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you found Hana. You must have a hundred different feelings about it.”
“I shouldn’t. I don’t want to feel anything right now except the drive to stop Prince Gin.”
“Taigas aren’t superhuman. We have emotions, just like regular people. But no matter what happens, I’m here for you. We’re here for you.” He looked to his right and left, at Fairy and Broomstick.
Sora nodded, feeling at the same time his comforting reassurance through their bond. “I know.”
Glass Lady ran up to them. “The ryuu are approaching. Please tell me everything is in place.”
Sora blinked, confused for a second that the commander was talking to them, mere apprentices.
“Spirit,” Glass Lady snapped. “Broomstick said you were preparing a magnifying glass of some sort. Where is it?”
Sora shook herself out of her surprise. After all, she had come up with the plan, and it was a good one. Good enough, she hoped. “Yes, Commander. It’s right over there.” She pointed at the slab of Rose Palace propped a short distance away, against the inside of the Citadel’s walls.
Glass Lady actually took a step back at its size. “That’s the weapon? The Ora imperial crest?”
“Yes, Commander,” Sora said. “Do you like it?”
A small smile actually crept onto Glass Lady’s face. “I do, Spirit. Very much.”
Sora grinned at Daemon. See? She’d been right. The road to becoming legendary didn’t have to be without irreverence.
Glass Lady grew serious again. “Everyone in your places. Let’s get to the top of the fortress walls.”
From there, they looked down on the main gates. The ryuu were indeed nearly upon them. As they marched, their fire, bone, insect, and other magic was on full display. Glass Lady inhaled sharply as wasps swarmed above the ryuu in a noisy storm cloud, flames licked toward gates, and stones rolled up to the walls and began piling themselves to form steps.
Sora frowned. Something was wrong. The realization shot through her gemina bond like an arrow.
“What is it?” Daemon asked.
“This isn’t all of the ryuu,” Sora said.
“Maybe they’re going to attack other parts of the fortress,” Fairy said.
Broomstick peered through a spyglass and shook his head. “No signs of approach from the other sides of the Citadel. And we haven’t heard alarms from the perimeter.”
Where’s the other half of the army? Sora wondered. Were they so arrogant that they thought they could defeat an entire fortress full of taigas and decided to use only a fraction of their forces?
“It’s better for us,” Daemon said. “After you blind them, there will be fewer for us to fight.”
Sora kept shaking her head, though. “I worry what the other half is doing. If—”
Hana rode forward. Sora froze. She couldn’t remember what she was going to say. All she could focus on was her sister and the seething hatred in her eyes, so intense, it felt as if they burned a hole straight through Sora’s heart.
She had to look away.
“Commander,” Hana said, raising her voice and sounding ever Virtuoso. “We have come home to mourn Empress Aki’s death, and to usher in the reign of Emperor Gin. We bring with us the gift of new magic to the Society. Open the gates, and let your returned warriors in.”
Glass Lady nodded subtly at Sora to set her plan in motion.
“What is your name, child?” Glass Lady said to Hana.
Hana scoffed. “I am no child. I am Virtuoso, and I am second in command of this army.”
“Well, child,” Glass Lady said, her voice oozing the same venomous disdain as Hana’s, “I may be old-fashioned, but I think current etiquette still dictates that it is rude to try to force one’s way into another’s home.” She gestured at the stone staircase the ryuu were building with their magic, and the flames that had begun to heat the iron of the gates orange. “You claim to come here respectfully,” Glass Lady continued, “and yet you begin from a position of utter disrespect. Therefore, we must treat you in kind.”
She waved her hand, and taigas appeared from their hiding places just below the top of the fortress walls. Others waited on the foot-and handholds below them, ready to pounce on the ryuu once Sora blinded them.
She focused the emerald particles around her. Make the crystal invisible. Bring it to me.
With Sora keeping the wall invisible, the ryuu wouldn’t know what was blinding them. They wouldn’t be able to shoot it down. The only one who could understand—who could see invisible things—was Hana.
Sora’s entire body trembled with the effort of moving the crystal. She’d forgotten how much energy she’d already used to cut the wall from the palace and transport it here. There wasn’t much in her reserves.
Daemon noticed. He placed his hands on Sora’s shoulders, the heat of his touch steadying her. It was like when the Imperial Guard had bandaged her wounds while she was working on cutting the crystal from the palace walls, except tenfold, because this was Daemon.
Sora’s hold on the magic strengthened, and the slab of crystal rose faster from the ground where she’d left it, soaring through the air toward them.
Hana sneered at Glass Lady, her attention, at least for now, on the commander. “Your old-fashioned view of the world is exactly why I’ll replace you as leader of the Society once Emperor Gin wears the crown,” Hana said. “Now I’m going to ask you one more time to let us in.”
The commander glanced at Sora.
The slab of Rose Palace hovered just below the top of the fortress walls, where Hana couldn’t see it.
Now! Sora ordered.
The crystal shot up into the sky, directly in front of the sun. Sora rotated it from side to side.
The light blasted down upon the ryuu, not in a beam of pink, but rather in a brilliant, intense spectrum, everything from red to violet, as the light filtered through the prism of the Ora tiger crest. It was beautiful and painfully glaring, all at once.