Year of the Tiger (Changeling Sisters) (28 page)

The fox blinked. “Why, to save you, of course.”

When I heard her soft voice gasp my name—
“Miguel!”
—I believed him. Una emerged from the undergrowth, looking pale and small. Her prayer wheel clicked, and the monkey skipped back to her.

“You can’t be here,” I told her. “Remember your rule? One goes, one stays.”

“Rules can be broken. Your body started spurting blood. And the cause was not outside. I came to see if you needed help rescuing Citlalli.” So Una came to stand between Fred and I. “You are the kumiho who has given us all so much trouble.”

“I’m more than that.” The red fox nosed a skull forward. It belonged to a medium-sized animal, with sharp canines and hollow eyes. Una picked it up curiously. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t bear to see her face when she realized who she was holding.

“Saja.” If anything, Una clutched the skull closer to her chest once Fred shifted, trotting back and forth in golden-brown, black-muzzled form. “You killed my dog.”

“He was old.”

“But…you are kumiho. You have no interest in animals. You want to become human…” Una hugged the skull and glanced toward me.

“I know!” I tried to wring my hands amidst the chains. “Why me? I’m the worst choice. Poor health. No skills.
Failing
liver. At least go after a celebrity. Tell him, Una!”

Fox-Saja cocked his head. “Yes, Una. What do you think of
Miguelo
?”

I shut my eyes, waiting for her to lie.

“I think he’s wonderful.” The words came easier in this dream world, more so than in any conversation we’d ever had in the real one.

“But does he think the same of you?” The dog curled around her feet. “Does he understand how rare you are, one of the last of the young generation to give homage to the spirits, to guard the doorway between our world and yours? You returned home even after all parental presence had faded away. You could have lost yourself in a world of distractions, of virtual realities and loud, mechanical music; you could have drowned yourself in them, but you returned here. You know your duty. Your wisdom and independence at such a ripe age makes you…beautiful.”

The last was spoken wistfully, and Una’s face colored. The creepy old fox was right about one thing: Una was a sharp cookie. She could put the pieces together. Apparently, spirit creatures falling in love with mortals wasn’t panic-worthy news to her: it was knowing I realized why Fred wanted to take my place.

“If you need a victim, ancient kumiho, then don’t take him. I will come with you willingly.” She spoke it with her back turned toward me, so small, her short black hair scraping her shoulders.

Fred slipped back into his magnificent red fox form again, nine tails waving cautiously in the wind. “You won’t leave me?”

“If you leave them alone.”

“It’s a deal.”

“Una, what the hell are you doing?” I clanged my chains against the granite, loud enough to wake the dead, yet still, she didn’t look at me. “Don’t go with him! Go! Get out of this world! What have I ever done for you, that you would do this?”

Una shared a long glance with the red fox perched on the path, waiting for her to follow. Then she came and put a hand on my face.

“Butterflies in my stomach, when you looked at me. Anger, when you insulted me. Frustration, when I lacked the English words to fight back. But an electric thrill, when you said something nice. I was blissfully happy with my secret crush. But”—her dark eyes wandered back to Fred—“as you said, I break my own rules. Guardians of the spirit world don’t pursue outsiders for this very reason: We belong to another world, where our secrets are plain to the spirits we guard—the old, the dangerous, the jealous. To me, it was just a crush. My first crush.” Her warm hand slipped from my cheek. “But to the kumiho, you would have taken me away from him.”

“Don’t go.” I would have grabbed her if I could. I had to hope that my words were enough. Something hot and indignant was coursing through my veins as I burned holes in Fred’s head with my mind, something that should have been enough to snap these chains in half, but wasn’t. I’d found the sudden revelation about Una’s affections cute and unsettling back in the sea caves, but this time around, it had the weight to destroy a girl’s life. “For God’s sake, it was an innocent crush! I didn’t even know!”

“Yes,” Fred said, tails twitching jealously. “What do you think, now that you know?”

I stared at him in disbelief. “I don’t know! We haven’t even had five seconds to explore it!”

“My point exactly.” His jaw dropped in that leering grin. The nine tails expanded in a burst of golden fur to encircle Una, burying her completely. “Now you’ll never know.”

One. Her head down; her fingers let Saja’s skull clatter to the ground.

Two. Her eyes, hard and rigid like volcanic rock, found mine.

Three. I had a chance to say something. It came out as an animalistic snarl as I wrenched again at the chains. The ghosts finally looked concerned that I might break loose.

Four. My chance was over. Una looked at me and said, “Bury my dog.”

Five. A brilliant flash, so bright I had to turn away. The heat that gusted against my face was too hot, too soon, and burned painfully.

***

A branch cracked somewhere, laden down by man-sized icicles. I realized the ghosts were creeping over the clearing toward me, leaving no footprints.

“Well, that was unexpected,” one ghost complained, lacing his fingers over his gut. “Now we have to go all the way back to the palace
and
lug him along.”

“We could eat him.” The second ghost had floated close enough to drag a near-corporeal finger down my arm. A curious thing happened. His cheeks grew ruddy with warmth, and his finger felt heavier, almost substantial. He chortled in delight. “Look how much life is in him. Enough to turn us solid. Almost flesh.”

“The kumiho’s scent is gone.” The first ghost bustled closer. “He’s given up all claim on him. Why not dine? My mandu’s gone cold.”

“Whoa, whoa, there. I know times are hard, but that’s no excuse to resort to cannibalism.” My numb fingers pricked themselves on a chink in the chain. The ice had fractured it nearly clean through. I bashed my manacles harder against the rock.

“If we don’t eat you, then some wild animal will.” The ghost frowned at my ceaseless banging. “Stop that.”

The chain broke. I held up my free hands, grinning. “At least give me a head start. You ever think Maya sent you out here because you could use the exercise?”

That floating-thing gave them an impossible advantage over my numb feet, which stumbled over each other and couldn’t decide which direction to go. The only reason I didn’t fall was because I knew the snow would be the last cold bed I’d ever tumble into.

I stooped and began to cough non-stop. Snot clung to my upper lip, frozen, and I knew I looked a pathetic sight. I brought my cuffed hands up in a semblance of prayer, pleading, “Please. Don’t.”

The first ghost floated lazily toward me, and didn’t even notice that I’d gathered back, ready to spring. I whipped the chain around his neck and jerked back, ruthlessly—hey, the guy had been planning to eat me—until his face turned a pleasant eggplant-purple. I didn’t stop, even then.

A dead ghost body did a funny thing: It evaporated into thin air, like an exhaled breath. I lost my balance at the sudden lack of weight.
And
because I’d pissed off the ghost’s bro. Red veins crept through the ghost’s eyes like angry ivy, and suddenly I couldn’t move. The ghost’s fury gave it substance, and its fingers jerked my hair back. It began to breathe deeply,
from
me. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was taking, but my energy leaked away as if escaping through an open window. The ghost moaned a little, and the claw-like fingers digging into my hairline tightened.

The winds shifted, carrying a wonderful smell: the rank stench of decay. A low growl at the ghost’s ear startled him. He lost his hold on me and toppled backwards, only to find himself gazing up into the pitiless blue eyes of a white wolf. Ruby-bright flesh still dangled from her jaws. She made her kill quickly, snow exploding from around her coiled haunches.

They’d said wild animals would tear me to pieces. The bitter irony of it, that the white wolf was really a woman who would do me no harm, wasn’t lost upon me as I lay senseless, my warmth seeping away into the snow.

This would make Yu Li the third woman to save my life. My younger sis had burned for me. Una, a girl I’d barely known, had gone to God knows what fate. And if I looked back at my whole goddamned miserable life, I could only ask, “What for?” The universe had spoken. It’d sent
el diablo zorro
to collect. But good people, being what they are, always throw themselves in the way of the bad ones. It always takes them instead.

I would have told the white wolf this now, if I’d been able, but my hypothermic mind spiraled into an empty black sky. I felt heavenly warmth curl around me from somewhere far away, felt a hot pink tongue lick my ear in reassurance.

They’d all been wrong. The winter would take me.

Chapter 36: The Were War

Raina scampered ahead like she knew where she was going. I let her. Anything to keep me between her and the creepy-ass head floating after us.

We burst through a patch of trees, interrupting one of the ghostly processions up the mountain.

“Live ones?” a long-faced ghost whispered through purple lips.

“It’s the Alvarez sisters!” Twin girls dropped their litters with fiendish glee, their fingers dissolving into obscenely long nails. “Get them!”

A werebear erupted from the snow drift, and with a roar that shook the snow from the trees, he cleaved the offering litter in half. Oranges, rice cakes, and persimmons rolled everywhere. Two weretigers loped past in that quiet, graceful way of theirs, swiftly gaining speed as the front bearers tried to run. The tigers bowled them over in seconds.

A gleaming golden snake, a ruby gemstone glinting from its nostril, slithered into the fray.

“Thaksin?” I asked, hardly daring to believe it.

The werenaga gulped down an orange whole before answering. “Ahhhh. I think I will stay here and guard the food. Stay with me, Citlalli? We can finally speak freely, here in Eve!”

A weary grin tugged at my face. “I rather liked our uncomplicated conversations about the weather, Pad Thai, and how we were feeling. By the way: I always wanted to tell you that I felt like shit.”

“And I wanted to tell you that yes, it is fairly easy to ride on an elephant’s head, and the deadliest werebeast I ever faced was a vicious werebaboon from South Africa.”

I stared. “We have a lot of catching up to do. Thaksin, this is my sister, Raina.”

Raina put out a hand and then slowly retracted it, flushing. The werenaga inclined his head.

“Raina. We have heard much about you. This one has missed you so.”

“I’ve missed her.” She clung to my arm, somehow confident in my ability to restore things, now that we were together.

“Listen, Thaksin. I’m all for you staying here to guard the food, but Maya’s chasing us. We burned her fake body, but that creepy head lives on. Our only hope to kill her for good is to reunite with Prince Khyber.”

“He’s waiting for us on the summit,” Raina said softly.

The snake nodded. “We have staked and burned her physical body back in the sunshine world daytime nest. Even now, our werebeasts fight to hold the tomb against the vampyres laying siege. We will fight until all of the girls come home.” His jeweled eyes flicked to Raina, and I grabbed her shoulders to support her.

“Does my body look okay?” she whispered.

Thaksin hesitated. “You are one of five left, on the cusp of physical death. Return to your body soon, youngest sister.”

We moved on up the mountain. The Weres behind ravaged the litters, and then vanished into the woodland.

Rustling from above. We drew closer together. Coin-bright eyes blinked at us from the shadowy boughs. Cloud leopards. Seeing that we were friends, they disappeared as swiftly as they’d come.

Raina and I broke out onto a long, barren slope. The air felt thin and brittle up here, and we stayed close, lest we lose each other in the river of fog. Raina’s eyes glittered with tears beneath the breaks of starlight.

“We’ll find a way back to your body in time, Raina,” I assured her. “There are these great dragons called the cockatrice that can take you anywhere you want in Eve. Anywhere. ‘Course, you can only call on them three times, but I doubt we’ll be coming back to Eve anytime soon—”

“One of five girls,” Raina said bitterly. “Seven of us were supposed to marry her undead sons. Maya made so many false promises.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Does that surprise you?”

“There were supposed to be more than five.”

Rough growls prowled the gray mists. I found myself barking in response, and abruptly keeled over. Wolf and Demon had rushed up at the same time.

Raina took my elbow and we hurried, blinking against the water droplets collecting on our eye lashes.

The howlers pursued us, however, and we couldn’t escape them. The mists blew apart to reveal an indistinct shape, and I nearly cried in relief. I recognized that scent. It was my pack leader: Jaehoon.

“Juin-nim!” I rushed over eagerly now. “You found us!”

“We found you a long time ago, but you kept running away,” he chided, but his stern gaze softened as it turned on Raina. “Is this her?”

“Yes. This is my sister.” I pulled Raina to my side where we stood under scrutiny, shivering.

“Thank you for helping Citlalli,” she whispered.

Jaehoon gripped Raina’s shoulders, smiling at what he saw. “You are most welcome.” He turned and jangled a familiar lotus lantern before me. “This is what our hope looks like. Here. It likes you.”

I gawked with excitement as he pressed it into my hands. “You brought it?”

“Yes. We carried the youngest brother’s soul with us.”

“This is the last one Khyber needs.” I shot a knowing look toward Raina, hardly daring to hope. “We can send the vampyre princes on. To the real land of the dead.”