Red Winter, Tome 2 : Dark Tempest

CHAPTER 1

Towering trees bowed beneath the weight of snow on their branches, and high above, stars glittered in the dark sky. Emi ran, shadows dancing across her path and snow flying behind her feet. Icy air numbed her throat with each gasping breath.

She’d had this dream before.

Ahead of her, a white fox bounded through the snow. She knew she wouldn’t catch him, but she had to try. His bushy tail flicked as he flashed in and out of sight through the trees, and when he reappeared, he had changed. Now the size of a lean and leggy white wolf, he dashed onward with three fox tails dancing in his wake.

Her sleeping consciousness recoiled against what would come next, yet in the dream she could do nothing more than chase him. He vanished around a thick stand of spruce and she sprinted after him.

Heat blasted her like an open volcano, pushing her back. In the clearing ahead, a creature of myth and nightmare awaited her. The massive white specter of fur and flame towered over her, eyes glowing like magma and nine tails of fire writhing behind it. White-hot flames flickered beneath its huge paws as it stalked forward, turning the snow all around it into steaming water.

In its path, the wolfish fox cowered, three tails quivering.

The kyubi no kitsune loosed a deep growl that vibrated with feral rage and made every hair on her body stand on end, yet she still rushed toward it, one hand outstretched as she cried out a name. The crimson markings on its face flashed brightly and it lunged for the three-tailed fox, turning the whole world into blue-white fire.

Emi’s eyes popped open, a silent gasp catching in her throat. Her muscles twitched with adrenaline.

“There is nothing.”

Yumei’s soft voice made her start. Squinting in the dim light of the candles scattered around the circular room, she turned her head, but otherwise remained unmoving where she lay on the padding of blankets. Across the room, Yumei—also known as the Tengu, Lord of Crows, and harbinger of war—sat with one elbow on the low table in front of him and his chin in his hand. A yokai sitting like an irritated teenager was a strange sight all on its own, but knowing Yumei was at least a thousand years old made it even more disconcerting. His smooth, ageless face didn’t show his years.

He tapped a taloned fingertip on the table to draw the attention of his tablemate. Even from across the room, Shiro’s ruby eyes gleamed in the candlelight as he focused on Yumei. His vulpine ears rotated, identical to those of the fox from her dream. Kitsune were one of countless types of yokai—earth spirits who populated the human world and their own spirit realm, Tsuchi.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked, his voice as quiet as Yumei’s but not nearly as soft. Hostility hardened his normally purring tones. “I don’t have any answers for you.”