Kuro dropped his rice bowl. It smacked his thighs. The dowager empress hissed barely loud enough for a human to hear it. Kuro rushed to toss the bowl onto his tray and wipe up the spilled grains.

Could they please go back to Ren’s confession?

“Tell the Shogun about Minagawa’s noble lineage, and his estates are a week’s ride to the south,” Ruri continued. “He’ll like that, won’t he?” She glanced at her sister and mother, as if waiting for confirmation.

“I can’t do that,” Kuro said.

“You’re the Shogun’s retainer, aren’t you? He might listen to you.”

“Ruri,” the dowager empress said, her voice low with warning.

Dread wracked Kuro’s spine. Still facing Ruri, he glanced at the dowager empress out of the corner of his eye. Her lips, soft and pliant during her daughter’s stuttered pleading, had firmed, steel replacing petals. Her eyes glinted like a blade.

“M-mother.” Ruri clapped her hands on her tray.

“Do take care what you say,” her mother said.

“Why are we d-dancing around the issue?” Ruri flung her hands up. “You know, I know, Reiko knows, Ren knows, and especially Mister…” She waved her hand in Kuro’s direction.

“Kuro,” Ren said. “And he’s not the Shogun’s man.”

Ruri wrinkled her nose. “Kuro, as in a d-dog?”

If Ruri hadn’t just ousted Kuro as the Shogun’s agent, Kuro might have bristled. As it was, he was too tense.

“Kuro’s my companion,” Ren said, his jaw every bit as tense as Kuro’s spine.

“And yet I can’t have a husband?” Ruri looked around her, eyes hungry for support.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“There are appropriate moments and inappropriate moments,” the dowager empress said. “A lady considers her options before speaking.”

“What is a more opportune time?” Ruri asked. “With that Dark Kitsune loose in the Capital, the empire will end any day now, and I’d at least like the pleasure of a marriage bed before we all die horribly.”

Kuro widened his eyes, the only movement he could make, needing to catch every flicker of a hand, every twitch of a muscle. They knew about him — not about Kuro being the Dark Kitsune, but that he existed. He clenched his hands for being stupid. Yumi had forced him to transform in the middle of Market Road. The onmyouji had told him rumours had spread through the city. It wasn’t so strange that the news had even reached the Imperial family.

Ren knelt as stiffly as before, as if he didn’t know the Dark Kitsune that Ruri and their mother continued to bicker about sat in front of them. But he knew. He’d seen. Not even Ren could be that dense.

“The world isn’t going to end,” Ren said. “Not while Uncle Gorou protects the Capital.”

Oh boy. The dowager empress’ glare crushed Kuro. If she hadn’t smelled so human, he would have suspected she was a fox, the way she watched his every movement, the way his every facial muscle curved or didn’t. No human should be able to observe him so intensely.

She’d know. She must have caught the small jerk at the mention of the Dark Kitsune, or the sweat beading on his brow. She’d figure it out. The dowager empress was clever.

“Perhaps you’re right, darling,” she said to Ren. “He must have sent Mister Kuro to protect you.”

She believed that as much as Kuro believed he’d become best friends with a dog. Kuro’s tongue darted out between his lips before he could tame it. And now she knew he knew too.

“I doubt it,” Ruri said. “You know what they’re saying. Gorou rose above his mandated station, dishonoured the emperor and the Way of Heaven, and this is the price he must pay. Serves him right.”

“Sister!” Ren snapped back.

She flicked her hands. “If he hadn’t been so power hungry, I’d have a husband.”

Reiko hummed.

“I would!” Ruri clenched her hands on her hips.

“But these events are so good for people’s souls,” Reiko said. “They’re giving us more alms and ridding themselves of negative karma.”

“That’s only for giving alms to monks.”

“Any generosity is good for one’s karma.”

Ruri dropped her head, sighing. Then she turned on Kuro like a tiger. “Well, then, oh great protector. S-speak with the Shogun about my marriage. Please.”

“Give into your fate,” Reiko drawled out, reciting the words like humans recited stories about demons. “Struggling will only make you suffer more. You’re stuck with me forever and ever and ever—”

The sisters descended into another argument, roaming so far away from talk of the Shogun and Dark Kitsune and Kuro that Kuro almost relaxed. Almost.

The dowager empress still watched him. She suspected.

The only question was — why was she just sitting there?