“No!” Kuro cried out. “Not yet—” He covered his muzzle with his paws.

Below him, highlighted by tree trunks, Yumi jerked her head. “What was that?”

Idiot! Ren and Yumi hadn’t found him quite yet. Instead of staring up through the snow-covered brush at him, they faced each other. But Yumi could hear him in his kitsune form. Ren probably could now too, since Kuro was his familiar. He couldn’t know for sure. He hadn’t taken fox form in Ren’s presence since that day.

Ren lifted his head, then turned, searching through the cedar between them and Kuro. Kuro pressed himself against the frozen ground, praying that the trunks and dead brush were dense enough to hide him, his fur shadowy enough to blend in. If Kuro had just stayed perfectly still, and especially silent, they wouldn’t have noticed him at all. But Kuro, great big idiot that he was riding upon a little success against a minor demon, had done the spirit equivalent of shouting.

Kuro held his breath as those all-too-knowing eyes passed over him. If Kuro could have transformed, he could have transformed into a snow-covered rock. But no, Kuro had to suck at basic kitsune abilities, and to boot, stick out from the snow like the moon stuck out of the night sky. If Ren saw through the shadows…

Kuro’s three tails had other ideas. As if they knew that Ren was looking at him, they started wagging again. But Kuro stayed still. Turning around to pin them down with his paws would definitely reveal him.

But maybe Kuro wanted to get caught. Ren had followed Kuro. Sure, Kuro had the Kusanagi fragment, but it was useless as he was. Ren must have come for Kuro. He’d realised that Kuro was right, that Kuro’s offering was worth accepting and pursuing.

Only, Ren shouldn’t know Kuro wasn’t sleeping in his den. Kuchisake had happily sworn to keep Ren away. So how did Ren know to come after him? Did the entire Night Parade know he’d snuck out? That thought should have troubled him more. His tails disagreed.

Ren returned his attention to Yumi. “We can’t risk taking a break. The snow is picking up, and Kuro could be hours in front of us.”

It took all of Kuro’s resolve not to wriggle. Ren did care!

“And I can barely take three more steps through this snowbank,” Yumi said. “How are we supposed to catch up to him when we’ve exhausted ourselves? Given enough time, we’ll find that idiot. I bet he got lost and took the woodcutter’s trail high up the mountain.”

Kuro clenched his jaw. Foxes did not get lost, even loser fox like him. Just because he’d taken a much smaller trail, the packed earth barely visible between the dying brush while they’d taken a much wider, more used trail—

Idiot! He had done exactly that, and they had caught up with him with ease.

“We don’t have time,” Ren barked. “Every day I’m away from the Night Parade, the harder it will become to shape them. And protect our humans from them, I’ll remind you.”

Yumi exhaled in frustration. How she dared to do that when Ren was being kept away from his Very Important Work, Kuro didn’t know. He felt like whining himself. But then again, Yumi wasn’t the one distracting Ren. Kuro was.

Kuro covered his muzzle with his paws to keep from whimpering. Or whimpering too loud.

Yumi turned around to start trudging through the snowbank, thicker and deeper than when Kuro had last used his human legs. “I don’t understand why Kuro left. Ever since you went comatose, he seems to live or die based on whatever you say. You got him to risk his life just by telling him to do it. You’re sure he didn’t say anything?”

Ren grunted, his mouth pressed tight.

“Then demons must have kidnapped him,” Yumi declared. “That’s the only reason why he’d leave his room.”

“Demons did not kidnap him,” Ren said.

“Then why would he leave when you’re in terrible danger?”

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The temperature dropped suddenly. Kuro’s fur bristled. Ren was in danger?

“I’m fine,” Ren said through gritted teeth. “But Kuro won’t be.”

Kuro’s three tails, just a moment ago so eager as to pound the ground just from hearing his voice, plastered themselves around his hindquarters.

Yumi narrowed her eyes. “So then what do you call the master of the Night Parade twisting you around her little finger?”

Ren’s lips pulled back, baring his teeth. “I have everything under control.”

“Oh right, I see that. What with Kuro running off—”

In a flash, Ren drew his sword. The blade whistled through the air, ending in a bone-rocking thud as Ren buried the sword in the young cypress tree Kuro currently huddled behind. The tip stopped centimetres from Kuro’s narrowed eyes.

Yumi stopped speaking, her mouth still open as she stared at Ren. Kuro’s heart pounded so hard, and Ren spoke so softly, that he had a hard time hearing.

“We’ll find him,” Ren said, “and we’ll take him back, just as we promised Kuchisake. And then I’ll make him pay.”

Kuro’s body shook with the force it kept to keep from whimpering, to keep from fleeing. He had four paws to their two feet. He could outrun them on the trail…

And then what? Race ahead, unable to stop for a single moment, fearing that Ren will catch up? Exhaust himself halfway there, then be easy prey for whatever demons lurked in the mountains? Even the Yuki Onna could eat him then. He’d be lucky if Ren caught him first.

Kuro clenched his jaw. He needed to calm down, or Kuro would give himself away before he even had a chance to run. Then it would be Kuro’s flesh giving way beneath Ren’s sword.

Yumi stared at the buried sword too. “Ren…”

Ren yanked the sword out of the wood, and sheathed it again. “Get moving.”

“What exactly is Kuro doing out here in the mountains?”

Ren moved to shove past her, but Yumi shuffled into his way.

“Because you know, don’t you,” she said. “And whatever it is, it’s why you’ve been in such a good mood.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ren enunciated each word without emotion, but with so much force, Yumi should have been bowled over.

“Don’t give me that. Kuro’s an idiot, but he’s not stupid. He wouldn’t leave his room if he didn’t have to.”

Ren actually growled at that. “Maybe he ran out of mochi.”

“Ren…”

Kuro couldn’t afford to wait any longer. He had to get the sword fixed, as soon as demonically possible. If Kuro had the Kusanagi whole again, then Ren would forgive him. Or at least spare him his punishment.

“This snowstorm is getting worse,” Ren said.

Kuro blinked, and stared up at the sky. While Kuro had been listening, the soft fall of snow had thickened with no signs of it stopping. If the snow kept up that pace, the snowstorm would worsen into a blizzard.

Yumi tilted her head back. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

“Then move!”

“Just take a moment and think,” Yumi said, but she stepped out of blade range. Ren only huffed in response. “This doesn’t feel like a natural snowstorm.”

Ren shifted his balance to his other foot. “What do you mean?”

“It just feels… wrong.”

Kuro hunched against the ground. He hadn’t noticed anything wrong with it. But he wasn’t an onmyouji in training, nor could he think of anything but Ren standing there, just a mere yard from him.

“I think…” Yumi bit her lip. “I think it’s Kuro.”

Ren tensed. “Kitsune can’t summon snow.”

“But he’s a black kitsune. If he’s scared, if he’s trying to flee — the snow might be his power at work.”

Snowflakes danced over Kuro’s nose. His… power? Could Kuro be doing this?

But he was powerless, unable to even transform at all for the past week.

The snowstorm had worsened when Kuro had found Ren and Yumi. If this was really him… Kuro really, really itched to shake his head in denial. The snow had started before he’d found them, hadn’t it? It couldn’t be him. Could it?

“Then we have to find him before it’s too late,” Ren said.

“If you’d just tell me why he’d leave in the middle of the night, without a straw cloak or even food…”

“I told you—”

“And I’m telling you, do you really want to freeze to death to keep this secret? Because if you tell me, maybe we can do something to help him!”

Help me. But Kuro was supposed to be helping Ren. The blizzard would be cold and miserable, but with his fox sense of direction and his sensitive nose, he could navigate the mountain trails while blind.

But Ren and Yumi couldn’t. They’d get lost. They’d be unable to move through the deep drifts. They’d freeze, even with their straw cloaks to keep them warm.

Then the Yuki Onna would show up. Ren and Yumi were immune to their feminine charms, so long as those charms didn’t include pretending to be humans on the run from demons. But lost in a blizzard while losing feeling in their fingers and toes, Ren and Yumi would be tempted by Yuki Onna’s offer of shelter. Tempted enough to forget what a Yuki Onna was.

And if Yumi was right, if the blizzard was Kuro’s power making an annoyance of itself, then it would be all Kuro’s fault.

Kuro shifted from paw to paw. He was so probably going to regret this. He squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them, bounded off into the crossroad. Free from the shelter of brush and tree trunks, as black as night among the whirl of snowflakes, Kuro revealed himself.

Ren stilled. Yumi whirled around, and shouted.

Okay, they’d seen him. Kuro took off back the way he came. The cave he’d slept in wasn’t too far behind him, even though they’d have to climb up to reach it. So long as the blizzard held off. So long as Kuro could stay ahead of them long enough not to get caught.

There were too many “so long as” for comfort, and Kuro only had the luck of a black kitsune. Ren was so going to catch him in the first five minutes.