Kuro woke in the midst of warmth, as if he’d crawled under his kotatsu during the night. Again. That was the peril of sleeping in human form. His fox form wouldn’t fit under the table, and he’d find himself curled around the kotatsu instead. But that was never this warm.
Then again, he never had his human arms restrained behind his back with cords that bit into his wrists.
Kuro opened his eyes, then hissed and squeezed them shut as the light burned. Carefully, he blinked his eyes open. He was in half-fox form, his eyes and ears more sensitive than in human form. The wind howled outside, assuring him that the unnatural blizzard still raged on. Above him, straw thatched the roof between pillars. Rough planks held him off the frozen dirt, with a square cut out for the fire.
Around his prone body and the fire, five Yuki Onna with eerily similar faces and identical white kimono watched him.
“Oh, come on!” Kuro leaned his head back, staring up at the straw. It wasn’t bad enough that Kuro could barely summon foxfire and couldn’t transform without his tail sticking out, not even to save his life. That was pretty weak.
But for him, a kitsune outside of the Dark Days, to have been captured by Yuki Onna? Just kill him then. Kuro groaned.
Wait a second. Kuro wriggled, but even though he still wore his own winter kimono, the strap holding the Kusanagi was gone. And probably every leaf he’d had on him, not that he’d be able to reach them anyway, with his hands and ankles tied up.
“What did you do with it?” Kuro demanded.
“It?” The five Yuki Onna said all at once. Oh great. That wasn’t irritating at all.
“You know what I mean. The sword fragment.”
“It’s ours now.” Together, they gestured behind Kuro.
Perfect. Kuro wriggled until he was able to roll over, crushing his hands under his lower back in the process. On the hut wall opposite the rug-covered entrance, the Yuki Onna had fitted a short table, not unlike the ones found in shrines. Hands bound, he strained to heave his upper body high enough to see over the table edge as his abdominals screamed at the abuse. He managed it just long enough to find the Kusanagi fragment laid out, the steel glinting from the gold glow escaping from beneath the folds of a silk-covered object.
Then, unable to hold himself up, he careened toward the table. Yes! Grab the Kusanagi!
His forehead struck the corner. The table shuddered. Kuro cried out as pain blazed across his brow. The silk-covered object rocked, then fell over the edge. The silk fell away.
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Kuro hit the ground. The object struck him next. Screaming, he managed to unclench his eyes just in time to see the whole room aflame with gold and the bronze edge of a mirror as it rolled past him. Kuro squeezed his eyes shut before he glimpsed himself.
Two Yuki Onna hurried over, yanking Kuro back from the altar. A moment later, silk rustled and the light he could see even through the back of his eyelids went away.
The Yuki Onna had a sacred mirror. Maybe they’d used the mirror to control the blizzard. Maybe the blizzard wasn’t Kuro’s fault. And Kuro could get the Kusanagi fragment back, and he’d find the Storm God, and he’d fix the Kusanagi, and Ren would stop being so angry and wouldn’t punish him and would love him—
He let out a bray of laughter. He rolled onto his side, unable to stop laughing.
“Hush!” the five Yuki Onna said.
“S-sorry,” he managed between laughing fits. “But it’s just so ridiculous. I’m so stupid. The stupidest creature to have ever existed.”
He’d led Ren into the mountains during a blizzard — probably one that he created — to die, where he’d fallen off a cliff, and been captured by Yuki Onna, of all weaklings.
And here he was, pretending that he could still get the Kusanagi fixed, when he’d had the perfect chance to grab the fragment while the Yuki Onna fretted over the mirror, and he’d missed it because he hadn’t wanted to see his true reflection.
An ordinary silver mirror, the kind that every merchant and samurai girl owned, still reflected enough truth that it saw through a kitsune transformation. A sacred mirror was far more powerful. It reflected the truth of the soul.
And if he’d kept looking, if he’d seen himself… He’d never be able to delude himself again that he could still help Ren. Even without seeing it, the idea was so beyond ridiculous, it bordered on insane.
Scratch that. It was insane. He should have stayed in the castle. He should have done as Ren said. Ren had known fixing the Kusanagi was impossible. He must have been dying inside to hold back as much as he had. Kuro hadn’t even made it two days.
“So what’s the hold up?” Kuro demanded. “Eat me already.”
“We wait,” the Yuki Onna answered.
“Wait? Wait for what?”
“Our tasty snack.”
More ridiculousness. Kuro had always expected, should a demon hunt him down, he’d be snatched up in its maw, and his death would be several moments of chewing. Not being bound in a hut while five Yuki Onna stared at a rug. But why should they hurry up and eat him? It wasn’t as if he’d be able to escape.
At least Ren wasn’t there to see him like this.
The blanket over the door shifted open, bringing with it a frozen wind that stole all the warmth of the hearth fire. A sixth Yuki Onna stepped through, her hand holding someone else’s.
“Welcome, weary traveller,” all six said at once.
The human stepped through. Kuro’s heart plummeted faster and further than he had over the cliff.
“No,” Kuro whispered. “Nooooo!”
They’d been waiting for more than a tasty snack, all right. They’d found an outright delicacy. A semi-divine prince.
Ren straightened inside the hut, and smiled at the gathered Yuki Onna. “Wow. You’re each more beautiful than the last.”
The sixth lowered the rug, staying between Ren and the exit. Not that Ren seemed to have any inclination to leave. He stared at them with that soppy grin that Ren had given Kuro those first couple of days at the Imperial Palace.
It wasn’t possible. Ren didn’t even like women. He’d told Kuro he’d never had feelings for any at all. But then again, he’d never met many that weren’t closely related to him.
Kuro ground his jaw. He had to get Ren out of there. Kuro’s death was no big loss, but Ren…
He had to save Ren. He’d accept any punishment later, so long as he lived.