Sora turned slowly. But the Dragon Prince wasn’t the only one standing there. Sora let out a cry.

Prince Gin floated in a green orb at the top of Dera Falls. Tidepool was with him, and there were two people kneeling in front of them, their faces portraits of terror.

Mama and Papa.

No . . .

Then someone appeared a few feet behind them, visible only to Sora because they shared the same kind of magic: Hana, wide eyed as if she was a lost little girl instead of the Dragon Prince’s second-in-command.

Sora’s gaze met her sister’s for an instant.

But then Prince Gin pulled out his knives.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Hana trembled as she watched Emperor Gin push the blades against her parents’ throats. She hadn’t seen them since she was six—something inside her had resisted visiting them before this moment, as if she was afraid of what they’d say when they found out she was no longer a taiga, even though she had good reason for helping the ryuu pursue the Evermore. But now her parents were here, and they could die any minute, and she’d never had a chance to say hello to them before she had to say goodbye.

“Let them go,” Sora said to Emperor Gin, her voice shaking.

It was more than Hana could do. She’d never been more petrified since the Blood Rift raid on the tenderfoot nursery—not in the middle of battle, not when she was fighting her sister, not when she found out that her own soul was damned. All those things were terrifying, but Hana was a warrior; she was supposed to be in the path of danger.

But Mama and Papa weren’t. They were innocents. Hana should have thought to protect them. She should have taken them away from Samara Mountain and hidden them somewhere safe.

The emperor’s orb transported Mama and Papa to the rocks beside the waterfall, and the sphere vanished. He pressed the blades harder against their throats as he sneered at Sora. “You’ve dismantled more than half my skeleton army, Spirit. I’m very unhappy about that and think I should be recompensed.”

“You don’t need my parents,” Sora said, shaking even harder than before. “Please, I’m begging you. Let them go. We’ll do whatever you want.”

“You coward,” Mama sneered at Sora. “Grow a backbone.” Hana knew it was Zomuri’s influence tainting her words, yet it still made her flinch. But she understood that her mother wanted Sora to stand up to Prince Gin.

How could her sister do that, though? She wouldn’t risk her parents’ lives.

Emperor Gin’s lip curled at Daemon. “Spirit, tell your pet to release his electric shield around you and your fairy friend.”

Daemon snarled. “I’m not a pet.”