“I’m not worthy of being her daughter,” she said between gasps for air.

Papa tightened his embrace on Hana, as if wanting to strangle her and hug her forever at the same time. She buried her face into his shoulder.

“We have to give Mama a proper burial,” Hana said. Her tears slowed with the prospect of being able to atone, even if just a little.

“Mina loved the sea,” Papa said.

Hana nodded. Her parents’ home overlooked the ocean, and Mama ate every meal out on that deck except when it rained or snowed. Sometimes even then. She could never be close enough to the water.

“Then we’ll cremate her and scatter her ashes into the sea,” Hana said. There was no way she was going to just dump her mother’s body like Emperor Gin intended.

“You would do that?” Papa asked, looking up with red eyes.

“I’ve been wrong for too long,” Hana said. “Now I need to do what’s right.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

The chains shackling Fairy disappeared as her orb descended the waterfall. She rubbed at her ankles and wrists, watching her surroundings warily. Had Hana released them from Prince Gin’s chains? But why? Fairy prepared herself for another awful surprise to come.

The waterfall ended, but her orb kept plummeting deeper. She couldn’t see Wolf or Spirit through the churn of the water. Maybe she’d be imprisoned in this sphere beneath the surface forever.

Slowly, however, the orb began to rise. It arrived in a grotto, hidden from the outside by the waterfall, and the sphere floated to shore, where it opened.

Fairy stepped out.

A greasy voice welcomed her. “Hello there.”

She spun with a pair of stiletto blades out.

A ryuu stepped into the dim light. He was flanked by two skeletons and a corpse.

It had to be Skullcrusher’s brother, Skeleton.

Fairy had to disable his Sight.

Skeleton looked at her knives and chuckled. “Very amusing.”

His magic knocked the blades away, and he advanced, grabbing her waist and drawing her up against his body.

But Fairy had slipped another dagger out of her sleeve, and she rammed it into his right eye.

He screamed.

“That’s what you get for underestimating me,” she said. “What kind of idiot thinks a girl carries only two knives?”

Skeleton held his hand over the gushing blood. “You’ll pay for that.”

He sent the corpse woman at Fairy. It wore an Imperial Guard uniform and lurched forward, circling its rotting hands around Fairy’s throat.

Fairy tried desperately to breathe. The corpse’s grip was too strong. Fairy tried swiping with yet another knife, but even though she plunged it into the body, it had no effect, because the dead couldn’t feel any pain.

“You had to make this difficult, didn’t you?” Skeleton said. “But you’re pretty. I might lighten your punishment if you give me a kiss.”