It was the twins joining the fray—one of them, anyway. Mizuki. But where was her brother? They were never apart.

Be a good little boy and stay put.

Ah, there he was. Tsukiya couldn’t resist speaking up.

Ryuichi sat paralyzed, held in place by those hands that he now suspected belonged to one of the twins. Who else would interfere? Render him a hapless bystander in a fight that was definitely his?

Takara dismounted from her own horse and joined the fight on foot.

“Wait.” His shout came out as a whisper. For some unknown reason, he couldn’t yell. His voice was stifled and quiet.

Suddenly, a new voice overtook the screams in his head that were angry over the fact he couldn’t speak. A voice that was his own, even though the words were not.

Dishonorable. Despicable! No good. Conniving bottom-feeders. Begone, you miserable gods.

Ryuichi froze. Those words came from his own shadow.

Ryuichi-kage snarled in his head as he felt something inside him commanding the hands that held him in place. Their grip loosened.

Which only aggravated Tsukiya to an extreme level. Obey us, worthless shadow. You who are made from our flesh and blood. We are your king and queen . . . your rightful sovereigns.

His shadow answered their call. You are no sovereign of mine! I am samurai. I will never serve anyone who is unworthy of my loyalty. Ryuichi-kage loosened their grip even more. This flesh-puppet I’m forced to endure is soft, weak, stupid, and frail.

Offended to the core of his being, Ryuichi gaped at his shadow’s assessment of him. “I’m not the puppet here. You’re the one I made talk on walls at night.”

His shadow ignored him as it continued to taunt the twins. You are conniving snakes who crawl upon the dirt, deserving only to be stomped underfoot. You have no authority here. I banish you. Begone from this place. Crawl back to your holes.

Against all known reasons, the hands began to recede from his legs.

Who knew they had ears? Or that they’d listen to his shadow self. He was impressed.

Not just with the hands but with the fact that his shadow was helping.

It was actually kind of comforting to know that while his shadow harbored no love of him, it hated his enemies as much as he did.

Or at least it hated him less than the twins.

And now that Ryuichi-kage had broken the hold of those creepy hands, Ryuichi was free to join the fight.

Instead of heading for the swarm of tengu or the dragon, Ryuichi turned his horse toward the sound of the drums.

The second heartbeat.

Maybe it was another decoy, like the dragon. After all, his father’s minions were tricky. Who knew what they had planned?

Especially given the fact that Haruki seemed overjoyed by the coming sound of their destruction. One couldn’t fake her kind of genuine glee.