Ryuichi sucked his breath in sharply at what they were implying. Surely it wasn’t true. Please let me be wrong . . .

“My father killed my mother?”

“He tried.”

Keiko slapped at Masaru’s stomach.

“What? He did!”

“Have some feeling, would you? Those are his parents you’re speaking about. Not random strangers.”

Masaru gestured at himself. “Renegade? Hello? What part of compassion do you think I have?”

Shoving him away, Keiko turned back toward Ryuichi. “Your father truly loved your mother—never forget that. And a part of him loves you.”

“But he will kill you.”

She glared at Masaru.

“Seriously, nice fairy tale,” he said. “But while you’re dancing around his feelings, the boy needs to understand that his father will not spare his life. Unlike his mother, Ryukage isn’t going to see his cute little face and think, ‘Ah, that’s my boy!’ and be overcome with parental love. The Ryukage will pull his heart out and eat it and feel no remorse. They. Are. Enemies. The sooner the boy gets that through his head, the longer he might live. Take it from someone who’s been bargaining with death gods. We tend to know a lot about death and those who like to kill things.”

Keiko had to agree. “He’s right. Not just Ryukage but Haruki too. They want your powers, and they will do whatever they must to get them.”

Ryuichi cringed as a thought went through his head. “They can’t have my powers if I’m dead, right?”

“Well . . .” Masaru hedged.

Keiko glared at him.

“You want me to lie to the kid?”

Fear pierced him. Hard. “Wait . . . what? If I’m dead, my powers are gone. They won’t be able to use them. Right?”

Masaru screwed his face up. “Well . . . there’s dead, and then there’s dead.”

“Meaning?”

Masaru manifested a torch and held it up over his head. He turned Ryuichi around so that he could see the wall behind him.

More confused than ever, he tried to understand what Masaru was doing. “What am I looking at?”

Masaru lifted his arm. “See that shadow?” He forced Ryuichi to wave at it by lifting his arm and shaking it.

Irritating, but whatever. “Yes?”

“Ryuichi-kage, say hi.”

His shadow waved back.

Ryuichi stumbled and fell into Keiko.

His shadow continued to stand.

What the . . . ?

Masaru moved over to Ryuichi. “You and your shadow aren’t the same being. That’s why it’s not always in the same place you are. Why it continually tries to leave you. Your shadow knows everything you know. It’s the part of you that you never acknowledge. Where you store all those deep, dark things that you tell no one. Those awful feelings that you don’t want others to know you think and feel. But you know what your shadow doesn’t have?”

Ryuichi shook his head.

“Your conscience.”

CHAPTER EIGHT