Ryuichi awoke with a gasp. He found himself on a futon in a strange room.

An elderly monk sat beside him. Or so he thought.

The moment he met the monk’s gaze, he knew it both from his dreams and real life. “Keiko?”

A slow smile curved her lips as she shifted forms into the young redheaded warrior. “You’re learning. That’s good.”

This time she wore no helmet, and he saw the white stripe in her hair that ran from the middle of her forehead through her braid. “Was the dream real?”

She nodded.

“Where’s Masaru?”

She picked up Ryuichi’s sword. Even though he’d never seen it before, he knew it was his. “Here. Where he will now stay, waiting for you to summon him for battle.” Leaning forward, she lowered her tone. “I suggest you make him wait there as long as possible.”

He couldn’t agree more. “And what he said about shadows . . . ?”

“All true.” She glanced to where his shadow rested against the wall.

Ryuichi turned his head away from something that had once seemed so harmless. Then his gaze went to the other shadows around him. “Do they have the same abilities?”

“Like the tsukumogami, yes.”

He swallowed. The tsukumogami were yōkai that were created out of any object or item. The belief was that the item had to be at least one hundred years old to acquire its own soul, but not always. If the object was used maliciously enough or loved enough, it could become possessed with a soul long before it reached its centennial birthday.

Like the shadows. A seemingly harmless thing that could harbor horrific dangers.

And hatred.

“So those shadows have their own will and abilities?”

Keiko inclined her head to him. “Shadows are there at our darkest times and bear witness to all the evil men do. So long as they are attached to their masters, they’re benevolent and harmless. A vessel for your darkness, and nothing more. But if they are ever severed . . .” She swallowed hard. “That’s how we get the Kage-Onna.”

The shadow women who were thought to inhabit homes. Late at night, whenever the moon was bright, or a lantern shone just right, the Kage-Onna would appear at the windows or doors of homes where they were said to have lived. Though they never tried to interact with anyone or made any sound, those images could terrify anyone who came across them.

“I thought the Kage-Onna were harmless.”

Keiko scoffed. “You thought your shadow was harmless, too, didn’t you?”

She had a point. And it was one he really didn’t want to cede at the moment.