Mizuki wore the same white kimono, but unlike her brother, she didn’t hide her beauty behind a mask. She didn’t want a single devilish pucker or evil grimace to go unseen. Indeed, she wanted everyone to witness her burning hatred for them and for the human world she disdained. Her long black hair flowed over her shoulders all the way to the ground and trailed behind her like a train across the floor. She was insidiously beautiful. All the better to lure innocent mortals who were blinded by her beauty to their dooms.

Tsukiya rose and slowly approached them. He glanced at Masaru, then Keiko, but it was Koichi who caught his full attention. The god lowered his mask to reveal his pale, ethereally beautiful features. “Well, well . . .”

“What do we have here?” Mizuki asked, interrupting her brother’s words.

The twins were notorious for finishing each other’s sentences.

Masaru elbowed him. “Nervous, Koichi?”

“Shut it,” he snapped under his breath because he definitely was, and he didn’t want anyone to know. Besides, the last thing they needed was to draw unwanted attention. The twins were as likely to kill them as they were to help.

Honestly, he wasn’t a big fan of their current survival odds. Any more than he was a fan of the twins, who were even more unpredictable than humans. They were creatures of impulse.

One second, they loved you. The next, you were dead.

Koichi leaned in closer to Masaru. “Know any good tricks? Now would be an awesome time to flick those tails of yours and use them.”

“That would get us killed for sure.”

Of course it would. “Never mind.” Why had he ever thought they could sneak past the psycho twins?

Koichi had forgotten to factor in his abysmal luck, which would never level normal odds for success. Whatever could go wrong was going to go wrong . . .

And bring its friends. All of whom would wield shovels at his head and daggers at his gut.

He must have taken one too many hits from his last demon battle to have forgotten that.

Worse? If this plan failed, it would be up to Masaru to save them. As if Masaru would ever save anyone other than himself.

We’re in so much trouble . . .

He should just surrender now and hope they killed him quickly.

Masaru smiled as if he could hear his thoughts. Koichi always hated whenever he did that. It never boded well.

In fact, his gut clenched.

“I’ve got this,” Masaru said under his breath. “Don’t worry.”

Don’t worry. Seriously? But then what choice did he have, other than to trust a fox who wasn’t known to be trustworthy?

Against his better judgment and all sanity and self-preservation, he gave Masaru an affirmative nod. While he had no idea what the kitsune planned, he wanted to let him know he would have his full support.

As idiotic and suicidal as that was.